Memoirs of a Geisha

Director: Rob Marshall
Writers:
Robin Swicord (screenplay)
Arthur Golden (book)
Release Date: 23 December 2005 (USA)
Genre: Drama | Romance
Awards: Won 3 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 28 nominations
Cast:
Suzuka Ohgo as Chiyo
Samantha Futerman as Satsu
Li Gong as Hatsumomo
Tsai Chin as Auntie
Kaori Momoi as Mother
Zoe Weizenbaum as Young Pumpkin
Michelle Yeoh as Mameha
Ken Watanabe as Chairman
Ziyi Zhang as Sayuri
Youki Kudoh as Pumpkin, etc.

Plot:
*In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha's mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.
Written by dumpster_cakes

- a very astounding movie! Zhang Ziyi was all so elegant and beautiful in this film.

Trivia:
*Ziyi Zhang was allergic to the contact lenses that she had to wear for her role as Sayuri.

*Neither 'Li Gong (I)' or Suzuka Ohgo could speak English at the time of filming.

*The film was banned in China because Chinese actresses play Japanese geisha. The national film board and the Office for the Administration of Radio, Film and Television claimed that it was banned because the storyline is "too sensitive".

Memorable quotes:
Mameha: [in voiceover] Remember, Chiyo, geisha are not courtesans. And we are not wives. We sell our skills, not our bodies. We create another secret world, a place only of beauty. The very word "geisha" means artist and to be a geisha is to be judged as a moving work of art.

Sayuri Narration: [as Chiyo watches the Chairman leave with geisha] In that moment, I changed from a girl facing nothing but emptiness, to someone with purpose. I saw that to be a geisha could be a stepping stone to something else... a place in his world.

Sayuri Narration:
You cannot say to the sun, "More sun." Or to the rain, "Less rain."
To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall.
And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness,
to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness?
After all these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen.
These are memoirs of another kind.

Personal Rating: 7/10

*more at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397535/
*photo by http://i23.tinypic.com/x7hnt.jpg