I’ve been pondering this “Memoirs of a Geisha” movie from the time it was announced. Thus, I’m not surprised that few are going to be satisfied with the movie except for people who don’t know anything about Japan.
Some Chinese fans are incensed that Chinese actresses are portraying Japanese characters. Some Japanese are disappointed in the inaccuracy of the portrayal of Japan and Japanese culture. We’ll soon see if the strategy to use Chinese actresses will lead to sales of tickets in Chinese-language countries. I predict low sales in Japan. Japanese people are not going to pay to see a ham-handed portrayal of their own culture by Americans, much as how “Lost in Translation” did not sell in Japan.
Personally, I’m not really dying to see the movie. I’m sort of tired of the topic, to be frank.
Memoirs of a ‘geiko’: Japan’s real geishas resent the mystique – Yahoo! News
Hollywood geisha raise eyebrows in Asia – Yahoo! News
Chinese geisha give slanted view of Japan’s oldest professionals – MSN-Mainichi Daily News
Actually, I’m surprised at how little controversy it is stirring in Japan. There are a couple angry people but at most the public is apathetic.
We’ll have to wait till Thursday to see how the movie fares with the Japanese public:
http://movies.yahoo.co.jp/roadshow/ranking/
However, the people that have seen it are not blasting the movie either. The public reviewers give it an average of 3.3/5 stars.
http://moviessearch.yahoo.co.jp/detail?ty=mv&id=321931
Seeing the trailer was enough to convince me to avoid it, even if it were free (the supposed Meiji-era geisha stage performance that looks more like a modern LA strip club with all the effects is just typical hollywood).
After all, this is the country where the Hollywood movie “Pearl Harbor” made good money. I guess Chinese geishas are hardly offensive with all the Asian females on “entertainer visas” on the streets of modern Tokyo.
A nice contrast to a country like China where a movie like “7 Days in Tibet” requires some kind of diplomatic intervention. I’d like to see China’s reaction to Japanese actresses playing Chinese cultural figures. I’m sure people would take to the streets.
I have lots of Japanese friends who enjoyed or even loved Lost in Translation.
I have lots of Japanese friends who enjoyed or even loved Lost in Translation, although most of them live in New York, so maybe it’s something to do with that.
“Lost in Translation” wouldn’t work if you were Japanese – it would reverse into a very boring movie about everyday events, and a guy who decides, ultimately, not to seduce a slightly overweight American girl, after doing little else for the rest of the film.
It’s charm applies only to those who are very familiar with American culture, and have much less familiarity with Japanese culture. Of COURSE that movie didn’t do well in Japan.
I can say for certain that I wouldn’t be enthralled by a movie about a Japanese business man coming to New York, occasionally bewildered by the bodegas or what have you, and who ultimately decided, despite the turmoil and confusion of say Times Square and a $50K tab at Scores, not to sleep with some mildly overweight Japanese woman.
cdg
Gen, I feel you have been rather uptight about this movie for some reason. Either you are not happy with Chinese actresses doing the parts of Japanese, or you are not happy with Americans doing a movie based on Japan. I mean, just try and enjoy it as a movie. No one ever said that “We Americans are using Chinese casts to portray super-accurate Japanese culture”, right?
And regarding it using Chinese actresses, I believe thats because there are not enough talented Japanese actresses in Hollywood with international fame. And of course Hollywood needs them to be able to smash box office records. Personally, I’m sure its gonna be a success even if it flops in Japan (and China).
My Japanese friends were all dying to see LOST IN TRANSLATION and when they finally got to see it, they all loved it (so they said. Like you know, Japanese people don’t exactly express any negative feelings)
PS. Btw Gen, you did receive my reply regarding the job offer info you sent me, right?
Eddie, I did get your reply- thanks and sorry for not replying.
I guess more than anything else, as you said, I’m disappointed that Japan will again, in 2005, be portrayed by Americans inaccurately.
“Lost in Translation” was a flop in Japan. Your friends may have enjoyed it but it was not a commercial success in Japan.
“Lost in Translation” was a flop in Japan. Your friends may have enjoyed it but it was not a commercial success in Japan.”
Well, True…
Man, this is petty.
Think of it like this, if you may, Memoirs of a Geisha is a Western movie for an American audience based on a Western novel made for an American audience. If it’s halfway as well put together as the book is, it will be a good movie, cultural inconsistency or no.
Further, having read Memoirs myself, as a Japanese person from Kansai, I had little problem suspending my disbelief anymore than I would to watch any show about the Shinsengumi. It may not be fully accurate in its portrayal of Japan, nor particularly close for that matter, but it captures very much a great deal of the spirit. Besides, it is written about a time long before I lived and few surviving people lived, so who am I to say if it’s accurate or not? I should not be surprised if the author, American as he is, knew much more about 1930s-1950s Japan than I, especially dealing with the esoteric topic of geisha in Gion, and I spent years in Kyoto! How much less would someone from Tokyo know.
I have not seen this movie, though now living in America I plan to, and I was very much enamored of the book. I do not mind that Zhang Ziyi is playing Sayuri, nor that Mameha will be played by Michelle Yeoh. I do not find Zhang Ziyi to be particularly beautiful, but she has a charm about her and Michelle Yeoh is splendid to behold. Beside, they will sell well in America which is where the movie is to be mainly marketed. Why should a Japanese actress be used in America when the only one any of my American friends can name is Devon Aoki and she would be terrible in that role. I hardly think it matters one whit to the director or producer whether Memoirs of a Geisha will sell well in Japan.
Chinese didn’t seem offended when Kaneshiro Takeshi played a role in Shimian Maifu. He’s half Japanese!
As a final note, I saw Lost in Translation recently and liked it very much. I can’t say that if I were still in Japan, and not had come to American, I would have enjoyed it. It is an American movie designed for an American audience and only after years with many American friends can I begin to unfold it. I hardly think many American people can understand Tokyo Monogatari or Chambara films like Seven Samurai without some intimate knowledge of Japan, so why should Japanese care to understand America films?
Chinese filmakers are embracing pan-asian casting. Currently, Andy Lau is starring in Mozi’s Strategy, a Japanese manga based on the story of an ancient Chinese philosopher. Chen Kaige, who dissed the hiring of Chinese actresses for geishas, hired a Hiroyuki Sanada (sp?) to portray a Chinese general in “The Promise”.
Didn’t hear any complaints when an all- Japanese cast portrayed Chinese in their own movie versions of the first emperor Qin and the Tang concubine Yang Guifei. Fuji TV produced the latest Japanese adaptation of a famous legend “Journey to the West’ with a cast of Japanese. Haven’t heard any complaints from the Chinese in spite of glaring mistakes in costuming and makeup, which detracted from authentic classical Chinese ambience.