Okay, taking aside all the controversial issues on this movie, it was actually pretty good. So good in fact that I feel guilty, liking it. But what can you do, when you're not directly affected and you're really just an audience?

The story was okay. Of course, I have some objections on how the lead character Jiyo/Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) was motivated all throughout the movie for only one reason (The Chairman - Ken Watanabe). I mean, if she was supposed to have "more courage than she thought" then shouldn't she have found other things to care about? Though I guess when your parents sell you, your sister leaves you after you got injured and all on your way to your meeting place, and you're made a slave to serve the b*tchy Hatsumomo (Gong Li), you're entitled to be a wee bit selfish and cling to the only thing/person that gave you hope that there's still some good left in the world.

Zhang Ziyi did not look as beautiful as she normally does though, maybe the geisha make-up doesn't suit her. Although Michelle Yeoh (Mameha) did a great job, with the voice, the poise, everything. So, big rounds of applause for her! XD I really liked the relationship that Sayuri developed with everyone, even Hatsumomo. I think one of my favorite parts was when Sayuri was looking out at the window at Hatsumomo's walking form, and realized that she could very well become exactly the same as her, simply because they were both geisha.

Anyway, everything was very well orchestrated, no unecessary scenes, music at just the right timing, and you could really feel their emotions. I don't know why some people say the dialogue was hard to understand because Asians were speaking in English, I understood it fine. And I don't want to talk about the language stuff, because isn't the rule 'as long as you're understood', anyway? So, subtitles or dubbed or whatever, I'm sure they all work. It was all great, if the aim of the movie was to show how difficult geisha's lives could be, and how Japan changed after WWII. I'm glad to have found out about such things, except, I keep thinking that sometimes things should just be left alone and not proclaimed to the world. Because now, geisha wouldn't be so mysterious anymore, and that's gotta really suck for them.

Actually, this movie reminds me a lot of King Kong (if you can believe that), because Jack Black had that line that's very applicable here;

"There is still some mystery left in this world, and it can be seen by anyone for the price of an admission ticket."

Okay, that's probably not a very accurate quote, but you get the point. Watching this movie was just like watching the broadway production they had in King Kong where Kong was chained on stage and was almost made fun of. Not that the geisha or the Japanese were made fun of here, but to have shown things about their culture in such a blatant manner that was easy to understand (unlike in Ring and other Japanese movies I've seen), somehow it feels like reading somebody's diary, which as we all know, one should never do. Even if it's just fiction, still, because the story was in such a context, it seems like an invasion of privacy.

This was obviously a Hollywood production (or a product of the Western world) on account of it had a "happy" and a most-people-(but not me)-could-predict ending. I was expecting it to be a lot sadder, or, to have some concepts/philosophies that I couldn't fully understand, or that would make me re-think some things about my life, but it didn't. It was just a love story. And while that in itself can sometimes be complex enough, in this case, it was not. Consolation is that it's at least not a bad love story. Though I wish that if they were going to explore the mysteries of geisha at all, they could've thought of a story more... well, more mysterious, have puzzling scenes that will make the audience think a little. I mean, I totally predicted that they would repeat the scene where she was running through the torii shrines as a kid. The symbolisms were that blatant.

I can't even compare it to genuine Japanese films because it's just too different. Maybe I'm biased again, but it just was too simple. Maybe that's also due to the fact that there weren't too many Japanese in the crew (I noticed as we watched the credits roll up).

Also, not having Zhang Ziyi nominated for an Oscar for this role is just ridiculous. I mean, they already exploited a culture, they should at least get awards for it, but nooo, they'd rather nominate someone with a simpler, more overused role. Hm, maybe they did make this movie to make fun of Japan/Asia after all. All of a sudden I'm feeling really resentful. I'm reminded of how in the time that China was being overtaken by the West, they invited the best Chinese fighters to compete with the champions of other countries, only to humiliate the Chinese and make obvious that their martial arts weren't good enough. Oh, but I'm not supposed to discuss Jet Li's Fearless until after another review. Whoops.