Memoirs of a Geisha
Yesterday evening Carlo and I have watched “Memoires of a Geisha“… what a big delusion! As far as I am concerned, the decision of not going to the cinema for watching this poor quality film has been absolutely right and I am really very surprised to find out it has costed a fortune in terms of costumes and production, because, apart from the impressive photography, nothing else has come out. The plot has been superficially developed by the director who, in two hours and a half, has not been capable of giving life to fascinating characters like Geishas and explaining their role in the Japanese society of that time. As a result, he leaves the public with their ideas even more confused! In addition, the choice of employing some actresses of the cast, in my opinion, has been completely wrong: Ziyi Zhang, the grown up Sayuri, was absent, her face experssionless, her stunning beauty questionable and her charm didn’t exist at all; the acting of Michelle Yeoh was faultless, but she was surely too old to play the part of Mahema…
To be honest, neither the costumes were so terrifc and extraordinary as I expected and watching the film nobody can really understand their enormous importance and that they were a mark of the wealth, beauty and success of a Geisha within that particular environment. The tea houses has been seen only twice, while they were the very place were Geishas showed theirselves and performed their art of seduction through dancing, singing and enternaining their guests. The preparation for dressing, hairdressing and make up were long and painful and far more impressive than I have seen during the film.But the thing that has stroke me more has been the lack of of explanations, through dialogs and images, of the real role of a Geisha.. it is a mess! You can understand she is not a prostitute, but nothing else indeed. All you can see is the struggle of the main character against the cruelty of people whom she lives with and painful situations, to step into her lover’s world, surrounded by wealth and beauty. But neither here it is well explained who Mahema really was and why she was so keen to help her with proper education and public relations to make Sayuri famous among Geishas.
To summarise, I would say that the plot is shallow, the characters not convincing at all, the costumes so and so and the director has not been able to deliver almost any message to the public.
I strongly advise to read the book instead: that is a real masterpiece!!!
