Memoirs of a Geisha-Watcher

The beautiful thing about theatre is its power of suggestion. A skilled actor can portray any character or situation even if he has nothing but a black leotard on and a blank stage to work with. He can do this regardless of age, appearance or gender, and be utterly convincing.

It's just not the same with cinema. Because camera angles, location shoots and digital sound leave little to the imagination, film triumphs less through suggestion than authenticity.

This is an area where Memoirs of a Geisha fails miserably. As a Chinese, not only do I find the idea of Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh portraying a quintessential aspect of Japanese culture to be odd, I find it downright insulting. It reinforces the idea that all Asians are the same to Caucasians, and that there are only about five of them in the popular consciousness of the entire Western Hemisphere.

It doesn't help that the entire supporting cast are bona fide Japanese--that only makes the leads stick out more. The use of English dialogue peppered with Japanese terms further heightens the artifice of the film--Yeoh's forced intonations of words like "Danna" and "Nitta" are particularly grating.

Basically, the entire show smacks of cultural voyeurism. What could have been a compelling insight into a closely guarded tradition turned out to be a thinly veiled exercise in exoticism, without any real empathy for its characters. At the show's end, I remained unconvinced that Sayuri went through all she did to be with the Chairman on account of a brief childhood encounter with him. Perhaps this is addressed with more depth in the novel, but I haven't read it.

Having said all this, it's not a bad film. It's entertaining and engaging in the way that mainstream Hollywood fare is, and the use of elegant zen-like phrases and descriptions from the book give it a touch of class. A personal favourite is Sayuri's recollection of a poem in front of a temple, called 'loss', which consists of only three words. There's more to it but I won't spoil it here.

The real treat of the night, however, has to be child actress Suzuka Ohgo. All of 12 years of age, she gives me the same jailbait goosebumps that Natalie Portman did in her prepubescent debut in Leon (a.k.a. The Professional). Here is a shot of her with a smile so disarming it can end a nuclear war.



Already in an A-list film, it's only a question of time before she grows up and pays her acting dues by baring her as-yet unformed chest on the big screen. But let's not go there just yet...