anybody else really excited to see this? i'm not getting my hopes up, just because the book was so great, but it the cinematography looks decent.

12/22/2005 2:46:55 AM

I've learned my lesson after Hero and Flying Dragon.

anything w/ that woman in it (the main lady) or any movie that looks like a hong kong flick turned American =

12/22/2005 4:12:40 AM

passed up a free ticket to see it tonight

12/22/2005 4:27:45 AM

^^ somehow, i don't think the Geisha will be flying around in trees hacking at things with swords...

then again, i never read the book

12/22/2005 6:47:23 AM

It's like Pretty Woman, but with bad accents.

12/22/2005 7:23:07 AM

Hero was good an Zhang Ziyi (sp?) is fucking hot

12/22/2005 8:37:14 AM

30% from Rotten Tomatoes. Looks like the old "book is far better than the movie" wins out, yet again.

12/22/2005 9:18:09 AM

It's getting rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreally bad reviews.

12/22/2005 11:04:03 AM

Damn i heard it was a really good book. I guess the movie sux . Now i have to watch a suck movie w/ my gf

12/22/2005 1:59:15 PM

^ There's other options. I mean, I bet that "Dick & Jane" movie would be a comedy

12/22/2005 2:09:26 PM

Quote :

" Now i have to watch a suck movie w/ my gf "

I have a friend who I go out with to watch movies that my husband won't watch.
This one is next on our list.

12/22/2005 2:50:10 PM

"Friend"

12/22/2005 2:51:45 PM

i loved the book... so i will probably go see the movie anyways

12/22/2005 3:42:25 PM

looks pretty gei to me.

[Edited on December 22, 2005 at 3:46 PM. Reason : ]

12/22/2005 3:45:41 PM

"Friend"

12/22/2005 4:03:27 PM

i used to think her name was Zhang Ziyi

but lately they flipped it to Ziyi Zhang
but she is still very hot

12/22/2005 4:24:44 PM

^thats because the Chinese do their names in reverse.

ill reiterate the "this looks like a bad american copy of a hong kong film" sentiment.

12/22/2005 6:27:19 PM

yeah they put their family name first

Yao Ming = Ming Yao....why do you think it says Yao on the back of his jersey

12/22/2005 11:53:20 PM

That's my favorite book, but the previews to the movie haven't looked all that great. I really want to see it, I might go on Christmas if I feel like getting out of bed.

12/23/2005 12:12:29 AM

Quote :

"looks pretty gei to me."

why did this make me laugh?

12/23/2005 2:57:02 AM

i agree with SouthPaw12 on this one --

lots of times when they target the american audience with the HK cinema epics, they get nasty

don't get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of HK cinema, just the real stuff, not the globalized blockbuster crap

-ZiP!-

12/23/2005 4:06:27 AM

The book is awesome - I just finished reading it for the second time. It's very good with conveying emotion and the storytelling is great. I'm disappointed the movie is getting such bad reviews. It's at 27% now on rotten tomatoes. The main problems seem to be: It's not in Japanese, the main actresses aren't Japanese (although the main actor and all extras but one are), and it's a beautiful film but the storyline is simple and slightly "soap opera-ish". But I love the book too much to be swayed so I'll be seeing it as soon as it's at Mission Valley. I'm really curious about how it's done. Plus the only film critic I follow regularly liked it enough to give it 3 stars, so that makes me feel a little more hopeful (and he's read the book).

12/23/2005 6:13:54 PM

Saw it w/ the gf. wasn't that bad. Although pumpkins accent changed randomly

12/24/2005 1:41:21 PM

^i think it's because she started chillin with the americans

i really liked the movie, and even though they left out some things from the book (who mr tanaka was, sayuri's danna, hatsumomo finding sayuri's diary and hatsumomo's emerald, ect) it still did really great job of putting the book on to the big screen.

12/27/2005 1:22:54 AM

I haven't read the book, but I thought the film was great! The storytelling is excellent aswell as the cinematography. The only complaint I have is that I wish it was done in Japanese with english subtitles.

