Memoirs of a Geisha (DVD, 2006, 2-Disc Set; Widescreen)

Chicago director Rob Marshall's pretty but empty (or pretty empty) film has all the elements of an Oscar® contender: solid adaptation (from Arthur Golden's bestseller), beautiful locale, good acting, lush cinematography. But there's something missing at the heart, which leaves the viewer sucked in, then left completely detached from what's going on.
It's hard to find fault with the fascinating story, which traces a young girl's determination to free herself from the imprisonment of scullery maid to geisha, then from the imprisonment of geisha to a woman allowed to love. Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo), a young girl with curious blue eyes, is sold to a geisha house and doomed to pay off her debt as a cleaning girl until a stranger named The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) shows her kindness. She is inspired to work hard and become a geisha in order to be near the Chairman, with whom she has fallen in love. An experienced geisha (Michelle Yeoh) chooses to adopt her as an apprentice and to use as a pawn against her rival, the wicked, legendary Hatsumomo (Gong Li). Chiyo (played as an older woman by Ziyi Zhang), now renamed Sayuri, becomes the talk of the town, but as her path crosses again and again with the Chairman's, she finds the closer she gets to him the further away he seems. Her newfound "freedom" turns out to be trapping, as men are allowed to bid on everything from her time to her virginity.

Some controversy swirled around casting Chinese actresses in the three main Japanese roles, but Zhang, Yeoh and Gong in particular ably prove they're the best for the part. It's admirable that all the actors attempted to speak Japanese-accented English, but some of the dialogue will still prove difficult to understand; perhaps it contributes to some of the emotion feeling stilted. Geisha has all the ingredients of a sweeping, heartbreaking epic and follows the recipe to a T, but in the end it's all dressed up with no place to go.--

I never received Memoirs of a Geisha. I pd. $10.00 on 2/26/07 to jbarnes55099
item#20081334104. Transaction 13P06103J3225943N.

There is no evidence of shipment

Having read the book I can appreciate how close to the story this film is. But also it is more noticeable how rushed it feels once on the screen.

Beautifully shot, great art direction and costumes. The acting was good as well. The only bad thing I can say is that the book covered so much time, history and background about traditions and customs that it could not be covered in just a movie.

Recommended to those who love historical fiction and those interested in stories about geisha's and their traditions.

WHEN I FIRST READ MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA I WAS MESMORIZED BE THE DETAIL OF THE STORY AND INSIGHT INTO THE THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF THE CHARACTERS AND HAD READ IT MANY TIMES MORE AFTER FINISHING THE BOOK. I WAS EXCITED ABOUT THE MOVIE AND WAS HOPEFUL OF IT'S PROMISE JUST LIKE THE BOOK. UNFORTUNATELY THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM. THE MOVIE FELT LIKE PARTS BEING PULLED OUT THE BOOK LIKE PIECES IN A PUZZLE BEING PUT TOGETHER INSTEAD OF DEPTH OF THE CHARACTERS AND THE STORY GLIDING ALONG. I HAVE A LOVE OF JAPAN SO I WAS ONLY SLIGHLTY DISSAPOINTED BECAUSE THE MOVIE DID PROVIDE A BEATIFUL SETTING AND GREAT COSTUMES BUT I WILL ALWAYS RECCOMEND THE BOOK TO ANYONE.

After loving the book and finishing it in a weeks time, I HAD to watch the movie, but as the title of this states, I was left wanting more. The movie moves way to fast and a lot of valuable insite into the characters thinking and reasoning is left behind. This book made a huge impression on me and kept me thinking about it when I wasn't reading it, the movie however, was just a movie; it failed to deliver what the book did so well. You owe it to yourself to watch this movie even if you didn't read the book: great cast of characters, great visuals and an awesome musical score by John Williams. I enjoyed watching this movie but I enjoyed the book so much more!

Even if you have read this book you won't be disappointed by the movie. Some of the events have been changed shightly, but the movie is so beautifully filmed that you forgive them for what is almost necessarily lacking from the original text. The actors are brilliant who draw you right into their world, and everyone comes away with a better understanding of what the life of a "Geisha" may have really been. If you like classic films where you don't have to worry about foul language and offensive footage, you will love this!

This movie is really good. I could watch this millions of times. Maybe i'm into asian cultures but to me this movie showed a lot of Japanese culture and is a terrific movie to watch.

This DVD is useless to me as it comes up with "playing of this DVD is not permitted in this region". I have contacted Paypal and think I should have a refund, as seller new which region the DVD was being posted to.

I was interested in that subject. When you lesten to the directors copy it is amazing that their were so many different people from so many different countries. I would suggest this movie to all

Love a good longing for love love story with a happy ending. Fell in love with the main character because she was so hopefull and never gave up. I din't even think it was to long, although it is a long movie. Will watch it several times in the future.

AWESOME movie!!! Loved it the first time I saw it, and HAD to buy it!!! VERY well acted/directed and had wonderful music, too!!!

This movie is long, but it keeps you staring at the TV screen to see what is happening and what will happen next.
This is a movie of cunning strength in the will and drive of women in that culture and what they go through for their version of happiness.
Well worth renting but I don't suggest buying as it will not be a movie that you would watch more than once.

When I first was going to see this movie I thought I wouldn't like it. I was so wrong! This movie captures you from the beginning and just sucks you in until the end. You feel every disappoint and every struggle as if you are there. It was so much better than I ever expected it to be. After seeing it, I had to have it!

