Pictures worth a thousand words
11/23/2005 @ 3:00 am
For all the controversy that the movie Memoirs of a Geisha has stirred up on both sides of the Pacific, the beautiful visual images served up by the film speak gracefully in terms everyone can probably understand.
See this and other images from the movie here.
Thanks for posting this, lifted my day.
I cant wait for this movie!
November 23rd, 2005 at 5:57 amMore photos here…. the stars arrive in New York!
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:11 pmBy now, viewers are getting accustomed to seeing their favorite television characters talk about specific brands of jeans, cars and shampoo as advertisers pay to have their products featured in the plot. But the Nov. 14 episode of US TV show NBC’s “Medium” offered a new twist, with a story line woven around the upcoming Sony Pictures movie, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
In the episode, Allison DuBois (played by Patricia Arquette) and her husband were getting out for an adults-only evening, and chose to see the movie “Memoirs of a Geisha.” That brought questions from one of their daughters, who wanted to know what a geisha was.
“Mommy, what’s a geisha?”
Guess this is going to be the new buzz word of 2006, once the movie takes off, with David Letterman jokes, Jay Leno jokes, newspaper headlines using “geisha” in unrelated ways ["Mrs. Brown says she's no geisha"] ["Postmodern Women Fight Against Geisha Stereotype"] ["Is Hillary Clinton a Geisha""]. Get ready!
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:17 pmWhat I dread more than anything with the release of this film is the inevitable massacre of the word geisha.
“Hey, have you seen Memoirs of a Geeeeeshuh yet?”
“No, and I haven’t seen Memoirs of a “gayshah”, either. And while we’re on the subject, it’s pronounced, “sah-kay”, not “sockey” you bloody philistine!”
November 23rd, 2005 at 3:56 pmLiz Smith, the gossip columnist at the New York Post gives a “Thumbs up for ‘Geisha’”
She writes today:
”Variety magazine set a few hearts at ease this week with its review of Rob Marshall’s ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’, based on the best-selling book by Arthur Golden. They say the Oscar-nominated Chicago director has outdone himself with “a consummate piece of traditional studio craftsmanship that bespeaks fastidious planning and execution … this is a work that the old Hollywood moguls themselves would have been proud to present.”
”The problem with Geisha has always been whether or not Westerners will go see a movie starring only famous Asian actors. Variety seems to think we will. This bodes well for Sir Howard Stringer’s [MR. SONY] Dec. 6 Sony premiere at the Ziegfeld in New York.”
November 24th, 2005 at 11:41 amMarie, will you be attending?
One reporter in China has reported this erroneous note:
“Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s (張藝謀) highly anticipated film Memoirs of a Geisha (藝妓回憶錄) had a grand preview screening last Saturday in New York City. Judging from the less than enthusiastic response from the press after the screening, the film is probably not going to do too well at next year’s Oscars.
Attention mainly focused on the performances given by Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and Gong…”
So HE directed the movie, not Rob Marshall. Nice to know….
November 25th, 2005 at 12:46 pmMore reviews:
“Less impressive than other December releases, but certainly ambitious is Garry Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha, a gorgeous-looking but ultimately empty tale of geisha-in-training Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) who was born of peasant stock in a small fishing village, and then sold into genteel slavery to become a geisha. Akin to a trophy wife, the geisha will meet all your needs beyond the sexual. Renamed Sayuri, our heroine is mentored by Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), and avoids the evil machinations of beautiful Hatsumomo (Gong Li) and endures having her mizuage, or virginity, won by the highest bidder.”
November 25th, 2005 at 1:09 pmwhy are the main/supporting actresses of a movie about traditional Japanese culture all Chinese? Shouldn’t they be Japanese? To me, it sort of ruins the movie a bit. Imagine all the samurai warriors in “The Last Samurai” were Vietnamese.
November 26th, 2005 at 10:36 amIf I were the director, I would have cast Yukie Nakama as Sayuri. And Misaki Ito could have been cast, too. No need for those Chinese darlings.
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=popvox&id=620
November 30th, 2005 at 12:36 amEhn, better yet make the whole thing anime. Then you could have a Japanese original, an English subtitled version, a fluent-English dub, Japanese-accented English dub, Chinese-accented English dub, Chinese dub, Japanese-accented Chinese dub, Chinese-accented Japanese dub, and everyone’s happy..
November 30th, 2005 at 4:20 amZhang Ziyi and Gong Li’s Hollywood movie Memoirs of a Geisha is set to be released in the United States in December, but the screen date on the Chinese mainland remains undecided.
Click to see the next picture
Information from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on Sunday said the release on the mainland might be postponed from January 9th to February 10th, depending on whether a sex scene can be cut in time.
The planned mainland opening in Beijing on January 9th is now moved to Hong Kong.
Columbia Pictures’ China distributors consider February a good time for the opening of Geisha on the mainland.
The film is expected to get large exposure during the Academy Award presentations in the United States in March. This would greatly help to warm up the mainland market, said Zhang Mao, a district distribution manager for Columbia Pictures in China.
The Beijing opening will include leading actresses Zhang and Gong along with Michelle Yeoh, as well as prominent Chinese directors Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang.
Since the film is in English, Zhang and Gong will probably do their own dubbing for the mandarin version.
The film is rated PG-13 in the United States.
Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li’s Hollywood movie Memoirs of a Geisha is set to be released in the United States in December, but the screen date on the Chinese mainland remains undecided.
Click to see the next picture
Information from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television on Sunday said the release on the mainland might be postponed from January 9th to February 10th, depending on whether a sex scene can be cut in time.
The planned mainland opening in Beijing on January 9th is now moved to Hong Kong.
Columbia Pictures’ China distributors consider February a good time for the opening of Geisha on the mainland.
The film is expected to get large exposure during the Academy Award presentations in the United States in March. This would greatly help to warm up the mainland market, said Zhang Mao, a district distribution manager for Columbia Pictures in China.
The Beijing opening will include leading actresses Zhang and Gong along with Michelle Yeoh, as well as prominent Chinese directors Zhang Yimou and Feng Xiaogang.
Since the film is in English, Zhang and Gong will probably do their own dubbing for the mandarin version.
The film is rated PG-13 in the United States.
November 30th, 2005 at 1:27 pm