Memoirs of a Geisha -
I did not want to like this movie. I didn't like that the cast Japanese characters with Chinese actresses, I didn't like that it would be in Engrish.
Well I was wrong, cause it works, it works very very well. But it is melodrama, for about 85% of the film that melodrama is strictly controlled (by Japanese necessities and aesthetics) but it does go over the top for a fire and at the end).
The opening four or five minutes are the most intensely seductive work of filmmaking I've seen all year. The photography is unbelievable, it's all in unsubbed Japanese (mostly background dialogue, the principles are pawns/observers), English dialogue begins when they are taken to Miyako.
The cinematography and production design are so masterful that they first force you to want to like the movie and keep you hooked so you can't stop watching.
The cinematography makes me ache to love the movie unconditionally despite the flaws, I want to gloss over any flaws and talk only about the strengths.
Compare this to the uninteresting cinematography in Walk the Line that does nothing to enhance or underscore or complement or synergize with the story--it only presents it 'see spot run' style--where I came out of the movie only wanting to niggle at the issues I had with it and struggled to praise the strengths of an incredible movie.
The 'other' languages of the film arts are terribly important and I think the contrast between two remarkable films like Memoirs and Walk the Line illustrates that as dramatically as any example I can think of.
Even a film like Capote uses cinematography to match, enhance and enrich it's relatively talking heads subject matter, it's some of the best work of the year in fact, though it's never showy.
So unless Spielberg/Kaminski deliver the best looking film of their careers, it is impossible for Dion Beebe to lose the best cinematography oscar. It is that gorgeous.
It will also be difficult for any film to take away the production design or art direction oscars from Memoirs, simply because they built the whole damn town in california and the equisite detail worked in by John Myhre and his teams.
Now let's get on to the writing. Overall, a very nice job with an orientalized and dramatized look at Geisha life 1920s-1940s, this is made for an American audience. Some of the dialogue feels like a subtitle translation rather than how someone would talk, there's certain ways of phrasing and enunciating in Japanese that don't translate all the texture to words, so when just the typical 'translated' turn of phrase is used as dialogue it's a little disconcerting at first. However if you've seen some of Mizoguchi's films on this topic, and are aware of his intimate painful familial connection to it (his sister was forced into this life much as the titular character), you'll have a hard time believing the gloss (they are all, of course, the greatest geisha house in all of Miyako and it's all about the coldblooded competition between geishas and meikos) and bright-hot flares of melodramatic direct actions. However a very strong ending is written in that immediately makes you want to forgive some of the melodramatic machinations of the previous fifteen minutes.
Onto the acting and directing. Rob Marshall had a prodigious task in handling so many actors who didn't speak english, and he delivered an overall stunning film that is a visual powerhouse and carries you through the film even the occasional painful and awkward moment.
The young girl who plays the lead child was clearly cast for her stunning anime eyes, unfortunately she has a slightly malformed lower mandable causing the lower third of her face to slope slightly in and she can't close her mouth properly, it's a commone enough occurence, but dental surgery had certainly progressed quite far in the 1920s to turn her into Zhang Ziyi
(note the faceitious tone). The girl is a very good actress but has the most trouble with English pronunciation rhythm and diction, but she emotes very well.
Gong Li, with the second largest role, chews the scenary and gives a really restrained Chinese performance (or a just slightly over-the-top western performance). She is beautiful, magnetic, a skilled actress and relishes being one of filmdom's ultimate nasty bitches. In other words she's magnificent and it is clear why she is one of the world's biggest stars.
Michelle Yeoh gives a wonderful performance that is perfectly enhanced by the contrast in characters with Gong Li's role. Her performance seems better because of how she plays her role compared to Gong Li's (excellent bit of work by Marshall), the small bits of kindness and the serene calm and equisite perfection of grace that Yeoh exudes makes us immediately love her, and again makes her performance seem richer and more textured than perhaps it truly is. Yeoh is completely believable as Japanese.
Ken Watanabe, his first scene makes you smile and he has such a powerful screen presence that you're actually a bit miffed when he leaves, he is excellent in an almost silent role.
The supporting performance by the actor who plays Nobu is probably my favorite in the entire film, the subtle play of emotions, and the deep well they reside in, he slowly reveals to us is a great strength. I like his character the most, so in that sense I'm a bit outraged at some of the melodramatic machinations at the end.
Zhang Ziyi is excellent, but her role is somewhat bland compared to Yeoh and Li. On the other hand she's utterly believable and drop-a-man-dead stunning whether in Geisha costume or out of it. One scene with the Baron is almost too intense to watch, her persona as a meiko or a geisha is mesmorizing, she's almost a completely different girl but slight hesitations and her eyes let you know that she's not completely within the geisha/meiko personality, she's still learning or holding back.
The plot is a bit shaky, but that doesn't matter because when the performances or story fail to carry you the cinematography and production design pick up the slack. On the other hand there was a lot of coughing in the theatre. the editing, while very appropriate, left the pace quite slow at some points.
I can't believe I liked this movie this much, it may float up to four stars if I forget some of my problems with it. The cinematography is even better than Deaken's Jarhead work!
Adam
oh and John Williams score is subtle and subdued but the solos by Perman and Ma are superb matches to the film.
) - B
