Memoirs Of A Geisha

It was an average film.

Not too bad, not too good. Just average.

It gave me what I had expected. Nothing more, nothing less.

I would declare this movie a good summary of the book should you have not read the book before. However, ifyou had read the book in advance, you would probably agree with me that the film was ambitious enough to attempt to cover so many aspects of the novel.

The book is very detailed. Be it Sayuri's conflict with Hatsumomo or the sexual scenes, they are made explicable with vivid description and generous use of adjectives.

The resulting film has a storyline with breadth, but without depth. Many aspects of the novel were indeed covered, but they are mainly "touch-and-go".

And oh, I thought that the "eel-and-cave" analogy was totally not neccessary in the movie.

For more details, go buy the book. It's around SGD$16 per copy.

Gong Li's performance in the movie is disappointing. Her role, Hatsumomo, is bitchy and slutty, just to put it crudely. If we were to use "spiciness" as the yardstick to gauge Gong's performance, she would be ranked as "Green Curry", while the actual Hatsumomo should, in my opinion after reading the novel, be one of those Mexican peppers.

It was far too mild from my impression of Hatsumomo.

Before I forget, I think that Gong Li's English is, perhaps, just as bad as Zhang Zi Yi's. Well, in terms of pronounciation, that is. Perhaps together with Zhang and Phua Chu Kang, Gong could attend more English lessons.

Michelle Yeoh's acting is "safe". Neither impressive nor disastrous. Pretty bland, I would say. I shan't blame Yeoh since her role, Mameha, hasn't got much personality in her as well.

As for Zhang, I felt that she did fairly well in this movie. Not exactly superb, though, but at least I thought that she had acted the role of Sayuri (Chiyo) the way I had assumed her to be after I had finished with the book.

As for Nobu, I felt that he looked more presentable than I had imagined. Shouldn't he only have one arm and his face, marred by the scars, a reminder of his participation in the Manchuria War?

Anyways, I don't think that the movie sucked THAT badly, but still, it has lots of rooms for improvement.

Rating: 7 / 10