DVD Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

AnnYamamoto#17Mar 30th, 2006 - 19:46:39

Speaking as a Japanese-American woman, I found the film exquisite looking but very ugly and insulting. I respect the reviewer's opinion here but I think this a much more apt take on the film in what is only my opinion: http://moriartylabs.typepad.com/moriartys_dvd_shelf/2006/03/memoirs_of_a_ge .html

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PatrickL.Mar 30th, 2006 - 21:18:53

I would like to know what parts of the film you found ugly and insulting. I am not too familiar with the whole Geisha society, but thought the movie was interesting. I thought a couple of parts were more than disturbing - but would be interested to hear what was culturally ugly and insulting to you. I tried to read the link you gave, but it just loads to a page not in file. I think Jeff's review was based on the film and not the history behind the story. He was careful to point out that he hadn't read the book on which the film is based. Is the book also insulting, or was it just something in the translation from book to film?

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Jeff SwindollMar 31st, 2006 - 00:44:45

Ann, you had me at 'I respect the viewer's opinion' (tear) ;).

However, let me make some commentary and hope that you find none of it offensive because I also respect your opinion. I don't mean to say that I'm going to call you names, but just don't take anything I say the wrong way because I'm not meaning to offend.

I can see both your opinion and the good Professor's opinions of Memoirs. However, you're making a leap to a degree. This is the reason that I say in my review that they should've made the short docu about geisha's the first one that played (maybe even put it on disc 1). Geisha's are not prostitutes (as per the disc's docu, this is what I'm basing my opinions on, so if you tell me something different I may have to give you the point). From my interpretation, if you hire a geisha you might get tea served to you and see a tradiational (clothed) Japanese dance, but the evening is not guaranteed to end in sex. Now it does appear that geishas were definately not celibate, but just because the girl ends up another character's geisha that doesn't mean that they would 'consumate' the relationship. I got the impression that their first meeting on the street that there was truly compassion from him for a lost girl, not that he was a pedifile (although honestly the thought did cross my mind). She was closer to an adult at their second meeting, though still tooo young a lady for him, and that's when I got the impression that he was smitten. Again this is a different culture and you may have the advantage of me in that regard. I can't really address the book and maybe it goes beyond the point where the movie ends.

Thanks for reading and your opinion/impression was welcome.

Cheers.

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C. IkeharaJun 19th, 2006 - 00:51:18

Memoirs of a Geisha Associate

by C. Ikehara


Having taken music lessons from a retired geisha hardly qualifies me to speak as any kind of authority on geisha culture. I have never been to a party attended by geisha nor have I read MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. I haven't even seen the movie version.

But there seem to be so many stereotypes and misconceptions as to what geisha are all about that I felt almost compelled to write this article.

First and foremost is the perception that geisha are nothing more than prostitutes. They are not because when they arose in the mid-1700's as an urban institution, Japanese society already had women who were professional prostitutes. If prostitutes represented the fast food of feminine companionship, the geisha approached the level of a 4-star restaurant. At parties attended only by men, they served to break down the formality between guests so that everyone could relax and enjoy themselves with not only food and drink, but also with conversation:

- Conversation. What is it?...It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation? (Guy de Maupassant)
- Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse... (Jonathan Swift)
- Never speak of yourself to others; make them talk about themselves instead; therein lies the whole art of pleasing... (Edmond & Jules De Goncourt)
- Flirting is the gentle art of making a man feel pleased with himself. (Helena Rowland)

Music was also provided by the geisha who were trained to perform on 3-stringed lutes (shamisen) which would accompany their singing and dancing. At a time when options for enjoying life were far fewer than what is available to us today (e.g., world cruises), geishas were symbols of conspicuous consumption in a society whose leaders had deliberately isolated Japan from the outside world thereby making the likes of travel abroad or even eating foreign food an impossibility. The visual artform of their day--the woodblock print (ukiyo-e)--exalted their glamor, sophistication and mystique.

(If I may digress a bit on the subject of prostitution, for those who consider it a characteristic of 'backward' societies that have yet to 'modernize', it may be of interest to know that prostitution is still perfectly legal in certain developed nations in both Asia and Europe.)

The geisha also represented an elusive hope in a society where there were not only prostitutes, but where arranged marriages were the custom--the possibility of romantic love. This was from the customer's point of view and was something of a luxury existing only for the man who could afford to set up a geisha as a mistress.

The geisha today is a living repository of cultural traditions, but during her heyday before the Westernization of Japan began in the mid-1800's, she represented the latest in trends and could be thought of as the avant-garde of her society. In certain respects, she was the fashion model of her times--someone whom men would want to be seen with and whose stylish dress ladies would want to imitate. Even today, without doing anything conspicuous, a geisha knows how to turn heads as she walks down a street:

- Modesty: the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it. (Oliver Herford)

For those who might find a Western parallel helpful in better understanding the appeal of a geisha, think less of Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe and more of Audrey Hepburn whom men feel protective towards and whom ladies would think of as the ultimate in chic.

Which brings me to another point. In the French language is the expression 'avoir du chic' which, if translated literally into English, means 'to have chic'. But that's not what it means. 'Avoir du chic' represents a combination or even interaction of qualities that have to do with character, spirit and intelligence. In Japanese, it is called 'iki'--something which a geisha tries to cultivate in herself such that she becomes the embodiment of what could be thought of as a kind of feminine chivalry.

Getting back to my music lessons, my teacher was actually quite reticient about her past and since I was more interested in music than in geisha culture, that was perfectly fine with me. But from time to time, she would mention things like the fact that she had once been at a party that had been attended by Isoroku Yamamoto. She quickly added that whenever she revealed this, she was invariably asked if he had come across as a sneaky person.

This has important implications. If anyone knew about the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor before it happened, geishas could have known just as if anyone knows who the next prime minister of Japan will be, geishas might know.

But they would never tell.

So what is a geisha? Considering that all of the above quotes have the words 'art of' in them, can it be a total shock to learn that in Japanese, 'gei' means 'art' and 'sha' means 'person'?

- Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being. (Carl Gustav Jung)


(C. Ikehara's shamisen playing can be heard on Lyrichord Discs' VENERATED PATTERNS OF CHINA AND JAPAN.)

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