This is my final post on “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which I’ve written about in the past quite extensively with regards to casting the movie, my thoughts on the film, tracking reivews. The movie is a failure by any stretch of the imagination with the actors defending the movie in hindsight.

Then the Chinese government decided to cancel the release of the movie in China, which was supposed to be a significant reason for the casting of the Chinese female leads. Of course this means that the movie is now very popular in the underground, pirated movie market- which means none of those profits will go to legitimate rights holders.

The ban, however, only applies to theater screenings of “Geisha.” DVD stores in Beijing quickly began selling pirated copies in English for about €1 per copy. “It’s been sold out for days now,” says one dealer, who sells his wares in the state-owned “Friendship Stores” in Beijing’s embassy district. “I have no idea what it is about this film that people like so much.”

The popular underground sales of the film suggest that the official censors’ argument is just a pretext for the real reason. They haven’t banned the film out of fear of anti-Japan protests. The real reasoning behind the decision to shut “Geisha” out of the Chinese market is that the conservative censors themselves felt their national honor had been damaged — and they wanted to teach their beautiful Hollywood exports that they shouldn’t just be thinking about money and fame, but also their homeland. But it also gave the censors the opportunities to thumb their noses at the Japanese. The Chinese allege the Japanese have few regrets about the past atrocities they committed against them, and the message to Tokyo through this decision was clear: “We’re not interested in your culture.” Der Spiegel

William Pesek of Bloomberg has some interesting insights into the mess that this movie has become.

Japan’s qualms with “Memoirs of a Geisha” miss a bigger point relevant to Asia’s largest economy. Yes, a film with so specific a setting should star Japanese. While many seethe that major roles went to Zhang, Gong and Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, Marshall also has a point. His casting decisions reflect a dearth of internationally known Japanese actors who can speak English.

After all, Hollywood wouldn’t have made the film if it wouldn’t appeal to the lucrative, yet subtitle-adverse U.S. market. One reason there are few globally known Japanese actors: Japan’s large domestic market creates few incentives for film studios and actors to search for audiences or projects abroad.



There’s a lesson here for Japan Inc. Japanese are ravenous consumers and, until now, a 127 million-person market seemed big enough. As sales soared in the heady 1980s and stayed reasonably brisk during the recession-plagued 1990s, companies were slow to look abroad.

Chinese critics are missing the point, too. Seeing homegrown actresses eclipse Japan’s should be reason to celebrate China’s rising dominance not only in the area of economics, but culture. Instead, nationalist tendencies are spoiling this moment in the spotlight.

Finally, there’s a lesson here for investors. While it may come as a surprise to folks in the West, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans don’t tend to think they look alike. Hollywood’s who’d- know-the-difference mindset in casting films is comparable to how some investors view Asia. Some see it as an undifferentiated collection of nations that are hard to get their arms around.

Bloomberg.com: ‘Geisha’ Offers Asian Business Lessons

The reality of this financial and political mess is that it will be harder to get an Asian or Japanese or Chinese movie green-lighted because studios will be more risk-averse. The lack of global-quality Japanese actresses will continue.

Status quo, sadly for us all.