After much holiday fun and festivity, my girlfriends and I retired to the theatre to watch Memoirs of a Geisha. That thing happened...where you go into the screen like a part of the story and the theatre falls away.
It all had to do with the visuals.
In hindsight the relationships and the historical aspects were definitely lacking. I mean, these women were sexual slaves after all, but that was softened to a fault in the film. No, I got lost in the movie because of the gorgeous music (Itzak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma), the exquisite art direction, photography and light. It was stunning.
I haven't seen a movie with visuals that well done since Akira Kurosawa's Ran. Though Ran was a much, much better movie all around...in my top 10, I think.
2 comments:
True Geisha were not sex slaves or prostitutes. That reputation was obtained after WWII in occupied Japan where hookers called themselves "Geisha Girls" to sell themselves to GIs.
In Fact there is a subtle difference in the costume to a true Geisha and a prostitute. A Geisha cannot dress herself. the bindings are in the back. A prostitute had the ties in the front.
True, in their heyday they were artists skilled in dance, playing traditional instruments, and the fine art of making her client feel like a king. But I guess I meant that they were not free women to go and come as they pleased. Not to mention they were often sold into the geisha houses. They were companions to men and if that included sex it was done. They were a slave to being a geisha. Roger Ebert's review made a statement about the whole prostitute question..."Here is a useful rule: Anyone who is "not technically a prostitute" is a prostitute."
The war changed everything. And the movie did a good job of showing how the war destroyed the geisha culture. It also did a good job showing how ugly the Americans seemed as they marched and casually leered and trampled all over the careful, artful, proper Japanese culture. In comparison we are oafs!
I didn't know that about the costume ties in the back for geishas. I never read the book - I'm sure there is way more detail in there.
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