Zhang Ziyi In Memoirs Of A Geisha

[mishahoi]

after reading all of this thread, i have come to the conclusion that i will not judge zhang zi yi's performance until i see her.

however, i am concerned about this reinforcing stereotypes that asia is just one big country all lumped together without much difference. take for instance, zi yi is not a fluent english speaker and i highly doubt a fluent japanese speaker either. so that chinese accent may be tagged on to all japanese in the end. you know how people try to be funny and say "i can speak japanese: '*********** wong'" and those syllables dont even exist in the japanese language, but may sound similar to chinese instead. they just dont know the difference. this certainly wont help. i still get people who ask me "how's china treating you?" and i have to politely remind them i'm in JAPAN and have never even BEEN to china. its just sad that holly wood cant see at all past this.

and i also have to support the fact that there are very disctinct differences between the peoples of asia. zi yi is most certainly NOT japanese looking. at all. but if she can convice me that she is in the end, then i will give her an applaud.

but then of course, is hollywood planning on releasing this movie in asia at all? the japanese will not be happy, and neither will many of the throngs of people in china either. oops for them.

 

[rouge]

So this movie is being made in English?
I love Zhang ZiYi as an actress, but personally I would have liked to see this movie made in Japanese, starring Japanese actresses.
I really enjoyed the book, so I am looking forward to seeing the movie either way.

 

[oceanharlot]

I don't think there would be a market for it rouge... The book isn't exactly correct in its interpretation to real Geisha life.

 

[ultramarine]

Originally posted by oceanharlot@Nov 25 2004, 10:36 PM
I don't think there would be a market for it rouge... The book isn't exactly correct in its interpretation to real Geisha life.

[snapback]440036[/snapback]​

Exactly!!!!
I strongly believe that ideal actress for this role should have been japanese .. and with this I am not saying that Zhang (how is it written?) isnt talented or beautiful or whatever .. I even think that her martial arts training may help for all those traditional dances!!!!
About the film ... Mr Golden's book has MANY misconceptions about the geisha world proven by the writer of "Geisha: A life" as well as Liza Dalby's book ... I think that a film that showcases a slightly (or much) slanted view of what a japanese geisha is .. well, its expected ... not much tolerated from my behalf, but sadly I'll end up watching the movie just to see evil Hatsumomo doing her stuff!
OMG! So good! I wish the "mizuage" part was obliged in the movie .... but I bet it will be there!
Oh, well!

 

[sassandviolet]

Ok, enough controversy, my goodness. My biggest irk about books being made into movies is that the characters never look like the characters on the cover of the books and whatnot. I think Zhang Ziyi looks ALOT like the girl on the cover of Golden's book, however understanding that Golden's representation of geishas is not accurate, that picture on the cover is probably not an accurate portrayal of a Japanese Geisha anyways. SO since this whole book is completely inaccurrate, and baring the similarities between Zhang and the character on the cover is much more alike than that of Koyuki or whatever, it should be fine since the whole book is based on inaccurracy. Maybe Hollywood was going for that ironic effect?
Anyways, I'm Chinese myself and nobody ever guesses that and they always think I'm mixed. So what? There may be certain distinctions but there are always those exceptions! Nobody can really be accurate of someone's ethnicity. What's the difference between a Thai person and a Laos? Please. Alot of people say that they can tell between Hispanic ethnicities too. Well my friend is full Mexican and people think she is Persian!

 

[tiffany]

Originally posted by sassandviolet@Dec 2 2004, 09:06 AM
Ok, enough controversy, my goodness. My biggest irk about books being made into movies is that the characters never look like the characters on the cover of the books and whatnot. I think Zhang Ziyi looks ALOT like the girl on the cover of Golden's book, however understanding that Golden's representation of geishas is not accurate, that picture on the cover is probably not an accurate portrayal of a Japanese Geisha anyways. SO since this whole book is completely inaccurrate, and baring the similarities between Zhang and the character on the cover is much more alike than that of Koyuki or whatever, it should be fine since the whole book is based on inaccurracy. Maybe Hollywood was going for that ironic effect?
Anyways, I'm Chinese myself and nobody ever guesses that and they always think I'm mixed. So what? There may be certain distinctions but there are always those exceptions! Nobody can really be accurate of someone's ethnicity. What's the difference between a Thai person and a Laos? Please. Alot of people say that they can tell between Hispanic ethnicities too. Well my friend is full Mexican and people think she is Persian!

