Posted on 11/28/2005 7:10:53 AM PST by Hildy
TOKYO (Reuters) - A dream team of movie stars from China and Japan gathered in Tokyo on Monday to promote "Memoirs of a Geisha," the first big-budget Hollywood romance to feature an almost entirely Asian cast.
But a day ahead of the world premiere, some in Japan were wondering why homegrown talent was shut out of the leading roles in a film that celebrates Japan's unique culture.
Harsher comments have come from China, where bitter feelings over Japan's 1931-45 occupation of parts of the country make the idea of Chinese playing geisha unacceptable to some.
Based on a best-selling novel, backed by Steven Spielberg and directed by Rob Marshall of the multiple Oscar-winning "Chicago", "Memoirs" has generated enormous media interest.
The cast adds up to Asia's A-list, with China's Ziyi Zhang starring as Sayuri, a poor fisherman's daughter who transforms herself into a legend of Kyoto's mysterious entertainment world in the 1930s.
The two other leading roles are played by Gong Li, also of China, and ethnic Chinese Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, with Japanese performers relegated to secondary roles.
"Memoirs," reported to have cost its makers $85 million, can ill afford to alienate moviegoers in Japan, the second biggest market for Hollywood films.
But some have already expressed anger at what they see as a cavalier attitude to the subtleties of traditional costume and dance in a movie largely shot on a specially built set in California.
"According to this film, 'geisha' dance in a bizarre fashion, as if they were in a Los Angeles strip show," one Japanese film fan complained on a Web log, or blog, adding that the lights and special effects were more reminiscent of modern Las Vegas than old Kyoto.
"We should boycott this film and send a clear message to Hollywood. Why on earth have they made a film making fun of the Japanese, when they cannot get by without us?" the blog continued.
Chinese bloggers were outraged.
"She's sold her soul and betrayed her country. Hacking her to death would not be good enough," China's state media quoted one blogger as saying of Zhang.
Dressed in an off-white cocktail dress with her hair piled high, Zhang told a packed news conference she saw the film as a step forward for Asian actors.
"I am really grateful to Rob Marshall for giving us this incredible chance to show the whole world Asian actors' ability," she said on Monday. "We can do so much more than people think."
ARTISTIC IMPRESSION
In Kyoto, the center of Japan's traditional arts, the reaction was more circumspect, in keeping with the western Japanese city's customary discretion.
"It's a Hollywood movie. It's just entertainment, so what can we do?" said an official at the Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation, which promotes the music, dance and other arts of old Japan. "Hollywood has always done things like ignoring history."
"Complaining about it will just focus attention on it, so we plan to ignore it," he added, saying that the foundation had turned down requests to take part in promotional events connected with the premiere.
Director Marshall has long emphasised that he was not trying to create an accurate picture of the Japan of the 1930s and that he felt he had chosen the best actors for each role, regardless of nationality.
"The challenge for me was to bring that world to life. For me, it is an artistic impression of that world," he said on Monday.
And some Japanese who saw the preview were pleasantly surprised.
"It was strange, but not in a bad way," said one magazine writer, who declined to be identified. "I think because they are foreigners they have been able to create a vision of Japanese beauty that we could not, because we would be trying to recreate reality," she added.
Japan has a record of accepting Hollywood versions of itself without complaint. Industry reports said "The Last Samurai" (2003), starring Tom Cruise and set in 19th century Japan, grossed more in Japan than in the United States.
"Memoirs of a Geisha" caused controversy in Japan long before it became a movie.
Mineko Iwasaki, the main inspiration for Arthur Golden's book, sued the author for failing to maintain her privacy, after he described such practices as "mizuage" or the selling of a young geisha's virginity to the highest bidder, which she has been reported as saying does not exist.
ROLFMAO
Yikes!
Zhang might not be making a trip home very soon
The culture that produced movies like "Godzilla meets Mothra" is indignant about Hollywood taking license with reality?
Okay, can someone tell me why they got ethnic Chinese actresses to play a Japanese Geisha? There is no freaking way a Chinese woman would have been allowed to be a Geisha during the 1930's. Period. End of story. The lack of a Japanese lead actress is the fatal flaw in this film. I won't see it.
Only Hollywood would be this stupid.
"Oh, they all look alike".
Liberal Hollywood: racists, when all is said and done.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
As anachronistic as that seems, it cannot compare with the absolutely ridiculous J Lo dance routine performed by Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair.
A lascivious dance routine performed to a 21st century hiphop arrangement involving women of respectable family before a mixed audience in the royal presence in the early 1800s?
Silliest thing I've seen on film in years.
This is also the country that gave us directors like Kurosawa.
Comparing total fantasy movies with one depicting "real" things isn't quite a fair comparison. However one would think the Japanese could appreciate a stylized and fictionalized version of reality.
She can stay with me until things cool down - I'll teach her the lyrics to the Vapor's "Turning Japanese". It'll be a hoot.
Or at least more entertaining than that song she sang at the Peony Palace in "House of Daggers". Feh.
Boy am I glad I didn't see that. I won't bother to rent it now either.
By this argument, actors of Polish descent should never be cast in a Jane Austen movie because there were no Polish families among the landed gentry of 18th century Dorsetshire.
Racism has nothing to do with it.
It is ridiculous to insist directors match precise ethnicities to roles in movies.
"Okay, can someone tell me why they got ethnic Chinese actresses to play a Japanese Geisha? "
That is why it is called acting. Ot is always an interpretation and not reality.
Saw that movie last week. I am a HUGE fan of period pieces...not that one. You're right. The dance was bizarre and totally out of place.
Because they think Americans can't tell the difference? It's Hollywood, so they think, "She's Asian, what the hell difference does it make?" ;)
Sounds like a chinese muslim. or maybe a follow of Mao.
Ah, so deska !
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