HK actress for "Memoirs of a Geisha"?

[Mulboyne]

[GomiGirl]

Oh dear, I can just see the criticisms in the media here about not using a Japanese actress for the role...

[Taro Toporific]

Oh dear, I can just see the criticisms in the media here about not using a Japanese actress for the role...

Hey just as long as it isn't Lucy Liu, the Japanese ought to be happy.


Since the movie is in English, I would prefer Michelle Yeoh over a Japanese bimbo screwing up all the lines.

Hmmmm, come FGs.....WHAT JAPANESE WOULD YOU CAST?

My friends Natori Yuko and Takahashi Reiko both speak English well. They have done slasher geisha flicks before and I'll split the casting finders fee with you, hee, hee.

[mercutio]

Since the movie is in English, I would prefer Michelle Yeoh...

Actually Michelle Yeoh is an excellent choice given that the movie will be in English. She's a great actress and actually has name recognition in the world of english speaking films. Far more so than any Japanese actress I can think of... and I think she has the poise and maturity it would take to really do the part justice.

[Taro Toporific]

[Steve Bildermann]

Chisato has read for the part here and was called back to read again in LA.

[djgizmoe]

What, no David Carradine?!?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00013F38K/qid=1092977292/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-7319736-6456942?v=glance&s=dvd

"Chinese, Japanese, whatever. Just make sure they got slantie-eyes, use chopsticks and can speak English better than Jackie Chan." - Rob Marshall (famed director of Chicago!). Just kidding there, folks.

Hey, wait a minute! Why NOT Jackie? He's been in drag before in several of his movies...

[Taro Toporific]

[Taro Toporific]

Quoted in full because the source link died.

04.12.11.6:21: LANGUAGES OF A GEISHA

From WENN (this story will disappear soon):

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 [Mainland] Chinese Ziyi Zhang and Li Gong, Malaysian Michelle Yeoh and Japanese Cary-hiroyuki (sic; should be Hiroyuki) Tagawa [actually a US Army brat with a Japanese mother] 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

[fatslug]

[Mulboyne]

IHT: The difficult birth of a 'Geisha'
If the coming story in film is globalization, "Memoirs of a Geisha," set for a December release by Sony Pictures, may one day be seen as a movie at the tipping point. Based on an American novel about a hidden aspect of Japanese life, it relies on three stars of Chinese cinema. The San Francisco Bay doubled for the Sea of Japan, while Ventura in Southern California housed an entire Japanese town for the shoot last autumn, and the Yamashiro Restaurant in Hollywood served as a Kyoto teahouse.
...Perhaps the greatest oddity in Marshall's enterprise is that his lead geishas are played by Chinese actresses: Ziyi Zhang ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), Gong Li ("Farewell My Concubine") and Michelle Yeoh ("Tomorrow Never Dies"). "There were no female Japanese actors of the right age remotely comparable with Zhang or Gong whose English was good enough," Fisher said. "Some wouldn't even audition." Marshall, a former Broadway choreographer, was particularly taken with Zhang's background as a dancer. "I saw a lot of Japanese actors who would have had a harder time than Ziyi training to be a geisha: singing, tea service, conversation and dance."

[gkanai]

I have a bunch of thoughts on this topic on my weblog.

[Mulboyne]

Some publicity shots are making their way to the web

[Buraku]

[Mulboyne]

For some reason, this story is entitled "Stars clash on 'Memoirs of a Geisha'"

MusicFromThe Movies:

John Williams is currently finishing the score for Rob Marshall's epic Memoirs of a Geisha. According to a report at the recently launched Film Music Radio, the score will feature both cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. Both of them are among the finest players in the world and have worked with Williams on several occasions before: Yo-Yo Ma was the soloist on Seven Years in Tibet and Perlman on Schindler's List, and they have also been featured on other Williams' CD recordings. In an interview with the Internation Musician, Williams also reveals that Memoirs of a Geisha will be a score on "a smaller, more intimate scale, a kind of concerto grosso for an assortment of solo instruments with string accompaniment." The score will also feature extensive solo parts for the Japanese string instrument koto.

Xinhua: Test screening of Memoirs of a Geisha held in US

A test screening of Memoirs of a Geisha was held on Thursday in Pasadena, CA. A few who attended said that the audience mostly liked the film and had positive comments afterwards. The film's atmosphere was praised but the character development was said to be shallow. The test screening was labeled a "work in progress" so there will likely be changes before the final release.

Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li

CRIOnline: Zhang Ziyi Eyes Best Actress Oscar

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, heroine in film "Memoirs of a Geisha" is eyeing 2006 Oscar for Best Actress, while Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li are in with a shout for Best Supporting Actress...No Chinese has won the Oscar for Best Actor or Actress except Wu Han, who won Best Supporting Actor in 1984.

"Wu Han" being Cambodian Haing S. Ngor who won for "The Killing Fields".

