ROTTEN TOMATOES: Trailer Bulletin: Memoirs of a Geisha

Trailer Bulletin: Memoirs of a Geisha

by Scott Weinberg | September 16, 2005

Yahoo! Movies has the very first trailer for Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha," which is one of the upcoming Oscar season's most hotly-anticipated titles.

Based on the novel by Arthur Golden, and starring Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Koji Yakusho, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, "Memoirs" is "a sweeping romantic epic set in a mysterious and exotic world that still casts a potent spell today. The story begins in the years before WWII when a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house. Despite a treacherous rival who nearly breaks her spirit, the girl blossoms into the legendary geisha Sayuri. Beautiful and accomplished, Sayuri captivates the most powerful men of her day, but is haunted by her secret love for the one man who is out of her reach."

Columbia Pictures (Sony) will release "Memoirs of a Geisha" on December 9th.

(And it's one heckuva trailer, if you ask me.)

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(1-13 of 13 posts) | Reply

lonechicken writes:
on Sep 16 2005 05:20 AM

The international trailer was slightly better since it ended with the camera on her eyes. Not as much impact with this one.

(Reply to this)

lavatory love machine writes:
on Sep 16 2005 01:14 PM

zhang ziyi is the most beautiful thing that i have ever thing, even more than natalie portman

(Reply to this)

maha555 writes:
on Sep 16 2005 08:06 PM

[b]Why can't Hollywood get it right?[/b]
They've gone and made sukiyaki out of Japanese culture again. The hair styles are completely wrong; the dancing is completely wrong and the list could go on.... The "geisha" in this movie resemble the real thing as much as American football resembles soccer. This movie will only appeal to those who think Benihana serves authentic Japanese food. Too bad!

(Reply to this)

PhreazerBurn writes:
on Sep 17 2005 09:14 AM

In reply to this comment (#826025)
That doesn't bother me in the least if the movie is well done.

(Reply to this)

dudemovies writes:
on Sep 17 2005 12:08 PM

Looks good to me lots of action and stuff and no subtitles

(Reply to this)

lovelykeira writes:
on Sep 17 2005 01:35 PM

Watanabe kicks ass, and Ziyi is pretty cool. Plus it sounds interesting. So I'll see it. Plus I usually see all the main Oscar hopefulls.

(Reply to this)

alyssamm writes:
on Sep 18 2005 01:46 AM

[b]ZIYI is sooooooooo cute!!![/b]
ziyi is so natural beauty, so cute and intelligent,
i'm proud of you as a native Chinese audience!

love you!

(Reply to this)

alyssamm writes:
on Sep 18 2005 01:51 AM

In reply to this comment (#826024)
[b]me too ,ziyi is like a diamond mixed hardness with[/b]
love you ziyi!!!

(Reply to this)

donna542004 writes:
on Sep 18 2005 09:08 AM

I loved the trailer. Never read the book. I hope it does well in the theaters.
Donna A.

(Reply to this)

synergyred writes:
on Sep 18 2005 12:46 PM

Shiny....

Looks like it will do the book justice.

(Reply to this)

harumitsu writes:
on Sep 18 2005 04:53 PM

[b]MEMOIRS IS ALL MADE UP[/b]
FYI: The book -- and the movie -- is pure fabrication and has no basis in fact about the geisha.

First of all, the author Golden collaborated with a real former geisha for his book and then made up the rest... it outraged the geisha so much that she decided to publish her own autobiography to straighten facts about being a geisha in Japan. (Her name is Mineko Iwasaki and wrote her own story called Geisha, A Life, if anybody is interested.)

Second of all, the movie only continues the age-old tradition of perpetuating Asian women as sex objects and prostitutes in the eyes of Western civilization (case in point: Madame Butterfly, The World of Suzie Wong, Miss Saigon, the porn sites on the Net... need I say more?). As much as I love the Asian actors and actresses that carry the roles in the film -- Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, etc. -- there are so much more aspects to Asian culture that are richer and fuller than anything made up by any imagination of a Westerner.

If you wanna see a film with Asian women in it, watch a subtitled movie from Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea or Taiwan at your local arthouse theater. I guarantee you will get the REAL DEAL.

(Reply to this)

Ken8589 writes:
on Sep 21 2005 06:39 PM

[b]hmm...[/b]
but most of them are Chinese......
nothing against the actors but...they couldn't even cast one Japanese actress? I liked the book and this looks nice too though.

(Reply to this)

jsmccune writes:
on Sep 22 2005 01:55 PM

[b]Yeah[/b]
Yeah, I noticed that too -- might as well cast mexicans as indians and palaminos as thoroughbreds. I guess, in all fairness, there's a much larger pool of Chinese to choose from --> Typical Dimtwat Hollywood Cows ("F*** Accuracy, F*** Realism!)

(Reply to this)

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