Memoirs of a Geisha
—1. Overview
—2. Reviews and Blogs
—3. Cast and Crew
—4. Photo Pages
—5. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—6. Posters (Japan)
—7. Production Notes (pdf)
—8. Spiritual Connections
—9. Presentation Downloads
One of the difficulties of making a novel into a film is that novels often are very multilayered with much attention given to each layer. When one is working with several hundred pages, the writer has the time to develop each subtheme and subplot with care. A film, on the other hand, has severe time restraints that often lead scriptwriters working with large novels to cut away entire themes and subplots. Or, they may try to cover everything but do it so sparsely as to be trifling, giving us an idea that something is there, but not enough depth to appreciate it fully.
Leaving the theater after seeing Memoirs of a Geisha, I wasn’t quite sure what it was that left me unsatisfied. To be sure, it is a visual pleasure of the highest order. Director Rob Marshal and cinematographer Dion Beebe made almost every frame a work of art. Add to this a wonderful John Williams score incorporating both Western and Eastern music and including gifted musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. On the aesthetic level, this is a film that may be without peer this year.
It also takes us to the exotic world of pre-war Japan, with its strange customs and traditions. The whole idea of Geisha is a bit hard for Westerners to understand. These are women who are not prostitutes, and yet sell themselves (especially their beauty and cultivation) for the use of men. Memoirs gives us a look into that world in ways that we haven’t seen before and gives us a bit of appreciation for the women who lived this life.
But in the end, I was disappointed, I think, because the film never picked which themes it wanted to focus on. Instead it gave us bits and pieces of many themes, but not enough to fill out any of them.
Memoirs is a mixture. Take one part story of the struggle to find oneself, one part about the artistry of Geisha, one part about the oppression of women in society, one part of the internecine politics of a Geisha house, one part love story and shake well. Unfortunately it doesn’t blend all that well. Instead we get tastes of each – usually just enough to make us hungry for more that doesn’t come.
For me the least interesting part (and the hardest to buy into) was the love story. Yet it is that part that really wants to be the focus of the film and that has the most theological import.
Alert: from here on, major plot spoilers will be discussed.
The love story involves Sayuri and a man known only as the Chairman. Their first encounter is when Sayuri is still a girl – one who has been relegated to being a house servant rather than training as a Geisha. Sayuri is on a bridge with a sad look when the Chairman, with two Geisha in tow, stops and brightens her day, making her smile and buying her flavored ice. From that point on, Sayuri only wants to become Geisha so she can once again encounter the Chairman and make him happy. Eventually, she is taken under the wing of another Geisha and develops into the most acclaimed Geisha in the district, often spending time with the Chairman and his friend Mr. Nobu.
In the happy ending (which I saw coming, but still wanted to cry out, “Oh, spare me.�) it is revealed that the Chairman, from the day he first met her, has been her sponsor, leading to her becoming Geisha. Now they are free to share their love.
As sappy as all this is, it does serve as a wonderful portrayal of grace. That first encounter between Sayuri and the Chairman is his responding to this girl he does not know, merely because she is sad. He treats her as someone with an intrinsic worth. He reaches out to her even before she understands that she needs his help. Her response to that grace is life changing. Because someone has treated her as someone of value, she becomes someone who lives out that worth.
Yeah, it’s all pretty sappy. But come to think of it, sometimes the Gospel seems pretty sappy, too.
— Overview
— Reviews and Blogs
—2. Reviews and Blogs
—3. Cast and Crew
—4. Photo Pages
—5. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—6. Posters (Japan)
—7. Production Notes (pdf)
—8. Spiritual Connections
—9. Presentation Downloads
One of the difficulties of making a novel into a film is that novels often are very multilayered with much attention given to each layer. When one is working with several hundred pages, the writer has the time to develop each subtheme and subplot with care. A film, on the other hand, has severe time restraints that often lead scriptwriters working with large novels to cut away entire themes and subplots. Or, they may try to cover everything but do it so sparsely as to be trifling, giving us an idea that something is there, but not enough depth to appreciate it fully.Leaving the theater after seeing Memoirs of a Geisha, I wasn’t quite sure what it was that left me unsatisfied. To be sure, it is a visual pleasure of the highest order. Director Rob Marshal and cinematographer Dion Beebe made almost every frame a work of art. Add to this a wonderful John Williams score incorporating both Western and Eastern music and including gifted musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. On the aesthetic level, this is a film that may be without peer this year.
It also takes us to the exotic world of pre-war Japan, with its strange customs and traditions. The whole idea of Geisha is a bit hard for Westerners to understand. These are women who are not prostitutes, and yet sell themselves (especially their beauty and cultivation) for the use of men. Memoirs gives us a look into that world in ways that we haven’t seen before and gives us a bit of appreciation for the women who lived this life.
But in the end, I was disappointed, I think, because the film never picked which themes it wanted to focus on. Instead it gave us bits and pieces of many themes, but not enough to fill out any of them.
Memoirs is a mixture. Take one part story of the struggle to find oneself, one part about the artistry of Geisha, one part about the oppression of women in society, one part of the internecine politics of a Geisha house, one part love story and shake well. Unfortunately it doesn’t blend all that well. Instead we get tastes of each – usually just enough to make us hungry for more that doesn’t come.
For me the least interesting part (and the hardest to buy into) was the love story. Yet it is that part that really wants to be the focus of the film and that has the most theological import.
Alert: from here on, major plot spoilers will be discussed.
The love story involves Sayuri and a man known only as the Chairman. Their first encounter is when Sayuri is still a girl – one who has been relegated to being a house servant rather than training as a Geisha. Sayuri is on a bridge with a sad look when the Chairman, with two Geisha in tow, stops and brightens her day, making her smile and buying her flavored ice. From that point on, Sayuri only wants to become Geisha so she can once again encounter the Chairman and make him happy. Eventually, she is taken under the wing of another Geisha and develops into the most acclaimed Geisha in the district, often spending time with the Chairman and his friend Mr. Nobu.
In the happy ending (which I saw coming, but still wanted to cry out, “Oh, spare me.�) it is revealed that the Chairman, from the day he first met her, has been her sponsor, leading to her becoming Geisha. Now they are free to share their love.
As sappy as all this is, it does serve as a wonderful portrayal of grace. That first encounter between Sayuri and the Chairman is his responding to this girl he does not know, merely because she is sad. He treats her as someone with an intrinsic worth. He reaches out to her even before she understands that she needs his help. Her response to that grace is life changing. Because someone has treated her as someone of value, she becomes someone who lives out that worth.
Yeah, it’s all pretty sappy. But come to think of it, sometimes the Gospel seems pretty sappy, too.
— Overview
— Reviews and Blogs
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