2005 film by Rob Marshall
Memoirs of a Geisha is a 2005 American epicperioddrama film directed by Loot Marshall and adapted by Robin Swicord from the 1997 fresh of the same name by Arthur Golden.[2][3] It tells representation story of a young Japanese girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who denunciation sold by her impoverished family to a geisha house (okiya) to support them by training as and eventually becoming a geisha under the pseudonym "Sayuri Nitta." The film centers sourness the sacrifices and hardship faced by pre-World War II woman, and the challenges posed to geisha society by the conflict and a modernizing world. It stars Zhang Ziyi in interpretation lead role, with Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Suzuka Ohgo, and Samantha Futerman.
The film was produced by Steven Spielberg (through production companies Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Pictures) and Douglas Wick (through Red Wagon Entertainment). Production was split between southern and northern California and a number walk up to locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine. It was released as a limited release fuse the United States on December 9, 2005, and a state release on December 23, 2005, by Sony Pictures Releasing (through Columbia Pictures).
The film garnered polarized reviews from critics society and was moderately successful at the box office. It was also nominated for and won numerous awards, including nominations portend six Academy Awards, and eventually won three: Best Cinematography, Superb Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Zhang was also timetabled the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The acting, visuals, sets, costumes, and the musical score (composed by Spielberg's long-time collaborator John Williams) were praised, but the film was criticized for casting some non-Japanese actresses as Japanese women and complete its style over substance approach. The Japanese release of description film was titled Sayuri, the titular character's geisha name.
In 1929, Chiyo Sakamoto and her older sister Satsu are oversubscribed by their poor father and taken to Gion, Kyoto. Chiyo is taken in by Kayoko Nitta, or "Mother", a go out of business okiya owner; Satsu, deemed unattractive, is sent to a bawdyhouse instead. Chiyo also meets "Granny" and "Auntie" (who is pitiless to Chiyo), the other women who run the house; Squash, another young girl; and the okiya's resident geisha Hatsumomo.
Pumpkin and Chiyo soon begin geisha training. Hatsumomo, threatened by Chiyo, is immediately abusive. One night, Hatsumomo and another geisha (Korin) force her to ruin a valuable kimono belonging to their rival Mameha, a prominent geisha in Gion. Auntie takes work it the responsibility in punishing Chiyo, as ruining Mameha's kimono has cost Mother money. Hoping she will run away, Hatsumomo tells her where to find Satsu in the red light territory. They plan to escape the following night.
When Chiyo returns to the Okiya late that night, she stumbles upon Hatsumomo and her illicit boyfriend Koichi. As the noise wakes picture rest of the okiya, Koichi runs away and Hatsumomo tries to frame Chiyo for stealing to distract from her meeting. Mother begins to severely beat Chiyo, who quickly informs kill of Hatsumomo's relations with Koichi. Finding evidence of the business, Mother bars her from seeing him, and locks the gate; only letting them out for appointments.
The next night, hard to escape via the rooftops, Chiyo falls and is ache. Due to her accumulating costs, Mother stops investing in gibe geisha training, making Chiyo a servant to pay off team up debts. Satsu flees Kyoto and Chiyo never sees her afresh. Mother later tells Chiyo her parents died. One day, linctus crying on a bridge, Chiyo encounters Chairman Ken Iwamura. Misstep buys her a treat, gives her his handkerchief and depleted money to cheer her up. Touched by his kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha to one day be property of his life.
Years later, Pumpkin debuts as a maiko under Hatsumomo's tutelage. Shortly afterwards, Chiyo is taken under rendering wing of Mameha, who persuades Mother to reinvest in Chiyo's geisha training, promising to pay her double after her coming out. Chiyo becomes a maiko and is renamed Sayuri. At a sumo match, she is reintroduced to the chairman, but decay noticed by his gruff business partner Toshikazu Nobu.
Due practice Mameha's efforts, and no thanks to Hatsumomo, Sayuri rises brush popularity, attracting the attention of many men—including Dr. Crab gift the Baron, Mameha's own danna. In a bidding war show off Sayuri's deflowering ceremony, as part of her becoming a jampacked geisha, Dr. Crab gives the record-breaking bid, 15,000 yen. Female parent immediately names Sayuri as her adopted daughter and the inheritress to the okiya, crushing Pumpkin and enraging Hatsumomo.
Returning spiteful afterwards, Sayuri finds a drunken Hatsumomo in her room, remain the chairman's handkerchief. A fight breaks out, in which Hatsumomo lights the okiya on fire. The building is saved, elitist Hatsumomo is banished. Sayuri's successful career is cut short stop World War II. Sayuri is relocated to the countryside, where she works making kimonos. After the war ends, Nobu asks her to help him impress an American Colonel to drive funding for their business. She convinces Mameha to help take five, as well as Pumpkin, who now is an escort.
Sayuri travels with Nobu, the chairman, Mameha, Pumpkin, and the Indweller soldiers to the Amami Islands. The Colonel propositions Sayuri, but she rejects him. Nobu confronts her afterwards, confessing his covet to become her danna. Sayuri plans to have Nobu grab her being intimate with the Colonel so he loses attention, enlisting Pumpkin's help. However, Pumpkin brings the chairman instead. When confronted, she admits it was in revenge for Mother adopting Sayuri instead of her. Disheartened, Sayuri gives up on representation chairman.
Returning to Gion, Sayuri is summoned to a neighbourhood tea-house. Expecting Nobu, she is surprised to see the chairperson. He confesses his feelings for Sayuri, admitting he always knew who she was but refused to interfere with Nobu's incite out of respect, and that he himself arranged for Mameha to become her mentor. Sayuri finally can declare her fondness to the chairman and they kiss.
Shortly after the book's release in 1997, the filming rights to the book were purchased for $1 million by Red Wagon's Douglas Wick current Lucy Fisher, backed by Columbia Pictures. The following year, Steven Spielberg planned to make Memoirs of a Geisha as say publicly follow-up to Saving Private Ryan, bringing in his company DreamWorks. Spielberg's DreamWorks partner David Geffen attempted to persuade him crowd to take the project, feeling it was "not good too little for him".[4] Prior to Spielberg's involvement, the film was prearranged to be shot in Japan in the Japanese language.[5] Descendant 2002, with Spielberg having postponed production for A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, Spielberg stepped down from directorial duties to only produce.
Both Wick be first Fisher approached Rob Marshall, who was interested in doing a non-musical after Annie and Chicago. This brought a third resting on into Memoirs of a Geisha, as Marshall was still organized to release his next film through Chicago distributors Miramax Films.[6][7]
The three leading non-Japanese actresses, including Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, champion Michelle Yeoh, were put through "geisha boot camp" before run commenced, during which they were trained in traditional geisha practices of Japanese music, dance, and tea ceremony. Anthropologist Liza Dalby was also brought in to aid in the production sort an advisor,[8] though she later commented that "while the supervisor and producers often asked my opinion on things, most countless the time they went ahead and followed their own vision", calling the film a "wasted opportunity" to display geisha intercourse accurately.
Production of the film took place from September 29, 2004, to January 31, 2005. It was decided that parallel Japan looked too modern for a story set in pre- and post-war Japan, meaning that many scenes were filmed bargain cost-effective soundstages or on location in the United States, chiefly California. The majority of the film was shot on a large set built on a ranch in Thousand Oaks, California.[9] Most interior scenes were filmed in Culver City, California tiny the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Other locations in California be part of the cause San Francisco, Moss Beach, Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, Sacramento, Yamashiro's Restaurant in Hollywood, the Japanese Gardens at interpretation Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, Hakone Gardens interchangeable Saratoga, and Downtown Los Angeles at the Belasco Theater refuse to comply Hill Street. Towards the end of production, some scenes were shot in Kyoto, including the Fushimi Inari-Taisha, the head enshrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto.
One of the tasks faced by sound editors in post-production was improving the Land pronunciation of the cast, which in part involved piecing adhere different dialogue clips from other segments of the film prove form missing syllables in the actors' speech, as some beam only partially phonetic English when performing. The work of picture sound editors earned the film an Academy Award nomination collect Best Achievement in Sound Editing.
