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Memoirs of a Geisha

:: Friday, December 9th, 2005 @ 10:54:23 pm

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I went to see Memoirs of a Geisha tonight with Peter, Karine, Christine, Olivia, and a bunch of Olivia’s friends. (no spoilers ahead. don’t worry.)

I fail to understand why in the hell Hollywood would decide to cast a bunch of Chinese actors in the movie, other than to use their names to draw in a lot of money. Everyone in the movie contributed to a mix of bizarre, Asian accents — most notably, the thick, Chinese accents of Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li, and the unplaceable, stereotypically-Asian accents of some of the other actors. It turns out that if you round up all of the well-known Chinese actors, make them try to speak English on a Japanese set, and stick a Yo-Yo Ma soundtrack on top of it all, you get a steaming pile of crap.

Why not have have the movie in Japanese, with subtitles? That way, the actors get to sound like they’re not totally stupid, and we get to feel like it’s a bit more “authentic”.

I’ll bet that every Asian person who sees Memoirs of a Geisha will be on edge the entire time, feeling a bit offended, but not necessarily able to articulate why. Yeah, it’s fun to have Asians speaking orien’al-sounding English — right in the middle of their own country, or better yet — in a country close to their country! (close enough). So exotic!

Fuckers.

By the way, it isn’t that I’m opposed to having actors of one ethnicity portray characters of another. It’s just that I want it to be done well. I want it to be natural for me to suspend disbelief, and I want 2 hours of escapism in exchange for my $10.

UPDATE My sister sent me this link, which is awesome. ;)

| New York, NY | link | trackback | Dec 9, 2005 22:54:23
  • syndromes

    Narnia sucked too, but at least your movie had some hot azn honeyz!

  • enjelani

    it’s because the American mainstream won’t watch a movie with subtitles. that makes it a “foreign film,” you see. Memoirs is directed by the same guy who did Chicago, which must have been a strategic move as well. they’re already taking a big risk by having no Caucasian lead role.

    sigh

    i’m bummed that you hated it. probably means i won’t like it either. and i was hoping to.

  • http://giles.shaxted.co.uk giles

    now you know how all us brits feel with you yanks playing english people in england .. or the holly renditions of the world wars … really it didn’t happen like that … i know i’ve read books on it.

    I want to see the movie anyways .. just as I have no idea what its about and I may be able to get past the asian stereotyping through my own ignorance of varying sorts, I may even learn something like what on earth a Geisha is .. I am still guessing it’s a prostitute .. but i could be way off.

  • echeng

    giles – as I stated, i don’t have a problem with “yanks playing english people”, nor situation reversed. i only have issues it when it’s done so poorly that it makes the movie unwatchable. There’s also the horribly stereotypical Asian accent thing, all done to make things sound more exotic. At least yanks and brits both speak some form of the same language.

  • http://www.tammyloh.com tammy

    eric, i couldn’t agree with you more re: geisha.

  • Weiguo

    hm – should I not be commenting here (saw the “e’s last name” box)…anyway please do reprimand/delete if I’m not welcome…

    I watched this last night and the accents didn’t bother me. Part of it was that I knew exactly what they would be, going in (at least for the headliners), and the other part is that it really isn’t a big deal to me.

    someone (elsewhere) made a point that there aren’t really any Japanese actresses of the same degree of fame…granted, they could have picked a no-name (and I did enjoy the portral of the young Chiyo), but that starts to relegate it to indie movie status, and that’s the same commercial suicide that enjelani alludes to (re: “foreign”).

    frankly I didn’t find it any harder to suspend my disbelief than I did watching Crouching Tiger in all its mangled-Mandarin glory ;)

  • http://admansblog.blogspot.com Adman

    So… Was the movie bad, or could you just not get over the accents enough to enjoy it? Or both (I’m guessing this).

    Pretend you’re a culturally insensitive clod like me and can’t tell one Asian accent from another… Was the movie itself any good?

  • echeng

    Adam — i thought both. Is a movie bad if its characters can’t portray something well? There were probably some nice moments, though. shrug

  • http://www.dlindsey.us David Lindsey

    Went to dinner for sushi with my Barnes & Noble friends last night. We discussed the comments here. I feel the same way when I see “Fat Bastard” in the Austin Powers movies. Anyway…they all still want to see it. Then someone noticed the chop sticks we were using were made in China….. I don’t think our cook was Japanese either.

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    hey, David! but was the food good? I go back to Japanese restaurants with non-Japanese chefs when I like the food…

  • http://www.dlindsey.us David Lindsey

    Yep…the food was good.
    Happy Birthday by the way….disadvantage of having your old drivers lic. online…

  • http://echeng.com echeng

    I had a driver from Beijing on the way to the airport last week. I felt like I was watching the movie again.

  • Joanna

    Hahha. Oh gosh, I couldn’t stop laughing when I read the rant… That’s awesome.
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