Ray Pride

I'm still confounded by the early reviews of "Memoirs of a Geisha" that suggest documentary-style "authenticity" is what we'd be getting from the director of "Chicago." Others have suggested that Sony ought to have sought out a Japanese director. Would a Japanese director have even wanted to dip a toe into this reflecting pool of Western ideas about the East?

Um, doubtful. Instead, Rob Marshall's second feature film, originally slated for Steven Spielberg to direct, and adapted from Arthur Golden's bestseller by a number of writers, including Robin Swicord, Doug Wright, and in the latest stages, Anthony Minghella, is an overstuffed, very Hollywood pageant, as much perfume ad as narrative, and I mean that kindly. While there are miscues, such as casting Chinese actresses in Japanese roles, leading to a welter of inconsistent accents, "Memoirs of a Geisha" shows that Marshall could become an interesting director (which the hapless "Chicago," for me, emphatically did not). The epic re-creation of early twentieth-century Kyoto, built on California soundstages and locations, is elegant eye-candy, and after a slow opening, individual set-pieces grow increasingly assured. Despite naysayers, this is no "Show-Geishas," although the brio with which Gong Li assails her role as a cruel older geisha suggests an even more emphatic version that could have been made, one that was campy in the best possible way.

There's little to be gained in unraveling plot strands when the cast includes Zhang Yi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Watanabe and the redoubtable Kuji Yukusho. Marshall, a former choreographer, has an engagingly theatrical way of expressing his considerable enthusiasm. "Something exists between director and actor sometimes that surpasses or transcends language," he says of the myriad accents. "I'm very lucky that we had six weeks of rehearsal. I would be speaking English and it would be translated into Japanese and Chinese in front of me. Many times the actors couldn't speak to each other except in the scene in English. It was extraordinary. But with the luxury of that rehearsal, by the time we got to shooting I felt it was, oddly enough, very natural. These are the greatest actors really in the world. I have Koji Yakusho, the Al Pacino of Japan, Gong Li, the Meryl Streep of China. I have these great actors and I felt like I was in very safe hands with them."

"It's a combination of beauty and cruelty," Marshall says, offering up why he was attracted to the idea of Geisha. "It really was both. [Geisha] really are moving works of art. They have to train unbelievably hard, and they work incredible hours. It's a very different kind of profession [today], obviously. You're not sold into it. You make a choice to do it, like a teenager in high school would choose to go to the School of American Ballet or become a model." He outlines his four battling protagonists: "Sayuri (Zhang) survives. Like the `water in her eye'"--Sayuri has unlikely blue eyes--"she keeps moving forward and ultimately finds love. But Hatsumomo (Gong), the tragic villain of our piece, self-destructs, can't deal with the restrictions of being a Geisha. Mameha (Yeoh), the teacher, is the perfect Geisha [but she has to] put her heart on ice and remove herself from that. She has that wonderful line where she says, 'A Geisha has no choice. We don't become Geisha to pursue our own destinies. We become Geisha because we have no choice.' And then Pumpkin (Youki Kudoh), the fourth Geisha, is a failed Geisha and becomes a prostitute."

Spielberg and the other producers pursued the 45-year-old director, similarly to how a meeting with Harvey Weinstein on how to adapt "Rent" into a movie led to the deal for Marshall to direct "Chicago." "I got the call from Lucy Fisher, Doug Wick and Steven Spielberg, our producers, while I was in the throes of the awards season of `Chicago,' which was such a surprise to me; I wasn't prepared for that at all. I didn't really want to look at anything then because I couldn't focus, but they kept sending me bottles of sake and antique prints of Geisha and beautiful books, and it was really hard to turn away from it. It was a combination for me of the world of Geisha and also the story. The central story was very moving to me, about the child who is sold into slavery and must surrender to a life that's very difficult and with a great struggle involved and learns to ultimately find love in a world where love is forbidden to her. Children were sold into these Geisha houses as maids and as slaves, but there was a reward for that ultimately."

"I have a very simple philosophy when it comes to casting and it really is casting the best person for the role," Marshall insists of the mix of Asian actresses. We had casting directors all over the world and the hope as a director is that when someone walks in, an actor walks in that you work with, claims the role and says, 'This is mine.' For me, an actor like Zi, for instance, comes along once in a generation. She's 26 and she is extraordinary, really extraordinary on every level and there was no question. She was Sayuri. That's the hope of the director: they claim the roles. And my job is to choose the best actor for every role, to bring that character to life."

"Memoirs of a Geisha" opens Friday.

(2005-12-13)

Also by Ray Pride

What does it mean?
Marc Levin's a notably combative figure, but it took some convincing to get him on camera for "The Protocols of Zion," in which the veteran filmmaker of "Slam" takes to the streets of New York to confront and question purveyors of various and sundry anti-Semitic beliefs
(2005-12-06)

Tip of the Week
The title and the animated bird in its ads: "39 Pounds of Love"? The dread began
(2005-12-06)

It's a blunder-filled life
Harold Ramis' "The Ice Harvest," an exquisitely sleazy twenty-first century proto-noir, is deadpan, implacable, inexorable and downright cruel, a marvel of moviemaking, tautly paced, immaculately crafted
(2005-11-29)

Tip of the Week
Although Miramax sat on this one for almost half a decade, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 horror opus is one of the most dread-steeped, agonizing horrors of the past ten years
(2005-11-29)

Born to Rent
(2005-11-21)

Tip of the Week
(2005-11-21)

The one you're looking for
(2005-11-15)

Tip of the Week
(2005-11-15)

Splash Panel
(2005-11-08)

Catching a Buzz
(2005-11-08)

Tip of the Week
(2005-11-08)

Through the past, darkly
(2005-11-01)

about Newcitychicago | about Newcity magazine | advertising | privacy policy | FAQ | employment