Word: geishas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...genre, so has the December "film of quality." Typically, it has a remote setting: a Pacific island in the 1930s for Kong, World War II London for The Chronicles of Narnia and Mrs. Henderson Presents. It may be based on fact (The New World) or fiction (Memoirs of a Geisha). It may even have similarities to warm-weather fare. Steven Spielberg's winter drama, Munich, like his summer fantasy, War of the Worlds, portrays a deadly surprise attack and the ambiguous human response...
...report on the making of the film Memoirs of a Geisha [Nov. 14], Richard Corliss said that China is rich in top actresses and Japan isn't. But there are wonderful Japanese actresses in The Last Samurai (2003) and The Twilight Samurai (2002), and the latter was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language movie. Just because Chinese films are better marketed than those made in Japan doesn't mean that Chinese actors are more talented. KAZUHO BABA Anaheim, California...
...blogger who wrote that mega-hot Chinese superstar Ziyi Zhang “is a traitor to her country. Shooting her would not be an adequate punishment.” What the (presumably Chinese) blogger is referring to is her starring role in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” in which she (gasp!) portrays a Japanese character, as do several other Chinese stars. Many Japanese are upset that their history is being played out by Chinese actors, and many Chinese are enraged because their movie stars are playing sympathetic characters in a film about a country...
...MOVIE IS BETTER: By skipping the hometown beginnings of the heroine Sayuri and getting briskly to her induction into geisha life, the film announces its theme quickly and smartly. It expresses in winsome or searing glances what the novel took chapters to explain. The movie offers a little sympathy and backstory to the villainess Hatsumomo by giving her a scene with the lover whom geisha rules forbade her to have. And it gives Sayuri a fabulous dance scene that shows off director Rob Marshall's theater background...
DEFINITIVE VERSION: This one's like choosing between fish and fowl, sushi and chicken teriyaki. But I had to work hard when I read Geisha, and I soared when I saw it, so I'll say the movie...