Memoirs of ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’
When I first saw the trailer for ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, the first thing that struck me was "Zang Zhiyi and Michelle Yeoh aren’t Japanese… and why are they speaking English with a Chinese accent?".
And a few days ago, when I actually watched the movie, this issue was became the biggest sticking point for me. For a person who profess to understand the huge differences between the cultures of the Chinese and the Japanese, I simply could not buy into the way that Japanese characters are portrayed by Chinese actresses. Firstly, the features of these two ethnicities are different. I can reasonably tell a Japanese face from a Chinese one. And secondly, they speak with different English accents. I suppose Gong Li, Zang Zhiyi and Datuk Michelle Yeoh tried their best to replicate Japanese-accented English, but it just doesn’t seem believable.
Which is a pity. All three are wonderful actresses, especially Michelle Yeoh. I like her portrayal of legendary geisha, Memeha, who becomes Zang Zhiyi’s Sayuri’s mentor. I also like Gong Li’s Hatsumomo, Sayuri’s rival, a bitch of the highest degree.
Yet this is the story of geishas, thus they are uniquely Japanese. Perhaps the average Joe in America couldn’t tell the difference, but with movies nowadays looking for increasing authenticity when making movies, casting Chinese actresses (even if they are wonderful actresses) as Japanese geisha smacks laziness for me. Surely somewhere out there are Japanese actresses (who can speak English) better suited for these roles?
Another example of how I suspect the filmmakers do not understand the culture that they are dealing with it is the fact that I can count with one hand how many times the characters actually bow. Any person with some degree of knowledge in Japanese culture will know that bowing is not only a polite gesture, but inherent in the culture of the people. Japanese people even give a slight bow with their head when they speak! Yet somehow the movie seems to portray bowing as an afterthought, like as if it’s done only in certain circumstances.
But this is a beautiful movie, if only aesthetically. The backdrops and setting are simply breathtaking, and the geishas all look elegant. But somehow I left the movie feeling that it could be so much better. The movie is pretty soulless, although I could not pinpoint the factors that make it so. We are supposed to feel for Sayuri, a little girl thrust into the ‘Floating World’ of the geishas, glamorous and beautiful, yet destined not to be able to forge her own destiny. But as much as I wanted to, I could not feel the emotions the movie tries to so hard to put forth.
I suspect this is another instance of Hollywood viewing Asia with Western-rimmed glasses. They celebrated the outer beauty of the culture, its colours and its figures, yet they ignored the most vital element, the heart.
