First off, I’d like to say that this is a well made film, with good actors and a strong storyline – definitely worth a watch. ** SPOILERS AHEAD ** However, it was a let-down to me, I guess because I’ve read the book and expected so much more from the movie (Oscar nominations and all). The film is pretty true to the story with a few minor differences (minor tweaks and changes in details which make no change to the actual plot). The one major difference that I did see is that in the book, Sayuri’s love for the chairman is a strong theme, she does what she does but he is always in her mind. In the film, this is downplayed, they do project the romance, but it is more of an after-thought. The film is about Sayuri – that is it’s main concern, and the chairman, is the man in Sayuri’s life.

What really put me off, was the accented English of 2 of the main characters – Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang) and Hatsumomo (Gong Li), as well as other minor charcaters like Aunty and Mother. I’d rather they have spoken in Japanese – seeing the films with sub-titles would have been better. The way it’s done now, is that you have characters who could not have possibly spoken English in that place and time, speaking their dialogues in heavily accented and thus discordant inflexions of voice. Very distracting and takes away from the acting – I know now in my meta-physical movie-watching state that they are indeed actors. Michelle Yeoh the 3rd major character (plays Mameha) is an actress who besides her beauty exudes grace and regality, so your eyes are drawn to her when she’s on screen. Besides that she actually speaks decent English, so I’m not distracted by the dialogue itself.

The girl who acts as Chiyo (Sayuri as a child) Suzuka Ohgo, does a fantastic job. I was not overly impressed by Ken Watanabe (as the chairman) or Koji Yakusho (as Nobu). Watanabe’s performance was flat and lacked the passion I’d have expected of Sayuri’s beloved, while Yakusho was a little better. And although the film tries to make visual statements – all that flowing silks, and the dramatic make-up, it does not succeed. On the whole despite the meat of it’s story the film refuses to come together as a well-knit whole, and sort of makes me question the “realness” of the whole thing – didn’t move me much. The only part which I truly felt for was Chiyo’s plight in the okiya, subject to back-breaking work and Hatsumomo’s viciousness. I wept no tears for Sayuri’s hidden love.

House of flying daggers was so much more impressive.

Categories : _films , _film_reviews