Part 2 - Memoirs of a Geisha

We went and saw Memoirs of a Geisha last night - a movie I have been hanging out to see for a long time. I was pretty impressed. It was a beautifully shot film, with costumes and set both equally stunning. I was truly drawn into the emotional drama of the story. It had a strange sense of reality to it - the story was both a moving historical drama and also very much a fairytale. The film-makers cleverly realised that for this story there was no conflict between gritty historical reality and the heightened reality of a Cinderella tale. The world of the Geisha is so strange and built on mystery, beauty and artifice that Chiyo's story is both a historical drama and a fairytale. Hatsumomo is one of the more frightening villains - I found myself both intensely disliking her and getting really upset by some of the things she did but also understanding her motives and where she was coming from. Her cruelty seems more horrific because she is beautiful and cunning but also deeply sad and tragic. I realised when I was talking about the film with Matt on the way home that Talula's game system for Mean Girls could fairly effectively be used to run a game about Geisha in the Okiya - the sniping, backhanded compliments and petty cruelty that reaches levels of evil that would make Beelzebub shiver. I adore Ken Watanabe - in this film he is essentially a Japanese business version of Prince Charming but his character has depth and is very much taking his own journey and has his own choices to make and conflicts as well. He is a brilliant actor and very swoon-inducing when he is being lovely and kind yet enigmatic or brooding. Lovely, lovely film.