[Mulboyne]

Trailer!

http://www.movies.co.jp/sayuri/

WMP only. Some quicktime links have popped up but appear to be down...

[Tsuru]

Trailer!

http://www.movies.co.jp/sayuri/

WMP only. Some quicktime links have popped up but appear to be down...

Pretty pictures!

[gkanai]

Hrm.

I'm def. going to go see it but I'm still skeptical.

[Mulboyne]

[Taro Toporific]

Fresh Memoirs of a Geisha beauty line

Gee, I wonder if they will use Geisha cosmetics like lead-based white face paint and uguisu no fun (&#12358]


Actually...
[url=http://www.michelleyeoh.info/Movie/memoirsofageisha.html]Reports say: "the makeup that the actresses were in was western-style with a touch of the Geisha look. It wasn't the full-on white face makeup. "

[Tsuru]

Bit of a shame they watered down the geisha appearance for the movie... not that I find a white face terribly attractive, but just who are they kidding?

[tidbits]

maggie cheung speaks perfect english (coming from HK) whereas the taiwainese yeoh dont speak shit.

Just a small correction from me:
Yeoh is from Malaysia, studied in UK and speaks perfect English.

[Mulboyne]

HollywoodElsewhere:

09/11/2005 6:06 AM
There's apparently some concern at Sony/Columbia about Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha (Columbia, 12.9), a pricey period drama and a presumed Oscar contender (in the costume and production design categories, at least). The story is about how a young girl (Zhang Ziyi) "transcends" her fishing-village roots and becomes one of Japan's most celebrated geishas. Research has apparently indicated that the exotic story elements (the film is set in Japan in the 1930s and '40s) aren't being understood and/or absorbed as clearly as Sony would like, so Cold Mountain director Anthony Minghella has been brought in to write some voice-over narration. Adding narration to a film isn't an absolute guarantee that the movie isn't telling its story well enough on its own terms, but let's face it -- it usually means trouble. Then again, it could mean that the test audiences who've seen it are perhaps a tad too provincial and could use a bit more schoolin' about other cultures. I have to be honest and say I've never been very hot about seeing this film. I could go on and on, but tracking the intrigues of a Japanese hottie who makes her way up the ladder by providing sexual excitement for rich guys...I don't know.

[Mulboyne]

Variety.com: 'Geisha' translated for Japan
For decades, a pic's international marketing followed the cues of the all-important domestic launch. But the Japanese campaign for "Memoirs of a Geisha" is more lavish -- and on a much faster track -- than the U.S. version. A three-minute trailer for the film has been playing in Japanese theaters since August. The U.S. trailer, which bows this month, is shorter, relying more on allusions to Arthur Golden's bestselling novel (which was less of a hit in Asia). The U.S. trailer is also more keyed up, with almost an action-movie vibe, and it features fewer lingering shots of Japanese actors Ken Watanabe and Kogi Yakusho...Buena Vista Int. is releasing the film in Japan. In a gesture that's part strategic, part cultural, Buena Vista teamed for the first time ever with Japanese distribdistrib Shochiku on the release. "Memoirs of a Geisha" unspools Dec. 9 and 10 in the U.S. and Japan, respectively. Yet as far back as last January, a huge press junket for the pic was held in Tokyo.
...There are a few reasons behind this aggressive -- and geographically specific -- marketing push, not least of all the fact that "Memoirs of a Geisha" is an innately Japanese story. "Because of the storyline, Japan is obviously a critical market for us," says Spyglass co-chairman Gary BarberGary Barber. The fact that Japan is by far the biggest film market in Asia adds to the impetus to target the territory with care. (Warner Bros. also went out of its way to woo Japan when it released "The Last Samurai""The Last Samurai" -- a move that paid off at the Japanese box office.) However, the strategy to pull out all stops in Japan is not merely a flood-the-zone marketing tactic. There's preemptive thinking at work as well -- namely to curb, and hopefully eliminate, criticism that the pic has received for its ethnically inaccurate casting.

[MrUltimateGaijin]

well at least the FG here arent bursting in cyber tears like the loser japanophiles at Japantoday.

[GomiGirl]

I was at the movies last night and saw the trailer for "Sayuri" which looks great. But they have put blue contacts on her - in the book she has grey eyes. I still want to see it though.

Oh that and the "Lion the witch and the wardrobe" adaptation. What is the English name for it?

[cstaylor]

Oh that and the "Lion the witch and the wardrobe" adaptation. What is the English name for it?

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

[Mulboyne]

Oh that and the "Lion the witch and the wardrobe" adaptation. What is the English name for it?

The clue is in the question...The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

[GomiGirl]

[Taro Toporific]

Oh that and the "Lion the witch and the wardrobe" adaptation.

Gee wiz, everybody knows that the Focus on the Family Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe adaptionis the definitive version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia