Memoirs of a Geisha Movie Review 2005

This look into the world of Japan's "Geisha" escorts in the 1930s flounders thanks to Marshall's bizarre decision to cast the film with Chinese actors and shoot it in the U.S., but cultural insensitivity isn't this melodrama's only sin. Sayuri (Zhang) is sold into a geisha household, where her companionship skills are refined by Mameha (Yeoh), the chief rival of the household's "Mother" (Momoi). Sayuri is ambivalent about being a geisha until she realizes that it can get her closer to The Chairman (Watanabe), a kindly businessman. Sayuri begins relishing her role as a renowned geisha, and the predictable plot grows in both heft and velocity, straining audience patience with its two and a half hour running time.

Distribution

Sony Pictures Home Video, Sony Pictures Plz., 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232, Phone: (310)244-7306, Fax: (310)280-2485, URL: http://www.spe.sony.com, Remarks: Formerly Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Available on DVD
Running time 137 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Japan, World War II, Women, Rape

Screenplay

Robin Swicord

Cast

Ken(saku) Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Koji Yakusho, Youki Kudoh, Tsai Chin, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Gong Li, Randall Duk Kim, Mako, Kenneth Tsang, Shizuko Hoshi, Zhang Ziyi, Kaori Momoi, Suzuka Ohgo, Thomas Ikeda, Zoe Weizenbaum

Cinematography

Dion Beebe

Director

Rob Marshall

Music

John Williams

Other

John Pritchett, Pietro Scalia, Patrick M. Sullivan, Colleen Atwood

Producer

Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick, Steven Spielberg, Columbia Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, Inc. Red Wagon Films, Sony Pictures Entertainment