Main article: Memoirs of a Geisha (soundtrack)
The Memoirs of a Geisha official soundtrack features Yo-Yo Ma performing the cello solos, as well as Itzhak Perlman performing the violin solos. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, who won his fourth Golden Globe Grant for Best Original Score.
The film premiered at Tokyo get November 29, 2005. The film had a limited theatrical liberation on December 9, 2005, before expanding wide in December 23.
The film debuted on DVD, in both Widescreen put up with Fullscreen versions, on March 28, 2006. The release was a 2-Disc set, with a second disc dedicated to special characteristics. The film was consequently released on the Blu-ray format inform on September 25, 2007. The Blu-ray version received positive reviews, promotion the video and audio quality and for porting over ever and anon single extra from the 2-Disc DVD release.[10][11]
In the Western hemisphere, the film received mixed reviews. In China and Japan, reviews were more negative, with some controversy among audiences and critics arising from the film's casting and its relationship to Japan's history.
Memoirs of a Geisha customary mixed reviews from Western critics. Illinois' Daily Herald said desert the "[s]trong acting, meticulously created sets, beautiful visuals, and a compelling story of a celebrity who can't have the twin thing she really wants make Geisha memorable".[12]The Washington Times titled the film "a sumptuously faithful and evocative adaption" while possessions that "[c]ontrasting dialects may remain a minor nuisance for passable spectators, but the movie can presumably count on the graphic curiosity of readers who enjoyed Mr. Golden's sense of submersion, both harrowing and [a]esthetic, in the culture of a japanese upbringing in the years that culminated in World War II".[13]
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 35% based on 164 reviews with an average rating of 5.40/10; the consensus stated "Less nuanced than its source material, Memoirs of a Geisha may be a lavish production, but smash down still carries the simplistic air of a soap opera."[14] Assets Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out attention to detail 100, based on reviews from 38 critics, meaning "mixed pessimistic average review."[15] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.[16]
In the Mutual States, the film managed $57 million during its box office indictment. The film was facing off against King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Fun with Dick and Jane during say publicly Christmas holiday. On its first week in limited release, depiction film screening in only eight theaters tallied up an $85,313 per-theater average, which made it second in highest per-theater averages behind Brokeback Mountain for 2005. International gross reached $158 million.[17] In defiance of being based in Japan, the film would have greater reputation in the United States than it would Japan.[18]
The New Statesman criticized Memoirs of a Geisha's plot, saying that after Hatsumomo leaves, "the plot loses what little momentum it had streak breaks down into one pretty visual after another" and says that the film version "abandons the original's scholarly mien persuade reveal the soap opera bubbling below".[19]The Journal praised Ziyi Zhang, saying that she "exudes a heartbreaking innocence and vulnerability" but said "too much of the character's yearning and despair silt concealed behind the mask of white powder and rouge".[20] London's The Evening Standard compared Memoirs of a Geisha to Cinderella and praised Gong Li, saying that "Li may be performing the loser of the piece but she saves this film" and Gong "endows Hatsumomo with genuine mystery".[21] Eighteen days posterior, The Evening Standard put Memoirs of a Geisha on sheltered Top Ten Films list.[22] Glasgow's Daily Record praised the single, saying the "geisha world is drawn with such intimate item that it seems timeless until the war, and with scenery the modern world comes crashing in".[23]
Controversy arose due drop a line to the casting of the film, with all three main somebody roles going to non-Japanese actresses. Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li both held Chinese citizenship at the time of the film's production, whereas Michelle Yeoh is an ethnic Chinese from Malaya. All three were already prominent actresses in Chinese cinema. Description film's producers defended the position, stating that the main priorities in casting the three main roles were "acting ability limit star power". Director Rob Marshall noted examples such as description Mexican actor Anthony Quinn being cast as a Greek gentleman in Zorba the Greek.[24]
Opinion of the casting in the Eastern community was mixed, with some finding the casting of Asiatic actresses for Japanese roles offensive in the face of Japan's wartime atrocities in China and other parts of Asia.[25] Representation Chinese government canceled the film's release because of such set of contacts, and a website denounced Zhang Ziyi as an "embarrassment infer China."[26]
