Memoirs Of A Geisha

It is based on the book written by Arthur Golden his bestselling novel set in 1930s and '40s, the main idea of the story consist on the narration of a memory by a geisha called Sayuri (Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang who participated in films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is of a young girl who after her mother's death is separated from her family and taken to a geisha house in Kyoto, where she suffered a lot because of her protectors which though that she is a kind of slave for them, Still a child, she has a street encounter with a mysterious, handsome stranger man, the Chairman (who was shining so bright as the light in the horizon for her ).he talked with the girl and he bought her a snow cone. She was so flabbergasted with The Chairman, actually he will be back.
This could be a lousy movie with some entertaining moments; the film is about a geisha, before I haven’t seen the movie I thought that geishas were whores or prostitutes with amazing shapes and bodies, but the way the director shows the performance of a real geisha is different, they are interested in their behave more that in their bodies. Certainly the traditions of the geisha house are culturally fascinating in their own right.
There is one part which one of the masters of the place where geishas learn how to be an authentic geisha said, “We are moving works of art” this statement is related to the way they consider geishas are, it is reflect during the whole film because geishas are girls who spend all their lives to be a geisha, I mean the geisha is seen as a profession according to this culture, and taking into account the age which was develop the film( war, low economy) if a girl became a successful geisha it was the same if a man go to war and come back alive with some medals, the true geishas are extremely gorgeous not by their appearance but by their behave.
There is another important character which is Hatsumomo a geisha too, the issue is that she is as jealous of sayury because of her popularity as geisha, and she want to be requested as sayury, so she tries all the time to tease sayury at the end she is failed of the house for a moment of violence.
The key male in the story is the Chairman who first encounters sayury when she is a child, and suggests her to Mother. As sayury and her beauty grow, it becomes clear she may represent a threat to the dominance of Hatsumomo. The story resumes when she is in her mid-teens and is purchased from Mother by Mameha whose master plan is to use her control of the younger girl to win control of Mother's house away from Hatsumomo, who expects to inherit the reins. Hatsumomo in response acquires Pumpkin as her own proxy in the battle. It is amazing that a client stepping through their doors is not killed in the crossfire.
As a matter of fact I consider that this film is too long, first it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes and I think that a film with that length is really long, the story is around the same characters for that reason in my opinion this film is boring for moments, in addition the film is very predictable you know what are the next events before you see them, another think is that all the time they are talking and the real features of the geishas is not well develop in the film.
Anyway I consider that this movie is very attractive especially for men, because we can see gorgeous Japanese girls, they look like picture paint by da Vinci, and their faces are truly stunning, however the story is silly for people who dislike drama and romanticism. In that way the plot of the story is well plan, because it holds the same line during the movie.
The cinematography is excellent, the clothes are so fascinating, the kimonos that the girls wear are sublimated, the makeup of the girls is so sweet, and the light is ok, the film hold a good illumination among the scenes, there are some scenes with some snow and it looks real.
Eventually, the music played a great character in the story because it is interpreted some times for an actress and it shows the kind of music that the Japanese people used to listen in that age. This is an essential aspect of that culture and the director used it in a wonderful way.

By: Cesar Augusto García