| Forum Index » Book and Movie Chat » Memoirs of a Geisha [Sayuri] |
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| endoresu |
 Posted: Aug 29, 2005 3:39 pm |
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さくらんぼ
Joined: 21 Aug 2005
Posts: 37
Location: Canada
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So has anyone read this book? It's an old favourite of mine, and was supposed to be made into a movie .... oh 10 years ago or so. I remember hearing about the casting call when I was in high school. It finally looks like the movie has been made, and there's a trailer up for anyone who's interested.
The link is http://www.movies.co.jp/sayuri/, choice of low/high res in Win Media Player.
Yes, the main characters are played by chinese/malaysians. I still don't quite understand the reasoning behind the casting. Of the ones I recognize off the top of my head - Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Ziyi.. There's a few other actors I don't know, I assume they're Japanese (maybe whoever can read hira/kata can confirm.)
I was kind of dreading this picture when I found out that Zhang Ziyi was the main character (I don't really like her as an actor) but after seeing the trailer I see there's potential that it could still be good. Spielberg is calling the shots still so there's hope yet. What I still don't understand is why this movie wasn't made in japanese, or with japanese actors 
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| spirus |
| Posted: Aug 29, 2005 5:00 pm |
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フレンジャー
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
Posts: 935
Location: heartplace
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wow!! my mother was obssesed with that book a week ago..the world is so small ^___^
sayuri was the name of the geisha, who had grey-blue eyes haha
this movie is being made? or was made long before? i hope it will come here as well ^_^ so i can tell it mother so she will owe me some  |
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| broken::dreams |
| Posted: Aug 29, 2005 5:08 pm |
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SMILY
Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 497
Location: New York
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Yeah, I don't understand why they didn't try to make it more Japanese with the language and the people. I was going to read it, but when I heard that the author broke his source's agreement for anonymity and that he disregarded the stereotypes she stressed was wrong, I decided it was better to read her book instead Geisha: A Life. I like Zhang Ziyi, I think she has a grace and charisma on screen, but I don't agree with her acting as Sayuri. She doesn't seem "geisha-like" to me.
There have been a lot of complaints about casting mostly non-Japanese as Japanese, and the company has released a statement that these complaints are racist. "To say that Zhang Ziyi cannot act in a role which she portrays which such obvious grace and beauty because of her race..." blah blah blah. I don't think that they are saying that because they believe it, but to try to quiet people up. They think that no one could tell the difference between a Japanese and Chinese, etc. and they are not willing to break stereotypes that all East Asians look the same.
Oh, and they changed the name to just "Sayuri"? I saw a poster that said "Memoirs of a Geisha" with Ms. Zhang's face on it. |
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| AYA6912 |
| Posted: Aug 29, 2005 7:59 pm |
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上塩タン焼680円
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 302
Location: USA
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| OMG IM GOING TO SEE THE MOVIE,i saw a big poster of it in a movie theater and i was like ive seen that before, omg its a book,lol, so im defenetly gonna watch it! |
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| eyn |
| Posted: Aug 29, 2005 11:43 pm |
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羽ありたまご
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 2094
Location: Canada
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endoresu wrote: What I still don't understand is why this movie wasn't made in japanese, or with japanese actors
I saw the trailer and I'm not very impressed, honestly. I don't like the fact that the movie is in English, and I don't like the casting too, it's just too stupid. Zhang Ziyi is an talented actor but she doesn't really suit the role if you ask me. Just like broken::dreams said, she's not geisha-like (too Chinese looking).
If you watch movies like Hero or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon you know Zhang Ziyi can act really well, but then the reason is she's taking a Chinese role in those movies. Those racist talk are really nonsense, how about saying those movie makers are racist because they chose Chinese to take a Japanese role? Stupid movie makers with their lame excuse, they pick Zhang Ziyi and other famous actor just because of easier marketing.
I will still watch this movie if I have the chance, I'm just thinking that if those movie makers are less money-minded they can make this a better movie. |
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| endoresu |
| Posted: Aug 30, 2005 12:18 am |
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さくらんぼ
Joined: 21 Aug 2005
Posts: 37
Location: Canada
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spirus - since there's a trailer available right now, I'm guessing that the movie is in final editing/marketing stages now. The thing was though, this movie property was purchased like 10 years ago, and was delayed over and over until very recently.
broken::dreams - thanks for the lead on Geisha: A Life, I had no idea about how the source felt about the book. I'll definitely be looking for that book. As for the movie title, I believe it will still be called Memoirs of a Geisha in North America, and I think they're calling it Sayuri in the Japanese market.
eyn wrote: I'm just thinking that if those movie makers are less money-minded they can make this a better movie.
Totally agree, but then again if they weren't so money-minded, they probably wouldn't get the backing to do the film.