[snapback]447382[/snapback]​

very good points

 

[sassandviolet]

Originally posted by tiffany@Dec 2 2004, 06:18 AM
very good points

[snapback]447389[/snapback]​

Oh, why thank you dear.

 

[vintage_princess]

I like her as an actress, and heres a pic of her from House of Flying Daggers. I love this film.

 

[vintage_princess]

Sorry is not working...

 

[rouge]

vintage_princess: I loved House of Flying Daggers too!!

 

[vintage_princess]

Originally posted by rouge@Dec 8 2004, 06:28 PM
vintage_princess: I loved House of Flying Daggers too!!

[snapback]457021[/snapback]​

Me too...the first few scenes are really beautiful. Love the setting of the film

 

[meowmix]

Chicago director Rob Marshall is finding filming on his latest movie Memoirs of a Geisha complicated, because his cast all speak different languages. Sony Studios refused to cast non-Asian actresses in the big screen adaptation of Arthur Golden's best-selling book about the life of a Japanese geisha, and boasts Chinese Ziyi Zhang and Li Gong, Malaysian Michelle Yeoh and Japanese Cary-hiroyuki Tagawa and Ken Watanabe amongst its stars. An insider on the Japanese set tells American gossip site Pagesix.com, "They hired a 'Pan-Asian' cast. So now they have Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other Asian actors and they have had to hire a load of interpreters, especially since there are like 15 Chinese dialects. It is costing a lot of time to do anything." Producer Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick adds, "We have a Chinese and Japanese interpreter. The movie may or may not be a day over schedule, but we are brilliantly on time for an epic and on budget."
from imdb.com

 

[purplelucrezia]

So maybe you guys were rather in the right then...

 

[rosada]

Personally, I perfer the quality of an actress to their ethnicity.

 

[Tinuviel]

I'm disappointed that they cast Ziyi as Sayuri. I've read many articles that call her bitchy, demanding and one that describes how she terrorizes her assistant. But I'm still gonna watch the movie when it comes out.

 

[cocomonkey4]

i have also heard that she was quite the beeyatch and very fake. also a big thing with sayuri was her grey eyes which pretty much saved her life in a way but from thep ics i see, ziyi has isn't wearing grey contacts.

 

[cutelilgreenbug]

So this movie is being made in English?
I love Zhang ZiYi as an actress, but personally I would have liked to see this movie made in Japanese, starring Japanese actresses.
I really enjoyed the book, so I am looking forward to seeing the movie either way.

I agree about the language thing. I really enjoyed Arthur Golden's book (educational/accurate or not) and I do understand that he put a lot of effort to study and understand this very specific part of Japanese culture. As a film adaptation of his book, I feel like the producers do owe Golden some respect in portraying the movie as he protrayed the book (an exclusively Japanese setting with Japanese characters, etc.) I'm sure Golden learned A LOT about the geisha lifestyle and the producers should make an effort to stay as close as they can to it.

The one thing I liked about "The Last Samurai" was that a good deal of it was in Japanese. While other parts of the movie are comically/ridiculously off, I liked that they weren't going to convince us that samurai villages speak English.

When I first heard that Ziyi would be playing the lead, I guess I was disappointed because I knew there was no way the movie would be in Japanese (or even the Kyoto dialect that the geisha speak!), and I do think that takes away from the authentic feel of the movie. I understand this is Hollywood and all, but I don't think it's unfair of them to try to be as accurate as possible (especially when tackling a project like this). James Cameron used a 17 million gallon tank of water to recreate the Titanic disaster, as well as do a ridiculous amount of other research for the movie.

I'm half Japanese so I am biased about this topic. I remember having a long discussion with my mom about it (and getting kind of mad haha), but I also agree with the posters who have said that they can just wait until the movie comes out and go from there.

- midori

 

[vintage_princess]

Im quite sick of Ziyi now to be honest, I've seen a few films where shes in them and I dont think her acting is that great in my opinion.

 

[Dior]

I live in China
and every time i go out i can easily see her wearing very hot red underwear in a huge post upon the supermarket

 

[fujiema]

lucy liu is chinese but she portrayed japanese girl in Kill Bill.
from the make up to the hair done, i almost forgot her original nationality is.