Poll Position: "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005)

At first I had no idea that "Memoirs of a Geisha" was a romance movie, but after I quickly looked up what this movie was all about, I was slightly intrigued. I'll admit that I know almost nothing about geishas. I thought they were just dressed up escorts, but little do I know it's more than that. They are artists, musicians and beautiful dancers. Just everything about the geisha is pure and beautiful, if the movie comes anywhere as close to the beauty that these geishas process. I cannot see how this movie can be a bad one.



Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) has had a hard life from the time she was sold with her sister to two separate geisha houses by their father to the headmaster of the geisha house that Chiyo is in,being mean to her. She gets unfairly treated but for a good reason; there is great potential in Chiyo to become one of the countries most beautiful geisha. One of the more older geisha, Hatsumomo (Li Gong), becomes increasingly jealous of Chiyo's attention. So much so that Hatsumomo gets Chiyo in trouble which in turns makes her into a slave. But Chiyo is saved by Hatsumomo's nemesis Mameha (Michelle Yeoh). Mameha trains Chiyo the art, and skills to become the greatest geisha.

Before I dive any further, I have to clear one thing. Even though 95% of the movie is in English, all the actors have a strong oriental accent. It almost made it so I could not take this movie all too seriously, I would have rather had them talk in Japanese and read subtitles. At least than I wouldn't have to deal with the annoying pronunciation of words. I eventually kind of got used to it, but it was hard to get settled in.

Chiyo meets the Chairman for the first time.

The first part of the movie is done greatly. The dark mood and struggle of Chiyo builds a tense atmosphere. I really liked how the story that a little girl struggling to be free from the geisha house slowly turns into wanting to be a geisha. This all happens when Chiyo meets the Chairman (Ken Watanabe) for the first time. He offers her a snow cone, and she sees the light of why geisha's are the way they are. This might be the first real joy in her life. At this moment, the story becomes how Chiyo turns into a promising geisha, instead of a just a girl trying to run away.

The most interesting and my favourite part of the movie is when Chiyo is now training to be a great geisha. Sort of like the processes of watching a sports team turning form zeros to heroes in a typical sport movies, we watch Chiyo go from an everyday slave to a woman that stops men in their tracks with her eyes. The movie goes into great detail on what it is like to be a geisha, and the many troubles they face. Most importantly the competition between geishas. When Chiyo grows old enough to entertain men, her rivalry with Hatosumomo is at it's peak. Fighting with their words everywhere they meet. It later becomes a game to see who is the prettiest.

Chiyo and Hatosumomo don't take each other to kindly.

There is a love story behind this all, which started when Chiyo meet the Chairman for the first time. She immediately fell in love with him and is on a quest to meet him again. When they do finally meet, Chiyo is forced to entertain the Chairman's business partner, Nobu (Koji Yakusho). As she spends more and more time with Nobu, he falls for her. But she has no interest with Nobu, all she wants is the Chairman. But she is told by everyone that geisha's aren't free to love anyone. Can Chiyo get the man of her dreams without offending the arts of being a geisha? This was my least favourite part of the movie, I did not care for the love triangle. It never added all that much to the movie.

But nevertheless, the movie is great. I could never draw my eyes away from it. It wasn't just the beautiful geisha's on screen but it was shots in beautiful Japan with the falling blossom tree leaves and pure white snow. The entire movie is done well, it looked good, told a good story and the social aspects of becoming a Geisha was great by itself. It does take some time to get used to the accents. But even with that, the movie is a great watch.