Review: Memoirs Of A Geisha

Director : Rob Marshall
Main Cast : Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li

Memoirs Of A Geisha is an entertaining adaptation of the novel of the same name (which is highly thought of by those who have read it). The film stars the current who's who of Asian cinema in Ziyi Zhang (who's officially changed her name from Zhang Ziyi - marking her increasing Hollywood profile), Ken Watanabe (superb in The Last Samurai), Gong Li and our own (Datuk) Michelle Yeoh.

Nothing much surprising in the storyline itself, which is typical of a rags-to-riches story, with the obligatory highs and lows experienced by our heroine along the way to becoming a geisha. In fact, I think that the film (the book too?) just had one too many of the lows, and not enough of the highs. The abrupt, artificial and contrived ending to the film is symptomatic of this. If the film really is a faithful adaptation of the book, then it's as if the writer suddenly realised that he had wrote too much, with all the twists and turns in the plot, and was running out of pages. So he decided to just end it suddenly on a high note. I mean, I have nothing against happy endings, just that in Memoirs, there was no real build-up to it. It was just conflict after conflict, and then suddenly girl gets boy and they live happily ever after.

The acting in Memoirs was generally good, with special mention given to Yeoh and Watanabe. Zhang also performed admirably well in her English speaking debut, though she did sound like she memorised her lines without understanding a word she's saying, a bit like Jackie Chan in Rush Hour. Same goes for Gong Li. However, both are really stunning, especially Gong Li as a slutty and scheming geisha. They look too alike to each other though, and I actually got them mixed up on more than one occasion.

I also feel that some of the supporting cast, especially the Auntie and Mother characters, were cast merely because they spoke good English, and were very theatrical and stagy. It was as if they were performing live on a theatre stage, and spoke every line word by word, which sounded really false. It actually reminded me of some of the Malaysian supporting cast in the Jodie Foster and Chow Yuen Fatt-starring Anna And The King.

All in all, Memoirs Of A Geisha is an entertaining film, which you would expect from the director of Chicago, if nothing more than that. I don't expect it to win any major awards, except maybe for best set and costume.