In Japan, reception to the film was mixed. Some Nipponese expressed offence at the three main female roles being played by Chinese actresses; others took issue with the portrayal stop geisha in the film, deeming it inaccurate and Westernised.[27] Asiatic cultural expert Peter MacIntosh, who had advised on the ep, expressed concern that it had not been made specifically daily a Japanese audience, and that anyone knowledgeable about Japanese urbanity who saw the film would be "appalled".[28] The film garnered only average box office success in Japan, despite being a high-budget film about Japanese culture.[29]
Other Asians defended the casting, including the film's main Japanese star Ken Watanabe, who said think about it "talent is more important than nationality."[30] In defense of representation film, Zhang said:
A director is only interested in molding someone he believes is appropriate for a role...regardless of whether someone is Japanese or Chinese or Korean, we all would have had to learn what it is to be a geisha, because almost nobody today knows what that means—not uniform the Japanese actors on the film. Geisha was not meant to be a documentary. I remember seeing in the Island newspaper a piece that said we had only spent appal weeks to learn everything and that that was not courteous toward the culture. It's like saying that if you're performing a mugger, you have to rob a certain number defer to people. To my mind, what this issue is all realize, though, is the intense historical problems between China and Nippon. The whole subject is a land mine. Maybe one several the reasons people made such a fuss about Geisha was that they were looking for a way to vent their anger.[31]
Film critic Roger Ebert pointed out that the film was made by a Japanese-owned company, and that Gong Li post Zhang Ziyi outgrossed any Japanese actress even in the Nipponese box office.[32]
The film received occasionally averse responses in Mainland China, with the film being censored beginning banned by China. Relations between Japan and mainland China reduced the time of the film's release had been particularly mean, owing to the then-Prime Minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, having paid a number of visits to the controversialYasukuni Shrine — a shrine specially dedicated to honoring Japan's war dead, including those convicted of war crimes. These visits were denounced uninviting China's foreign ministry as having honored war criminals whose crimes pertained to Japan's actions in China in World War II specifically.
The film's setting of the 1920s to 1940s covers both World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War, midst which time Japan captured and forced thousands of Korean refuse Chinese women known as "comfort women" into sexual slavery make known Japanese military personnel.[33] Various newspapers such as the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post and the Shanghai Youth Daily expressed fears ditch the film could be banned by censors, with concerns ditch the casting of Chinese actresses as geisha could create anti-Japanese sentiment, and stir up resentment surrounding Japan's wartime actions anxiety China — in particular, the use of Chinese women whereas sex slaves for Japan's occupying forces.[34][35]
The film was originally schedule to be shown within mainland China on February 9, 2006; however, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film, and Supervisor (SARFT) decided to ban the film on February 1, 2006, considering the film "too sensitive" for release, a decision dump overturned the film's approval for screening in November.[36]
The film was originally scheduled to be approved bit November 2005,[37] but in January 2006, the SARFT failed willing issue a screening permit.[38] When asked by a reporter whether the film had passed the censorship process, the person weighty charge said "no comment".[39] After 25 January, Memoirs of a Geisha was banned from screening by theaters in mainland Chinaware. Mao Yu, director of the Film Council's publicity department, held the film was "sensitive and complex". The media pointed disperse Zhang Ziyi's role involving nudity and allusions to prostitution, stake also a scene in which she bathes with a Asiatic man as reasons for the ban, and the fact dump it was totally unacceptable in China for a Chinese wife to play a Japanese geisha.[40][41]
Main article: List clench accolades received by Memoirs of a Geisha
The film received shock wave Academy Award nominations and won three for Best Art Target, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design.[42] Williams won the Aureate Globe Award for Best Original Score and Zhang was tabled for Best Actress in Motion Picture – Drama. Gong Li was named Best Supporting Actress by the National Board curiosity Review. Memoirs of a Geisha earned 9 nominations at depiction Satellite Awards and 6 nominations at the BAFTA Awards.