The film, on a production level is a gem from every angle – a gem of a gem.Directed by: Robert MarshallProduced by: SpielbergStarring: Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Yang Ziqiong, Ken WatanabeThe supporting cast includes such characters as Kaoru Momoi, Hiroshi Yakusho, Zeng Jiang and Zhou Caiqin. It can be said that this should be a collection of the leading Asian film stars at the time.Bashing the plot, in fact, the fault is not in the screenwriter. The original is so bad that it doesn’t make sense how to edit. The whole story is how a young girl for love step by step to become the industry’s top elite, put the four seas and kill the plot built on the mysterious Japanese Geisha background – the background or the author masturbated out.
When I found Arthur Gordon’s original book, he tried very hard to construct a beautiful world in English that he was completely unfamiliar with but wanted to get close to, but no matter how beautiful the metaphors were (impressive ones like the back end of their kimonos floating on the tatami mats like waves of fine foam), the language barrier doomed the subtle and subtle silent beauty to exist only in the expression system and content of this culture. The content of the film is weak. There is no excuse for the weakness of the film.Interestingly, it is this unrealistic and naive Western imagination that gives the film its peculiar beauty – a plausible and unrealistic existence, neither Eastern nor Western, as if it were hollowed out. Gong Li’s performance as Hatsumomo was so stunning that the American press used Bette Davis to compare her performance, with her queenly presence concealed beneath a variety of flashy kimonos and towering buns, her long eyebrows sweeping and flying diagonally into her temples, her eyes full of disdain and ambition. In contrast, Zhang Ziyi’s cautious and unsympathetic is more like the rumors about her own upbringing, with gray-blue pupils in the eyes, in some shots will really appear like the book written in the “smoke and rain” of beauty. And Michelle Yeoh is not warm, but there is nothing outstanding, but her posture and demeanor is really interesting to explore the mystery. Watanabe Ken is not even handsome, but the scene where he meets the heroine on the river and still a little girl on the bridge is really fascinating – for such a person to spend his life and only willing to exchange his gaze, only convincing.As an avid movie soundtrack lover, Memoirs of a Geisha’s movie soundtrack is definitely in my top ten favorite soundtracks.
John Williams as Spielberg’s royal voice could not fail to appear – as one of the most amazing musicians today, his score and the film remain highly consistent – the same exotic music that one intended, the same interpretation of the undefinable The same exotic music that he intended, the same interpretation of undefinable and bizarre beauty. Instead of the usual oriental instruments such as the caveman, flute, pipa, shamisen, etc., he uses the cello and violin as the main voices in the film.Well, here comes the kicker, the cello is Yo-Yo Ma If this is not enough to make people scream, the violin is played by Itzhak Perlman .Now, let me scream with indulgence ! This is really the most gorgeous soundtrack lineup in the history of thirty years !Take the scene where Ken Watanabe and Chiyo as a child meet on the bridge – I have watched this scene no less than twenty times, half for the low gentle voice of Ken Watanabe and the shyness of the little girl’s light gray-blue eyes downcast, and half for the music that floats up in its near end when the little girl seems to see hope in her life –After that, the camera turns, she runs on the long corridor leading to the temple, the gray-blue kimono and the overlapping orange-red porch present a metaphysical feeling like the undulating waves, Yo-Yo Ma’s cello seems to float from the bottom of her heart, each time so beautiful that it gives me goose bumps, and Itzhak Perlman’s violin gradually follows at some point, just like a lover’s voice whispering in the ear It is like a lover’s voice whispering in the ear that breathes a secret tumult and pleasure.The plot of the latter is very bad, it can be said that after the young Chiyo came of age, the plot is basically straight down, the defeat of Japan in World War II, the Geisha decline, Chiyo after the war because of its high status in the Geisha world and become an important bridge between the benefactors and the U.S. military – can this be seen as a yearning for the beauty of the unknown civilization?
Of course, if you want to get hung up on the English pronunciation of the actors, it’s a very tangled thing, Watanabe Ken, Michelle Yeoh, Zeng Jiang, Zhou Caiqin’s English is so good that they can keep up with their acting, while Gong Li can use her acting skills to make people ignore her pronunciation (her pronunciation is actually very good), as for Zhang Ziyi at the time, I can only say that I can see that she is trying very hard… … “Memoirs of a Geisha” was a controversy that is now just a chicken scratch, this Hollywood let Chinese actress to star in one of the Japanese national treasure how to say it is not our loss, but at that time the Japanese show business is still chagrined why they are not able to star in Hollywood A-class production actress.The film gave Zhang Ziyi her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – not necessarily because of how well she acted, but because this kind of production is bound to be considered for awards, and along with it, the actors will be given the appropriate attention. This is why famous directors, famous producers and famous actors are complementary to each other.A few days ago, I missed the original soundtrack and took the movie down to see, and I was still stirred up by the thrilling and dark music – the soundtrack can do this, I have nothing to say.