This film is extremely acurate and helps others look at the culrtures in the orient. Very exciting, romantic and captivating. I own the dvd and have watched it 12 times. You'll never get bored of it. Great performance!!!

Very good movie , enjoyed it very much and was delivered on a timley manner.I will buy more movie on line in the future.

This movie is good but it is one of those movies you have to pay very close attention to. You also will probably have to watch it more than once to really understand it completely. The acting was excellent, the storyline was very interesting & real. It was educational for me to understand another culture & way of life. The costumes & scenery are spectacular.
I would recommend this movie to anyone interested not only in a good story but also in educating yourself on other cultures of the world.

I loved this movie. I find that alot of romantic movies all the same, that the characters never really have to sacrafice to get who they want, but this movie shows sacrafice, love, and commitment to things that they may not want to do,to get the one they love.

I loved the book and have huge portions committed to memory. This book inspired me to do additional research on Geisha and I have become very interested in the subject. So when I heard the movie was finally coming out after 4 years in Deveopment Hell, I was very excited. At least I was until I went to see it. What a disaster! Don't get me wrong. It's a very pretty movie. The costumes are lovely and mostly accurate and the music was fantastic.
However, the actually script was a mess. The movie was about 1/3 portions of the book, mixed with random stuff some writers thought up sandwiched by drivel. "Memoirs of a Geisha" as it was originally written was a Best Picture shoe-in and all the writers had to do was follow that template, but somebody got the bright idea to color outside the lines and the movie version is what we are left with. Hatsumomo, a brilliantly written, world-class self destructive manipulator and reduced to a 2 dimensional charicature of herself, as is Mameha. Sayuri is about 1/2 right. Overall, it was a very disappointing effort. In 10 years, I hope someone remakes this movie as it should have been made the first time.
If you want to know what life as a Geisha during the 1930's and 40's was actually like, read the books "Geisha" by Liza Dalby and "Autobiography Of a Geisha" by Sayo Masuda.

I had read the book and was fascinated by the history of this Geisha's life. A simple poor country girl sold to a Geisha house, we travel with her through her trials & virtual slavery to becoming #1 Geisha, always seeking to be near the one man who showed her kindness, through WWII and until she eventually is united with her love, and travels to the USA to live. Besides being an historical romance/drama--this movie makes a statement on the value placed on women, or should I say lack of proper value--the main women portrayed here are not free to pursue their desires, they are indentured servants to their Geisha House, playing pretty for drooling men to admire, giving up home, husband & child, for a bit of attention, a few bowls of rice, a mat to sleep on. Tragic in many ways, the life of the Geisha should not be over romanticized. Perhaps it was the only way for many women of this era to exist, but what a price.
Though I love this movie, and it is beautiful and well acted, with gorgeous attention to costumes, sets & settings, it does not have the depth and detail that the book has. Putting that aside, I highly recommend both the book & the movie--though Suyuri's town is a set--who would know until one watched the special features?
Very well done in every way, for a visual feast--great acting--compelling story--read & view:"Memoirs of a Geisha."

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This is Rob Marshall's entrance into the life of Japan's geishas, just as his movie "Chicago" investigated the life of that city in the early 1920s. He is an amazing director, being able to get into the thick and thin of what he is trying to cover. The movie is breathtakingly done; only big screen TV does it justice. However, the story is confusing to this American who never had any idea of Japanese customs or lingo. Also, the actual story almost put me to sleep until the end, when surprisingly everything worked out.

I bought the DVD with two disks from half.com. The special features disk is so good!! It demonstrates how such a production requires a HUGE amount of money and research and tests the abilities of costumers, make-up, and film producers. My purchase was worth the Special Features disk after watching a ho-hum movie.

I really didn't like this film, for a number of reasons, the first being that the film was spoken almost entirely in English, with very little or no actual Japanese being spoken. I realize that the book itself, which I haven't read, needed to cater to an English-speaking audience, but that didn't mean the film had to. It could have been spoken in Japanese, with English subtitles, like a lot of other popular foreign films. There could have at least been Japanese subtitles, for those who could have been interested in that.

Secondly (and this point has been made before by other reviewers elsewhere), the main character of the actual adult geisha herself was portrayed by a Chinese woman instead of a Japanese woman. Oh, I'm not taking anything away from the job done by Ziyi Zhang, she did very well. I only felt that with this movie portraying the life of a Japanese geisha, the least that could have been done was to have a Japanese actress in the starring role.

Finally, the movie itself was rather boring, and even the inclusion of Japanese actor Ken Watanabe, didn't lift the dull pace of the film. Yes, the sets and scenes were "gorgeously photographed", but that couldn't save the film for me. I didn't watch any of the Special Features, and, after seeing the film, I'm not going to, nor am I now going to buy the book. Which is a pity, because the story in the movie had the potential to be so much more. Ah well.

This is an excellent movie. I bought it because I had already read the book and was very moved by the story line. My only regret was that the movie ended before other events, in the book, were portrayed. I hope this means that there will be a Geisha II. If you are collecting DVD's this one is a must.

I absolutely love how the culture of the Geisha is preserved in this movie. However, it is not fully authentic since they do have some chinese and other Asian cultures present in the actresses and actors, which the Japanese would not be so happy about. However, the movie is very captivating and the story makes you want to see it until the end. I could watch this movie over and over and never be bored. The music, the culture, the colors, they are all so captivating. This movie will stay with you for a long time.