book reviews

Memoirs of a Geisha - The Film

The official US release of the Memoirs of a Geisha move trailer has been launched online. Click the below image to view the trailer

Memoirs of a Geisha - Movie Trailer!
The official Japanese release of the Memoirs of a Geisha movie has been launched online. It appears that the movie is called Sayuri in Japan. Click on the below image to view the trailer.

Movie Information:
At long last, after many years of indecisiveness over whom would produce the film version of Arthur Golden’s best seller “Memoirs of a Geisha” – the movie is well and truly under production with a TBD 2005 release date!

With a cast consisting of quite a few big names in Japanese and Chinese cinema, large budget, Rob Marshall as the director, and the producers consisting of Columbia Pictures, Dreamworks Films, and Spyglass Entertainment, it no doubt is going to be quite an epic and visual treat.

If you would like to be kept up to date in relation to the development of the movie, please be sure to visit these websites on a regular basis. Please note, the comments and views expressed in the following external links do not necessarily express the views of ImmortalGeisha:

IMDB
Yahoo Movies
michelleyeoh.info
spielbergfilms.com
PRNewswire.com - Press Release

One must give a lot of credit to Mr Golden, who did an immense amount of research and interviewing prior to writing his first novel and his research and sensitivity shows. Mr Golden did a fantastic job of using the facts to create a romantic fairy tale.

General Discussion about the Film Development:
In relation to the development of the movie, there appears to be many differing feelings floating around:

On the happy side:
- People are very excited to see their favourite novel turned visual.
- People happy to see geisha on the silver screen.
- People are happy to see a big name cast.

On the not so happy side
- People are concerned about what the impact of a largely fictional story going    mainstream could be on modern day geisha.
- People feel geisha and maiko may be misrepresented (for example – one rumor    is that white make-up is too scary for the American audience, so they are toning    it down).
- People are displeased that he main actors are Chinese, rather than Japanese.

At immortalgeisha.com we receive a very large number of emails from people asking for further information about Sayuri and the other characters, where they might be able to purchase the Miyako Odori posters that feature her, etc. Please remember “Memoirs of a Geisha” is a fictional novel. Myself, and other geisha enthusiast are concerned this may be a troubling sign that people are seeing this book as fact rather than fiction.

One final note, although this is a fictional novel, it has been noted that the novel bares remarkable similarities to certain elements to Mineko Iwasaki (one of the most famous geisha from Gion Kobu) life story. If you have read “Memoirs of a Geisha”, Mineko Iwasaki’s book, "Geisha, a Life" (also known as “Geisha of Gion” outside of the USA)is a must read! Whilst Iwasaki-san’s book appears to be a touch dry and blunt compared to the fairy tale atmosphere in “Memoirs of a Geisha”, it does provide an honest viewpoint along with some great geisha tidbits of one of the highest earning maiko and geisha from the past.

If you would like to learn more about geisha and the geisha world, I invite you to look around ImmortalGeisha.com – and direct you to the Geisha and Maiko FAQ and the book reviews for further reading materials.

If you would like to discuss the movie with other people, please feel free to join in with the existing discussion at the Immortal Geisha Forums. Please remember though, comments posted by members of the forum do not necessarily reflect the comments or views of the author of ImmortalGeisha.com.