A Visually Pleasing Winner of Three Oscars
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) is a gorgeous-looking, Hollywoodized period piece that was nominated for six Academy Awards and won three: Cinematography, Art Direction and Costume Design. It features high production values and three beautiful Asian actresses (Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li) portraying geishas. The key male character is a businessman played by Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). The movie was directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago).
An Older Woman Takes a Romanticized Look Back at Her Life
The movie Memoirs of a Geisha is narrated by an unseen mature woman named Chiyo and is divided into three acts. During the film's first act, Chiyo (played by a child actress) is brought to a Kyoto okiya (geisha house), where she has a miserable childhood performing menial tasks to earn her keep. The second act takes place during the 1930's when the grown-up Chiyo (now played by Ziyi Zhang) is transformed into a geisha called Sayuri who has a series of unusual experiences, some of which are quite unpleasant. In the third act, World War II forces her to relocate to the countryside for a while, and when she returns to the hanamachi (geisha district), a defeated Japan is under American occupation, and the upscale geisha is faced with diminishing opportunities. During the course of all this, Chiyo gets to know and is attracted to a businessman known as the Chairman (Ken Watanabe).
DVD Bonus Materials Include 11 Featurettes
On DVD, Memoirs of a Geisha is a two-disc set, where the second disc contains 11 featurettes ranging in length from 5 to 16 minutes and having a combined running time of 1 hour 51 minutes. "Sayuri's Journey: From the Novel to the Screen" is about the eight-year process of making a movie out of Arthur Golden's best-selling book. "Geisha Bootcamp" shows how the actresses prepared to play the parts of the geishas. In "The Road to Japan," the filmmakers do research in Kyoto (but almost everything in the movie was shot in the United States). "Building the Hanamachi" is about constructing a big, elaborate set in Southern California on which to shoot the geisha district scenes. In "The Music of Memoirs," we hear from composer John Williams, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The remaining half-dozen featurettes are about costume and makeup, staging the geisha dances, history of geishas, sumo wrestling, director Rob Marshall and a chef noted for Japanese cuisine.
DVD Provides Two Commentary Tracks
On the disc with the feature film, there are two audio commentary tracks. One is with director Rob Marshall and co-producer/choreographer John DeLuca. The other is with costume designer Colleen Atwood, production designer John Myhre and editor Pietro Scalia. (Atwood and Myhre took home Oscars for their work on the movie.)
DVD Details
There are two DVD editions of Memoirs of a Geisha, one with the feature film in widescreen, the other with the movie in full frame (1.33:1). The two editions are identical except for the aspect ratio of the feature film. Below I have given the details for the widescreen edition of the Memoirs of a Geisha DVD.
Release Date: March 28, 2006
Number of Discs: 2
Feature Film Run Time: 2 Hours 25 Minutes
Anamorphic Widescreen (2.40:1), Color
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Mature Subject Matter and Some Sexual Content
English 5.1 Dolby Digital
French 5.1 Dolby Digital
English Subtitles
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director and Co-Producer
Audio Commentary by Costume Designer, Production Designer, Editor
Sayuri's Journey: From the Novel to the Screen (14 min.)
The Road to Japan (5 min.)
Geisha Bootcamp (12 min.)
Building the Hanamachi (12 min.)
The Look of a Geisha (16 min.)
The Music of Memoirs (10 min.)
A Geisha's Dance (8 min.)
The World of the Geisha (8 min.)
The Way of the Sumo (6 min.)
Director Rob Marshall's Story (10 min.)
A Day With Chef Nobu Matsuhisa (10 min.)
Chef Nobu's Recipes (text)
Behind-the-Scenes Photos
Costume Illustrations
