Ok, let me start by saying I'm not a big fan of Movies based from books. Often too many times the main essence of the story gets lost. With that said I read the book before actually watching the movie, which was an awesome read by the way, and of course you can't expect everything that was written to be in the movie. I think this director and the writers did a superb job in integrating the story with enough detail and symbolic meaning that made sense in the movie and to the people who've read the book.
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The Amazing Cast
Gong Li as the devilish Hatsumomo
Michelle Yeoh as Mameha
Ken Watanabe as The Chairman
Koji Yakusho as Nobu
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This story deals with the harsh reality of the life of a geisha in the 1930's. A girl (Chiyo) from a poverty stricken family near a poor fishing village, with ailing parents sell her and her older sister to a Geisha house. When she arrives she's chosen because of her uncommon blue eyes and her age, her sister on the other hand is sold to the Pleasure district. Chiyo is then given chores and starts her geisha training school, while dealing with the antagonism of the head geisha of the house, Hatsumomo. One night Hatsumomo uses Chiyo as a scape goat, forcing her to ruin a kimono that belongs to a very revered geisha named Mameha. Other strings of unfortunate events take that opportunity to become a geisha away from her. Chiyo is now forced to live her life as a servant to repay her debt to the geisha house. One day by a twist of fate she meets a kind stranger who buys her sweet ice and she prays to the god to let her become a geisha, to meet that kind stranger again. Years pass and one day a strange visitor comes to the house. In walks Mameha(Michelle Yeoh) to offer to take Chiyo under her wing as her protege and to pay off her debt to the house and for her training, and so the slow transition of clumsy little Chiyo to elegant geisha Sayuri ( given name by Mameha) begins. At a chance meeting at a Sumo event she sees the kind stranger The Chairman and his business partner Nobu. She trys to steal the opportunity to catch the attention of the Chairman, but is forced to be company to Nobu instead. Nobu never had a fondness for geisha, but she possessed a wit about her that causes him develop a liking to her. Nobu the decides he wants her to keep him as one of her primary clients. The Chairman seeing this, cannot take the one thing Nobu is beginning to cherish away. The Chairman owes a great debt to Nobu, even though he was the one who insisted upon Mameha taking Sayuri in. One night out of jealous rage and the discovery of Sayuri's feelings for the Chair man, Hatsumomo and Sayuri begin to fight. It results in a violent outburst from Hatsumomo that catches the geisha house on fire, after which Hatsumomo is cast out from the house and her life as a geisha. Later the war comes and changes the foundation of the geisha tradition and way of life. Everyone, Sayuri included, are scattered throughout the region until the worst of the war is over. Upon her return she has new struggles to deal with Americans and attempting to lose the love of Nobu, after which times goes by and her real destiny begins. Sayuri rises above her own circumstances from her humble beginnings into one of the most famous geisha in her era.
It's a heart breaking and endearing story I would rate it a 9 out of 10.
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