Memoirs of a Geisha Movie: No Japanese Actresses

[Andro]

And If the movie is played in Japan, than the director and all the producers and casting people should be japanese not?
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Life is nice with a lot of bishonnens!

[Saonriyu]

Andro wrote:

I watched it too, and I was a little dissapointed. Almost all the actors were japanese, only the main charakter and some others were chinese or korean. I don't know, why had they speak in english in the movie. I watched it in Hungary (I'm hungarian) and I was really mad. I read the novel long before the movie. The movie wasn't bad, I liked it, I only didn't like that all the charakters were speaking in English. I can't forgive it!

You know, they shoul've done the same as the passion. Talk in the original langage and subtitle it to _____ language.

[usagi_on_the_moon]

I was SO disappointed in this movie!
I read the book and I liked it a lot.
But the movie...ehh, I'm not gonna go into that
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"Ano toki ano basho kienai kono kizuna"
so pretty...

[EarthLotus]

ohayo! ^_^ i just joined today because of this very discussion. I agree with the original first few posts that it is very strange and American to cast based on knowing the actresses and also the fact that they were not Japanese. however, i have a few things that i think:

1) The movie itself was good, and while the actresses themselves were not Japanese, they did to a fabulous job and took care to make sure they performed customs and wore the clothes and such as should be.

2) A good reason they were cast as opposed to Japanese actresses (which they should have cast simply for sake of more authenticity) is because they may have felt that there were not enough talented Japanese actresses who spoke fluent english. Be that as it may, they made crouching tiger hidden dragon with subtitles, they could have done that with this movie and used authentic actresses as opposed using Chinese actresses

3) Even with this major flaw, you have to respect the work they put into making sure everything looked and felt like it should with respect to the book. You have to cut the director some slack in the fact that he's not Japanese either and is subject to being very gaijin and in this case a big baka.

4) no matter what i loved this movie and i love all the characters in it and think Zhiyi and Ken did a good job,and i really loved how Mameha was played (i'm definitely going to read the book at some point i love making comparisions)

[EarthLotus]

Andro wrote:

And If the movie is played in Japan, than the director and all the producers and casting people should be japanese not?

yeah, that is definitely true. but when it comes to making authentic movies on other countries, hollywood can definitely fall short.

[Andro]

Saonriyu wrote:

You know, they shoul've done the same as the passion. Talk in the original langage and subtitle it to _____ language.

I watched The Passion, I know what you mean. But what can we do? It's a tipical hollywood-movie.
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Life is nice with a lot of bishonnens!

[obentou]

It's really disappointing ...I had to cry blood in front of my mom to let me watch that movie when it showed here in the Philippines (I was grounded at that time ) and had to promise to do a lot of things for her before she allowed me to go with my friends to see this.

Disappointing~! although Zhang Ziyi is really pretty I couldn't appreciate the fact that there weren't any Japanese actresses at all.
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[Andro]

There were, but they only played so small roles. For example the girl who played the child Sayuri was japanese. And the girl who played Pumpkin was japanese too.
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Life is nice with a lot of bishonnens!

[Enna]

I just saw Memoirs of a Geisha for the first time on TV today. I read the book several years ago. What should have been a wonderful movie was ruined for me due to so many Chinese actresses in the lead roles. Li Gong as Hatsumomo was the worst! I am sure she is a very talented actress just not right for this role. Although Zizi Zhang as Sayuri wasn't too bad.Well really I should not have been surprised since neither the director, nor the producers or the other power people of this movie were Japanese. What a shame! The world wide audience could have been introduced to some highly talented Japanese actresses. Thank goodness for Ken Watanabe as the Chairman. He is the only reason I watched this film from beginning to end.

[bmwracer]

Enna wrote:

I just saw Memoirs of a Geisha for the first time on TV today. I read the book several years ago. What should have been a wonderful movie was ruined for me due to so many Chinese actresses in the lead roles. Li Gong as Hatsumomo was the worst! I am sure she is a very talented actress just not right for this role. Although Zizi Zhang as Sayuri wasn't too bad.Well really I should not have been surprised since neither the director, nor the producers or the other power people of this movie were Japanese. What a shame! The world wide audience could have been introduced to some highly talented Japanese actresses. Thank goodness for Ken Watanabe as the Chairman. He is the only reason I watched this film from beginning to end.

More confirmation as to why this movie tanked in the theaters.

[Tu_triky]

Enna wrote:

I just saw Memoirs of a Geisha for the first time on TV today. I read the book several years ago. What should have been a wonderful movie was ruined for me due to so many Chinese actresses in the lead roles. Li Gong as Hatsumomo was the worst! I am sure she is a very talented actress just not right for this role. Although Zizi Zhang as Sayuri wasn't too bad.Well really I should not have been surprised since neither the director, nor the producers or the other power people of this movie were Japanese. What a shame! The world wide audience could have been introduced to some highly talented Japanese actresses. Thank goodness for Ken Watanabe as the Chairman. He is the only reason I watched this film from beginning to end.

yeah but in Hollywood, they think all Asians look alike .....i'm sure they had believable Japanese accents too.....i mean i totally believe it was impossible for the producers to find qualified Japanese actresses for the film.....picking Japanese actresses for such a film...what a ridiculously impossible task.


i hear they threw in a scene where the actresses ate at Panda Express to give the movie that really authentic Japanese feel. kudos...what a brilliant idea.

moreover, i hear "the dim sum" scene lent even more authenticity to the film.


it's obvious every movie that involves any Asian culture coming out of Hollywood will be impeccable, truly representative, and historically accurate.


knowing that the filming of the movie took place in California, when the story is based in Japan, helps its credibility further.


the character of Long Duck Dong from Sixteen Candles comes to mind......

[bmwracer]

Tu_triky wrote:

i hear they threw in a scene where the actresses ate at Panda Express

Hmm, wonder why I didn't bump into them.

[Tu_triky]

bmwracer wrote:

Hmm, wonder why I didn't bump into them.

lol...yeah, you could have asked for an autograph.

'racer: "can i please take a picture with that little boy...Zhang Ziyi."

[bmwracer]

Tu_triky wrote:

'racer: "can i please take a picture with that little boy...Zhang Ziyi."

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!

Punch line of the day.

[Tu_triky]

bmwracer wrote:

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...! Punch line of the day.

i couldn't resist man...

[bmwracer]

Tu_triky wrote:

i couldn't resist man...

Comedy's a matter of timing and opportunity.

Bullseye.

[Tu_triky]

bmwracer wrote:

Comedy's a matter of timing and opportunity.

so, so true....i prefer the spontaneous joke as opposed to canned jokes.

[Anime Dad]

The only reason I haven't seen this movie yet is because of the lack of Japanese actresses. I loved the book, and I was very disappointed to find out that the leads were all Chinese I guess I will watch it one day.

I saw an episode the other night of Law & Order : CI where they tried to pass off a Chinese actress as Japanese. She didn't look Japanese at all!

[Tu_triky]

Anime Dad wrote:

I saw an episode the other night of Law & Order : CI where they tried to pass off a Chinese actress as Japanese. She didn't look Japanese at all!

that happens very often...look at lucy liu in Kill Bill.

it's one thing to see it on TV but to see NO Japanese actresses in a role with a very DEFINITE cultural dimension particular to one country is ridiculous.

Hollywood is ridiculous when it comes to Asians and other minorities....hypocritical to say the least.....

[K.T.Tran]

Tu_triky wrote:

that happens very often...look at lucy liu in Kill Bill.

She doesn't even look half Japanese....

I didn't like how they tossed her in this whacky movie

Though that one girl with the chain and ball is cool.
Forgot her name already...........
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