I remember reading a long time ago that Spielberg was going to direct this one himself, but as it is now, he's only producing the movie, and letting someone else direct it. I wonder if he knew that this movie would be carrying a lot of weight in fan's hearts and he didn't want to risk his own reputation? |
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| yumiotsuka |
| Posted: Aug 30, 2005 5:22 am |
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フレンジャー
Joined: 01 May 2005
Posts: 955
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| MEMEME!! there's a part really funny.. they ask the geisha to jump over a plank of wood.. but how can the geisha jump when she's wearing the kimono |
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| kikubelle |
| Posted: Aug 30, 2005 6:32 pm |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 27 Jul 2005
Posts: 1026
Location: Toronto, Canada + Lalaland~
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Oh i remember that title!
i remember watching the movie in japanese class...
i really hated my first year in japanese
because our teacher wasn't exactly nice
and then he never showed interesting movies
i just remember it was a realli boring movie
n then lik for me one time we watched a documentary on kung fu
i didn't like that movie  |
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| Clover |
| Posted: Aug 30, 2005 7:07 pm |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 1029
Location: I need to find a job... boohoohoho
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WOOW The trailer seems fun ^^ I think Zhang ZiYi is pretty ^^ Maybe because you guys have seen her in chinese movies and think she's chinese looking (just a theory).
Those film makers probably couldn't find good japanese actresses (who can speak english) in the area so they just took an easy one and got Zhang ZiYi. I think the movie will be interesting. I don't really care about the cast as long as the movie is nice itself 
BTW Is Chio (I misspelled it for sure) the jealous girl and Sayuri (Zhang ZiYi)? I thought they were seperated when they were younger. |
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| broken::dreams |
| Posted: Aug 30, 2005 7:58 pm |
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SMILY
Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 497
Location: New York
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Zhang Ziyi doesn't look Japanese. She does look too chinese because she is Chinese, regardless of what kind of movies she's been in. She does look really Chinese, but that's not the only reason some of us are a little annoyed about the casting, for sure. And Zhang Ziyi can't speak English that well anyway.
I agree with eyn, they just wanted the movie to be easier to market, not really be the best quality it could be. I'm sure it will be a quality movie, but I don't think it wil reach up to it's potential if the makers concentrated more on it being a tale in Japan about Japanese rather than a tale in Asia with Asians that will be targeted to American/Western audiences who most of the time, don't regard anything not in English. But that's just my opinion. |
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| Clover |
| Posted: Sep 06, 2005 4:24 pm |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 1029
Location: I need to find a job... boohoohoho
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My mom told me she read the half of it a long time ago and last weekend when we went to New York City (many japanese people there hehe) I saw this girl carrying this book. She sat next to us  |
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| Rinoa |
| Posted: Sep 07, 2005 4:37 pm |
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クムリウタ
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
Posts: 2037
Location: Europe
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| I'm still torn between reading it or waiting for the movie to come out ^^; |
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| Energist |
| Posted: Oct 07, 2005 8:39 pm |
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Happy Days
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 105
Location: Michigan
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I love the book and can't wait to see the movie, although alot of publicity surrounding both bothers me. Like people saying that the book made geisha look like prostitutes, if people looked stuff up they'd know that the coming-of-age style ceremony (mizuage) happened, but a geisha was not required to give up her virginity at it. And not all geisha had sex with their danna's either, plus, the whole source of annonymity thing bothers me too, mimeko ( i believe thats her name ) says shes so mad that he said her name as a credit for information ( though people seem to think he copied her life and dont realise that its a fictional book ) but then she turns around and puts out a book herself, total hypocrit, if she hated the death threats and stuff she supposedly got she shouldnt have made things worse by putting out a book of her own. People just need to realise that it is a FICTIONAL book. Just because aspects of it were researched does not make it factual. Yeah.... thats my rant~ ^^"
broken::dreams wrote: Oh, and they changed the name to just "Sayuri"? I saw a poster that said "Memoirs of a Geisha" with Ms. Zhang's face on it.
The japanese release is going to be called Sayuri and the u.s. release is going to be called Memoirs of a Geisha |
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| madgirlslovesong |
| Posted: Oct 08, 2005 2:02 am |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 23 Sep 2005
Posts: 1137
Location: USA
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This book is next on my list of books to read, so I'm excited that there is a movie version coming out, too. 
The US movie poster, which I think is really beautiful.
And I have a few stills from the movie.
I got these from the IMDB website.
I'm really excited about this! |
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| Clover |
| Posted: Oct 09, 2005 7:51 pm |
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ユメクイ
Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 1029
Location: I need to find a job... boohoohoho
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| When is the movie coming out in Canada? will it only be in a few theaters or all of them. I want to see the movie badly! |
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