With
softly lit sensuality, this beautiful version of Arthur Golden’s novel outlines
the place and function, only partly sexual, of the geisha in Japanese culture
and builds a decent plot around their conflicting desires, jealousies, and
fears.
I’d kind of expected this
adaptation of Arthur Golden’s novel to play on the stereotype of a stoic,
selfless Asian, with the heroine bravely rebelling and trying to assert her
individualism against a conformist culture. Happily, it’s not so. Directed by Chicago’s
Rob Marshall, it replaces that film’s kinetics and quick cutting with softly
lit sensuality, set to a quiet John Williams score. It begins with the tale of
a girl sold by her father, and the people she came to know as her new family in
prewar Kyoto. Zhang Ziyi plays the girl as an adult; her Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon costar, Michelle Yeoh, plays a mentor, and China’s biggest
star, Gong Li, a nemesis. Though missing the ritualistic detail of the book,
the film outlines the place and function, only partly sexual, of the geisha in
Japanese culture. While the people in the story are not particularly deep, they
are more than types, and they are different. Their conflicting desires, jealousies,
and fears are the basis of the plot. You may not even notice that this plot is
built around the thin edifice of a single meeting of a girl and a man (Ken
Watanabe).
circulated via email 12/29/05 and posted online 9/20/13
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