Memoirs Of An Oiran

[Mulboyne]

Japan Times: Mark Schilling Review of "Sakuran"
How did "Memoirs of a Geisha" get it so drearily wrong -- and Mika Ninagawa's new film, "Sakuran," get it so gloriously right? Experts on geisha culture, as well as geisha themselves, slammed Rob Marshall's film for its inaccuracies in everything from obi patterns to Zhang Ziyi's glitzy solo dance...my main objection to the film was its phony exoticism, echoing the Hollywood films of the 1950s set in the "mysterious East," but with less of an excuse...Ninagawa, takes as her subject not the done-to-death geisha, but the Edo-era prostitutes of Yoshiwara...[She] dresses her actresses and decorates her sets in a theatrical riot of color, with a cheeky indifference to period fidelity...Did the whores, even the elite oiran, wear such fabulously glam kimonos every working night? I suspect the answer is a big, thundering "no" -- but I didn't mind the visual overload...Ninagawa sees her oiran as, not hapless victims of a cruel patriarchy or idealized figments of male erotic imaginations, but young women alive and whole, with desires, dreams and tastes immediately recognizable to their 21st Century peers...more...

[Captain Japan]

Feminine mystique
Japan Times
By MARK SCHILLING
Special to The Japan Times
Bicultural superstar Anna Tsuchiya on her role in Mika Ninagawa's acclaimed debut film 'Sakuran'

Born in 1984 to a Japanese mother and a Russian-American father, a professional model since the age of 14 and now an actress and singer with a string of hit films and CDs, Anna Tsuchiya has one of the hottest careers in the Japanese entertainment business.

Q: "Sakuran" is a new departure for you -- your first period drama.

A: Well, "Kamikaze Girls" had a feeling of speed and was an interesting film that made you laugh and cry. This film is completely different -- slower-paced. The real world of the oiran [high-class prostitutes] had a lot about it that was dirty, but [the film] makes it look beautiful, so in that way it betrays expectations. But for modern Japanese the way the film views the past will be interesting. In the old days there were no kimono or colors [like the ones in the film] -- Ninagawa made it all up. When Ninagawa and I talked about the movie we decided that we had to destroy the image of old Japan that people had. We wanted to make something different. . . . the wigs they used were not as big. At the same time, we tried to make the movements and the dialogue as close as possible to the real thing....more...

[Mulboyne]

Looks like I wasn't very original with this thread title.

LA Times: Memoirs of an oiran

Sakuran succeeds in Japan, where the American-made Geisha failed

Whether it was a reaction to the casting of Chinese actresses as Japanese geishas or its Westernized romance, American director Rob Marshall's big-budget Memoirs of a Geisha was a memorable disappointment in Japan. A Japanese riposte comes with Sakuran, the first film from Mika Ninagawa, who is already well-known here for her photography. Centered on the lives of the oiran, elite prostitutes working in official red-light districts of the Edo era, Sakuran has been a surprise hit with Japan's young women. Ninagawa took her story from a 1990s manga and, on a budget of just $2.5 million, turned it into a mash-up of flamboyant colors, exuberant music and over-the-top fashion. She also banished sentimentality. Marshall's geishas might have seemed catty, but they dreamed of a good man taking them away. Sakuran revolves around the trials of Kiyoha, whose mastery of the profession makes her the reigning oiran superstar. She's played with rock-star attitude by Japanese rocker Anna Tsuchiya. But Ninagawa's prostitutes want only to escape. And they don't see any rescuing angels among the violent and morally weak men around them.

Ninagawa discussed why Sakuran has struck a chord with Japanese audiences...

...Q: Why do you think Sakuran has succeeded where Memoirs of a Geisha is believed to have misfired?

A: (Memoirs) was a very orthodox story: Patience, patience, patience, and good things will happen in the end. It's a bit like a Disney movie. ... But Sayuri's character was too old-fashioned. She was too patient. She wept just because someone untied the belt on her kimono. Americans have a fantasy that Japanese women should behave patiently and quietly. But everybody told me I should see (Memoirs) because I was making Sakuran.

Q: To see it as an example of something to follow or something to avoid?

A: To avoid. But it must be really hard for a foreigner to make a Japanese movie....more...

[Mike Oxlong]

[Mulboyne]

[IparryU]

Some striking pictures there. I didn't recognize Chiaki Kuriyama in either of these at first:

me no likes... top one remind me of some disney movie... cant point my finger on it though.

bottom one... like the art piece on Dr. Pepper cans... should go on DP can.