Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Runtime: 2 hrs 25 mins
Theatrical Release: Dec 9, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $57,010,853
Synopsis: Arthur Golden's blockbuster bestseller, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, has been brilliantly brought to the big screen by Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall (CHICAGO). The film opens in a remote Japanese fishing village in 1929, where two sisters, Chiyo and Satsu, are sold by their troubled... Arthur Golden's blockbuster bestseller, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, has been brilliantly brought to the big screen by Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall (CHICAGO). The film opens in a remote Japanese fishing village in 1929, where two sisters, Chiyo and Satsu, are sold by their troubled father to people who place Chiyo in a classy geisha house known as an okiya in Gion and Satsu in a much more vulgar and dangerous district. Chiyo becomes a maid to Hatsumomo, a cold, controlling, and calculating geisha who is instantly jealous of Chiyo's unusual, beautiful eyes and childish innocence. Chiyo is befriended by Pumpkin, another maid at the okiya, but the two are soon driven apart. Chiyo is shown compassion by the Chairman and another, more successful geisha, Mameha, who takes her under her wing as her "little sister," furthering the battle between Chiyo, now called Sayuri, and Hatsumomo. As Sayuri is trained in the art of being a geisha, learning how to walk, talk, dance, and serve (up to a point) in order to please and honor her distinguished male clients, World War II looms on the horizon, threatening to upend Japan and its old ways. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA is a lush, sweeping historical and romantic epic, featuring gorgeous period costumes, primarily the exquisite kimono worn by the geisha. Ziyi Zhang (HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) is outstanding as Sayuri, who stands up to the oppressive Hatsumomo (the effervescent Gong Li), while Michelle Yeoh, who starred with Zhang in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, is splendid as the wise and elegant Mameha. Ken Watanabe (THE LAST SAMURAI), Koji Yakusho (SHALL WE DANCE?), and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (ELEKTRA) are among the men who take an interest in Sayuri, who is continually faced with difficult choices that will shape her destiny, just as Japan's destiny is changing shape with the coming of the West. John Williams's soaring score is enhanced by solos from virtuosos Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. [More]
Genre: Romance, Theatrical Release, Based On A Novel
Starring: Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Koji Yakusho
Screenwriter: Robin Swicord, Doug Wright
Producer: Steven Spielberg, Roger Birnbaum, Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick
Composer: John Williams
DVD Info
Release:
Sep 25, 2007
Blu-ray Features:
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French, Thai
- PCM 5.1 - English, French, Thai
- Subtitles - English, French, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai - Optional
Additional Release Materials:
- Audio Commentary - Colleen Atwood - Costume Designer; John Myhre - Production Designer; Pietro Scalia - Editor
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
For all of its inaccuracies and over-the-top mise-en-scène, Memoirs is quite entertaining.
The overall effect is not so unlike Mameha's description of geisha themselves: a moving work of art.
...the film's achievements lie mostly on the surface, rather than underneath it.
Não é apenas seu falso moralismo que o compromete; como centro de sua narrativa, o longa traz uma historinha de amor artificial carregada de diálogos cafonas e melodramáticos.
Cinematographer Dione Beebe ... fills the screen with lavish images that constantly amaze the senses.
The subject remained interesting enough to this provincial American to accept and ultimately enjoy the film’s well-worn romanticism, even with its resignedly tired happy ending.
Marshall's approach is simultaneously accessible and exotic, a breathtaking introduction that exposes without spoiling a world of carefully guarded mystery.
Related Forums

by: Darko, Donnie 12/7/06
by: lawl 10/9/06
Pictures
Trailers & Clips
Watch Now >>
News
posted by Gitesh Pandya December 21, 2006
Moviegoers will have plenty to choose from over the long Christmas holiday weekend as four new star-driven wide...
posted by Gitesh Pandya December 07, 2006
A wave of new releases hits the multilplexes on Friday as the North American box office looks to bounce back after a...
posted by Jen Yamato November 08, 2006
Helen Mirren's astoundingly successful biopic "The Queen" is getting some serious competition from...
posted by Binh Ngo September 13, 2006
When we last saw Michelle Yeoh on the big screen, she was teaching Zhang Ziyi the finer points of how to stop a man in his...
Around the Network
Memoirs of a Geisha at IGN
Memoirs of a Geisha at AskMen


Top Critic