12/29/2005 5:45:33 PM

Well, fortunately her danna wouldn't be missed in the movie, except for the fact that he helped Sayuri's okiya survive during the war, which I'm guessing was either left out of the film or made very brief (sadly I haven't seen it yet!). Knowing who Mr.Tanaka was doesn't matter unless they completely leave out the fact that he is the one that takes the girls from the fishing village. Other than that he's a minor character in the book. I can't think of the impacts the diary and emerald brooch had in the book at the moment but if that's the case I guess they didn't make enough of an impact to worry much about when adapting it to screenplay, except to heighten Hatsumomo's attempts against Sayuri.

I highly recommend the book - it's great.

12/31/2005 8:57:54 PM

word

1/3/2006 2:33:12 AM

I finally saw it this weekend. I didn't see any melodramatic soap opera-ish moments that many critics were talking about. I did notice a couple problems with conveying emotion through dialogue because the actors had broken English, but they didn't distract from the movie except at the end. A couple times I thought it seemed a little long, so they probably could have changed something about the storytelling.

I'd give it 3 out of 4 stars. It adapted the book well enough to get the story across, without leaving out key scenes.

However, if I remember correctly, the fight btwn Hatsumomo and Sayuri did not cause a fire in the book - Hatsumomo just cut her foot on the broken glass of a perfume bottle or whatever it was. Am I wrong?

1/4/2006 3:20:33 PM

I thought the movie was nicely done, considering the amount of information in the book on just the culture alone. I keep finding little extras as I remember parts of the film now.

If I remember correctly, there is a fire mentioned in the book - but I think it's caused by the grandmother's space heater? I don't think the fire was caused by a fight between Sayuri & Hatsumomo.

1/4/2006 6:03:23 PM

finally got to see this today. last time i went it was sold out. i thought it was pretty good, but a bit long. i think if i hadn't read the book or had some kind of understanding of the plot i would've been a bit bored. i definitely recommend the book over the movie, but i found the movie enjoyable too.

1/7/2006 10:01:59 PM

http://www.youtube.com/?v=_AQvqsZFgDY

A bit old, but still funny

1/7/2006 10:05:16 PM

1/7/2006 10:32:04 PM

Yes the fire was caused by the grandmother's fire heater. It's kind of weird how they would change that scene so drastically, when it's a major one in the book, and any fan of the book would notice immediately.

1/7/2006 10:32:06 PM

I am constantly waffling as to whether or not to see this movie.

1/7/2006 11:38:00 PM

only people who read the book are allowed to see it

1/7/2006 11:41:46 PM

^^Then I would suggest you wait till it's in the $1.50 theater. That way you pay much less in case you don't like it, but still see the great visuals on a big screen. My husband saw it with me, but went in with a lot of dread over how bad he thought it would be, b/c of the majority of reviews. He ended up liking it, and says that after the fact he remembers a part of it here and there and likes it more than the day we saw it.

[Edited on January 8, 2006 at 7:04 PM. Reason : ]

1/8/2006 7:04:10 PM

i liked it.

1/9/2006 1:46:55 AM

i liked it.

1/9/2006 1:59:04 AM

DVD's out.

4/4/2006 7:26:06 PM

read the book, haven't seen the movie

got to say though there must not be much gender equality in japan if the entire girl's goal in the book was to be some rich man's mistress

4/4/2006 7:33:59 PM

Quote :

"there must not be much gender equality in japan"

rofl that's the understatement of the year

4/4/2006 7:42:57 PM

I still can't bring myself to see this because movies of books I love usually suck.

4/4/2006 7:49:10 PM

1) the book was fiction written by a white American male

1a) and he kind of ripped it off of the life of Mineko Iwasaki. If you want a story about a strong geisha, read her autobiography Geisha of Gion/Geisha: A Life.

2) the book was set in the 30s and 40s-- I don't know what you were expecting from that era

3) I think you might be interested in reading up on Japan's history, economy, geisha throughout history, and their ideas concerning gender and social obligations before you condemn them for Meredith College girl stereotypes.

4/4/2006 7:50:55 PM