The Memoir of a Geisha. It was a good movie but I felt something was missing. The movie went too fast a pace. There was gap here and there. What attracted me to the movie was the presence of Malaysian actress in the form of Michelle Yeoh. Well, not many Malaysian made it to Hollywood. The ending was a bit artificial. So to satisfy my curiosity I have to read the novel itself.
The story was about a poor girl Chiyo who later became one of the well known geisha in Japan., Traditionally the Japanese looked at geisha as a very respectable profession. That is until after 2nd world war when the Americans, during their occupation of Japan, gave a different definition of geisha. The respectable entertainer now has become nothing more than a social escort or just an expensive call girl.
Chiyo was sold to an akio or a geisha house where she was groomed to become a geisha. The hardship she went trough make us appreciate why they surrendered themselves to become a geisha. They believed that they had an important role to play in the Japanese society at that time. As they grew older, they felt that it was their duty to train others to take their places. Chiyo was groomed by Mameha a well known geisha before the war and took the name Sayuri when she became a geisha.
Some peculiar practices by the geisha make the geisha world very unique. ‘Mizuage’ is a practice where an apprentice geisha surrendered her virginity to the highest bidder before she can become a full fledge geisha. Taking a ‘danna’ is where a geisha become a preferred mistress to a particular patron. A geisha will dress differently if she is no longer a virgin. A geisha is not supposed to fall in love, even if they do, they must hide their true feeling.
Sayuri did fall in love and toward the end find the true happiness
It was a good movie no doubt but the book was even better.