Battleangel

Even though I personally haven’t had time to see it, I’ve had my doubts about “Memoirs Of A Geisha” for as long as it has been in the making. It goes without saying that the odds did not favour Hollywood appreciating the finer cultural qualities of the theme. “Memoirs Of A Geisha” is just such a catastrophic failure in every way imaginable that one is required to speak up against it. In this case it goes far beyond just bungling up a movie opportunity and I would go so far to say that it is the white man’s burden of cultural Hollywood nuances. And even if it was beyond a doubt satire, it would still be damaging.

Like Metacritic summed it up: “If you’ve ever wanted to see Chinese actors playing Japanese characters while speaking English, now’s your chance.”

Asia Pacific Arts UCLA (Chi Tung) - Geishas Gone Wild - There are few things worse than seeing your favorite Asian men and women be subjected to the drone of the Hollywood factory. Actually, there are at least ten. APA counts down the reasons why Memoirs of a Geisha is such an abysmal failure.

Kyoto Journal (Jean Miyake Downey) - American friends keep asking me what I think of the film, “Memoirs of a Geisha.” I don’t bring up “Orientalism” because that would take up too much time.

Instead, I tell them, “Its title should have been ‘Hollywood’s Mutated Memoirs of the Fantasies of a Middle-aged American Guy Pretending He’s a Geisha.’ There’s a character in the story modeled on the Dr. Fu Manchu stereotype of the sinister Asian male, and the author was sued by the geisha he interviewed for twisting the facts to suit his imagination. The book actually reveals more about the psyche of Arthur Golden and the film reflects more about Hollywood than either do about geisha in Japan. During a time when international understanding is more important than ever; when women and people of color are struggling against right-wing backlash; and marginalized women and children, of all colors, are being commoditized for an exploding global sexual trafficking industry, with their lives traumatized and even destroyed, I feel very annoyed when I think about this Hollywood translation of ‘Pretty Woman’ into a ‘Geisha’”.

Who will appreciate this the most? Americans who think they are somehow treated to delicate insights into Japanese culture whereas they are in reality viewing themselves.