oloriel | If your honorable sister tells you to cut your leg, you cut your leg.

Sooo. Memoirs of a Geisha.

It was very close to the book - except in the beginning. That went by so fast and blurry that anyone who hadn't read the book (or understands Japanese, for it is not dubbed) has no idea what's actually going on. I'm assuming that this is intentional, to make the audience feel with poor little confused Chiyo and Satsu, but, well, it's a bit complicated.

The main complaint I've heard about the movie - Jörg brought it up, too - is that it's too 'clinical'. I must admit that that didn't bother me, really. Geisha means, literally, art-person; a geisha's world is artificial. It is strange and abstract and far-away, and as far as I am concerned, the 'clinical' abstraction helps to stress that. But I'm a strange person. Yes, it does keep the viewers outside a bit. But it is, as is said throughout the movie, a dark and secret world that story takes place in. So a bit of distance helps keeping the secrets, so to say.
At least, I'm assuming that's the intention behind it.

I was glad they cut the final bits of the book: It was too Austen-esque an end, with all that rambling on and on (I'm being vague because I'm too lazy for a spoiler-cut). So, yeah. The movie ended in just the right place.

They showed too many emotions, I think; Hongkong Chinese are no Japanese, and it shows. In fact, in that aspect, they weren't distant and clinical enough. One of the masks was missing, one filter too little, so to say. But oh well.

The cinematography is breathtaking. You want to take screencaps of almost every single scene.

The audience, however, was horrible - and we were only ten or so people. Remind me not to go to the Cinemaxx in Solingen unless I absolutely have no other choice.