Memoirs of a Geisha

[ScrumYummy]

Is anybody else pissed off about this??

Basically, they're making a movie from Memoirs of a Geisha. Steven Spieldburg is the producer--bad sign--and guess who they picked for the main role?

Zhang Ziyi.

Wake-up call...she is CHINESE. And very obviously so.

It seems hollywood has chosen name recognition over casting someone that LOOKS THE PART. I know there aren't any Japanese actresses that Americans will recognize by name, but COME ON. This is silly.

I am boycotting this movie. X)

[Yunni]

>.< They could of used the main gal for 'The Last Samurai' - she was really good!

Ack, I haven't read the book, so I can't really comment, but I certainly know what it's about. Now it's getting the 'hollywood treatment?', I think I read the book before even continplating seeing the movie - DEFINATLY.

[~Tsuki~]

i have memoirs of a Geisha awsome book~! Very insightful i recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about the tradition of Geisha. hmm hope they do the movie ok tho....

[Silver Adept]

As I recall, Memoirs is a work of fiction. It is, however, a thoroughly gripping one, so much that it feels completely real. The books was excellent.

And one notes, perhaps with a slight degree of frustration, that the average American audience is unversed in telling the various ethnicities of the Far East apart.

We shall see how this one turns out, if it does so at all. I'm not sure if it's possible to capture the essence of the book onto film.

[ScrumYummy]

[Doot]

Well aside from the fact from the trailer (and I hope it isn't trailgitis - where they show only the good stuff) it looks amazing. Spielberg may be fronting the money for it - but he's got plenty to spare I'm sure.

I know they have Chinese actors playing Japanese characters but we have British and Aussie folks playing southerners (Cold Mountain) and other various situations.

I understand why you are upset though but I think they went with the popularity. (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sushi?).

[ScrumYummy]

I haven't seen Cold Mountain, but I would say as long as the British/Aussie actors playing southerners have the accent right, it's not that big a deal because a lot of people in the South have British backgrounds. In A Painted House, however, they royally botched the Arkansan accent. Not all Southerners sound alike; they made the mistake of thinking so.

I'm not really upset per se, but it's definitely going to detract from the movie for me (not to mention in the trailer I saw, the mood looked far removed from the book). In Gangs of New York, none of the main actors looked remotely Irish, and I couldn't focus on the story for most of the film. And there was also a Bond film that had white people playing Japanese roles--and I couldn't help bot LMAO'ing through the thing and not really paying attention to the story.

And--I have to ask--what is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sushi?

[kei]

[Doot]

Scrum - was just making a funny about how both Xiang and Michelle Yeoh are in this movie about Japan and they were in the Chinese tale Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Kei - The book (ficticious) was written by a man from Chattanooga, TN. In the book they all speak in what is written English (maybe so the reader can understand).

So before we go off on the whole thing - this is a work of fiction, written by an American, put through the Hollywood meat grinder, and spat out for mass consumption.

I understand why you'd be upset about it but honestly - it's not like this is the story of an actual person, even though it may have been taken loosely from conversations with a real geisha.

So unless it's the life story of Yamashita Kiyoshi (famous artist) played by Billy Bob Thornton or Mainoumi (famous sumo) played by Tom Cruise (that would be funny - pack on the pounds brother!) then it really shouldn't be as big a deal.

[ScrumYummy]