Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 66
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Globalism baby! Chinese actresses speaking Chinese accented English in a Hollywood movie about Japan based on a geisha novel written by an American.

 

Had those actresses spoken Japanese, the results would've been worse than Kevin Costner's Robin Hood!

 

So, in a way, it's good that this movie is entirely a Hollywood affair.

Link to post
Share on other sites
 Quote:
Originally posted by Indosnm:
 Quote:
Originally posted by slow:
My friend said it was beautiful movie untill Chinese Chinese actresses open their mouths.
That sounds like a comment from someone who doesn't like the chinese.
Americams could say the same about Aussies that have to put on US accents to play in US films.. But no one says that.
Nono, It is the comment from a guy who is seeing at least six movies everyweek. He is always criticizing and was criticizing about Japanese untalented just cute looking actresses, too.
Link to post
Share on other sites

I really liked the book, and will be watching the movie, although it is a shame that it is in English, with Chinese actresses, people ar eright to say, thats Hollywood for you.

 

Many brits play other nationalities, as do Americans....Shindlers List is a good example of a movie with non native actors, shot in English. I found it extremely moving.....the Germans never complain about such shoddy accents.

 

I believe Spielberg bought the rights to the movie 8/9 years ago. Is it true he handed it over to someone else to direct?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Here is a pretty decent article about the reaction to the Hollwoodization of the film and also director Rob Marshall's "artistic vision" of the film not trying to accurately recreate the era.

 

 Quote:
In Kyoto, the center of Japan's traditional arts, the reaction was more circumspect, in keeping with the western Japanese city's customary discretion.

 

"It's a Hollywood movie. It's just entertainment, so what can we do?" said an official at the Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation, which promotes the music, dance and other arts of old Japan. "Hollywood has always done things like ignoring history."

 

"Complaining about it will just focus attention on it, so we plan to ignore it," he added, saying that the foundation had turned down requests to take part in promotional events connected with the premiere.

 

Director Marshall has long emphasised that he was not trying to create an accurate picture of the Japan of the 1930s and that he felt he had chosen the best actors for each role, regardless of nationality.

 

"The challenge for me was to bring that world to life. For me, it is an artistic impression of that world," he said on Monday.

 

And some Japanese who saw the preview were pleasantly surprised.

 

"It was strange, but not in a bad way," said one magazine writer, who declined to be identified. "I think because they are foreigners they have been able to create a vision of Japanese beauty that we could not, because we would be trying to recreate reality," she added.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I was watching some news thing last night about this and they were going along with the "able to create a vision of Japanese beauty that we could not" comment - saying it was perhaps "too beautiful". They seemed to like it. But at the same time talking about the fact that the mains were not Japanese. Lots of "so desu neeee"s and sucking of air going on.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In the trailer, the actresses look nothing like geisha. So much so that its almost laughable.

 

Gong Li has certainly gone down in my estimation by appearing in this film. It's a shame because Sorghum, Red Lantern, Concubine and To Live were all really great. It seems I'm not alone.

 

 Quote:
Geisha is a part of Japan's eternal culture, Chinese movie director Chen Kaige (Farewell, My Concubine) said at a symposium on Asian values at Japan's Kobe University in November. Chen has directed Gong in three movies, but he sharply criticized Marshall's decision to cast her and other non-Japanese actresses as geishas.

 

Every action you make, how you walk, how you use a Japanese fan, how you treat people and what kind of facial expressions you have when you talk is going to be expressed based on your Japanese cultural sophistication. For Hollywood, however, this does not matter. For them, there is no difference between Japanese and Chinese.

I could only stand about two minutes of "Crouching Tiger" when I saw that once on a plane, so I couldn't give a toss about the woman in that one.
Link to post
Share on other sites

Wiggles - What then should a geisha look like?

 

As far as the "whole cultural thingy" goes - you know only a japanese would have the sensitivity, the understanding, the empathy, the sophistication of action and spirit to play such a role - is just so over the top.

Actors play foreign roles all the time. If the script is creative, the details credible, the actors first class then the performance can usually be enjoyed for what it is.

 

For crisakes it's not a bloody historical documentary for Keio Doctoral graduates majoring in the eccentricities of Geisha-tology.

 

Just look at all the Samurai drama on TV (contemporary & dated) and tell me that that is g'damn authentic. Pig Shyte.

 

So much of it looks Chaplinesque or pathetically romanticized.

 

Lets criticize Apocalypse Now because the real war wasn't like that. Lets...

 

Enjoy \:\)

Link to post
Share on other sites

02-22.jpg

 

The real McCoy. Not exactly sexy, eh?

 

Cameron Diaz is ostensibly the same race as but looks nothing like Marilyn Monroe. That's only a problem if you cast Cameron Diaz as Marilyn Monroe. In that situation, most people are going to say, "She looks nothing like her!" Young Cameron would only be taken seriously by people who don't know what Marilyn Monroe looks like.

 

As the most beautiful woman in history, Helen of Troy, Hollywood was recently happy to cast an unknown. It does happen. Nobody expects them to produce dense films, but where do you draw the line when glossing over stuff? If they wanted to make the geisha sexier for the audience, why not ditch the white makeup, make the kimonos figure-hugging and put slits up the sides? I'm sure we could all "enjoy" the film more!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well saw it last night and was very pleased with the late night discount price of Y1200. Plus the popcorn was fresh, light and tasty and the Asahi beer surprisingly satisfying. And of course what can one say about the plushness of Mycal Cinema seats. However the heating was a lttle on the up side, an overcompensation for the frigid conditions outside, causing some discomfort and sweating, forcing me to remove a layer about 30mins into the show. So with the Italian meal (thin crispy crusted tomato & basil pizza, smoked salmon fettucine in a creamy tomato sauce, warm salad of seasonal vegetables - washed down with 3 glasses of the OK house red)) sitting comfortably in my belly, I settled nicely into movie mode.

 

And the show was all of what I had expected and more. I didn't need to dwell on the over-argued banalities of "Oh my god it's in English, the actors are Chinese, Geishas don't move like that" - ad nauseam, because we already knew that - didn't we.

 

So I could just enjoy the luscious palate, the lighting, the costuming, the recreation of a fantasy of exotic images, all the while the musical score further dramatically manipulated me,almost beating feeling into my senses at times.

 

Awash with sensory overfeed, I sipped my beer and popped my corn.

 

And the story - simple pure hollywood - romantic period tale of rags to riches to rags and then again to riches (of a sort). Classic. No cerebal extension required.

 

And the characters. Gong Li - you wonderful bitch. Zhang - cast correctly (who else could do it - Lucy Liu?) All showed true enough development befitting the type of movie it is.

 

And the flaws - firstly, who the hell could truly make this movie while following closely the original 'fictitious' tale? Even if the blessed he who walks on holy ground Kurosawa was around, with a full native troupe in tow, probably the result would have been some rambling, morbid epic, swimming in symbolism, angst and pathos. It was between a hard place and a rock before the project was ever conceived.

 

The stilted script at times was noticeable. Not the accents, as I had moved beyond that, but the actual phrasing and words spoken. One simple example, after Sayuri shows she has comes of age to work her trade, her teacher Michelle Yeo says, "Now you are ready" or closely to that effect. She tried to deliver it with impact and relevance, but hey what can you do with such material? More fitting of Karate Kid. Other little examples abound.

 

Covering 20+ years means lots of things to tell, so left with the feeling at times, that er....did I miss a bit?

 

Nit pickers will find faults if that is their sole intention anyway. Especially if they're putting authenticity (whatever that is) under the scope. Discussing with one friend after I gave a recent example of an enjoyable movie I saw on the movie channel - Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider. Saw it first years ago. But what a classic. All the cliched elemnts of the genre rolled into one film - the cardboard cutout frontier town, the retired gunslinger turned preacher turned do gooder helper of the down trodden, the haunting desolate landscape (when it needs to be), the 1 man against all odds blowing up and shooting his way through dozens of baddies, etc etc. A false, pretentious unbelievable, parody of real western life - Probably but who gives a fyck. It's entertainment.

For me it was a good night at the cinema with good company. Not a deep analysis, cutting into the soul of Geishas and their world, but a Cinderella-esque Japanese tale. Informative enough,prickly and warm enough and enough visual candy to make it all entertaining.

 

Preeze Consider.

\:\)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Its officially Rotten.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/memoirs_of_a_geisha/

 

Only 28% of critics like it, thats pretty poor.

I will give it a miss,

 

King Kong on the other other got rated Fresh, 95%

no question whcih one I will be watching.

 

Brokeback Mountain supposedto be a pretty good too, not that Japan will get it in a timely manner.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Japanese television is a perfect example of something that is "just entertainment" for people wanting to veg out after work. We all know what most gaijin think of it.

 

 Quote:
Even if the blessed he who walks on holy ground Kurosawa was around, with a full native troupe in tow, probably the result would have been some rambling, morbid epic, swimming in symbolism, angst and pathos.
Specifically which Kurosawa films gave you this impression of his work? Yojimbo? lol.gif He was simply a successful director of generally well-made, big-budget films for mass audiences, inspired among other things by the Westerns of John Ford. They're not Greek tragedies or Noh dramas, George Lucas (ffs!) wouldn't have copied them otherwise. You might as well slag off the Godfather, Clockwork Orange, or Schindlers List.
Link to post
Share on other sites

Mr W - who's slagging.

 

Just a lazy tongue-in-cheek flip about the best of the best would have difficulty being honest to this story.

 

And your "just entertainment" line is so loaded.

 

I said "It's entertainment"

 

And vegging out in front of la la TV - not my idea of entertainment at any stretch.

 

But each to their own. \:\)

Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...