“The life of a true geisha is that of one very secretive” said my aunt Atasuko. “They do not talk about their life in the houses, but they are beautiful and very smart” she says. “They are well educated and only entertain men of high stature, such as prime ministers” (Chumbley). Memoirs of a Geisha is a movie produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Rob Marshall based on the novel which was written about a real life geisha. Although this movie had breath-taking scenes and amazing costumes, the inaccuracies were quite immense. Not only were the characters themselves wrong, but so were the costumes and the depiction of the becoming of a true geisha.
The first inaccuracy that was noted in this film was the characters. This film is about Japanese culture, and it is a little odd to cast three of the main characters as people of Chinese and Malaysian decent. The lead role of Sayuri was played by Zhang Ziyi who was born in Beijing, China. Hotsumomo was played by the actress known as Gong Li who was born in Shenyang, China. The third actress of non-Japanese decent in this movie was Michelle Yeoh. Michelle was born in Ipoh, Malaysia and played the role Mameha.
Another inaccuracy in this film was the costume design. The costumes were designed by Colleen Atwood. In 2005, Atwood won an Oscar Award for her costumes. The costumes in this movie range in design and are altered for each character in the movie. The alterations of the traditional kimonos include shape as well as color.
In a recent interview, Atwood explained why she decided to change the traditional kimono for this movie. Atwood states, “We wanted to see a shoulder, have the illusion of a waist and have a sense of breasts beneath the kimono. We are trying to honour [sic] ...
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...ime period. Also, the addition of selling ones virginity is a bad representation of geisha women and this movie should not be considered a good definition of a true geisha.
Works Cited
Chumbley, Atasuko. "True Geishas." Telephone interview. 14 Apr. 2011.
"The Costumers Guide to Movie Costumes." The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes. Maggie. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. .
Desilet, Gregory. "Memoirs of a Geisha: Melodrama or Tragic Drama?" Gregory Desilet Homepage Featuring Media Violence Studies. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. .
Gallagher, John. "The Birth of Geisha 1750-1820." Geisha: A Unique World of Tradition, Elegance, and Art. London: PRC, 2003. 115-16. Print.
Memoirs of a Geisha. Dir. Rob Marshall. Perf. Zhang Ziyi. Spyglass Entertainment, 2005. DVD.
During Japan’s hegemony over Korea, in expressing women’s desire for their emancipation and change in women’s status, women cut their hair into bobbed hair in a manner that hinted at a “subtle masculinity” with an air of sexual permissiveness, and raised skirts exposing their knees(Yoo, 74). Women strove to determine their “own ideals of beauty, sexuality, and identity and believed that only through a “subversive confusion of gender, could the notion of equality begin to take hold”(Yoo, 75). Throughout the film, instead of alternating the original look by cutting into short hair or raising up the skirt, like the “new women” in the 1920s, she most often dresses in men’s clothing, including dark coloured tops and trousers, since they were the most practical and comfortable to wear while working as a pilot, except when Park attends congratulations party event where she wears a bright red dress and the charity event. Not only in the 1920s, but also in the contemporary period, media rarely represent heroines dressed in men’s formal evening wear, such as a vest over a men blouse, while at a evening party. At the evening party where Park dances with Han ji hyeok, other women other than Park and Lee Jeong Heui are all wearing kimonos or western dresses.
Sometimes people are judged by their looks, and preferences will be made towards the more beautiful people before the less beautiful people. What individuals don’t put into account is that the person’s personality is part of their beauty. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel, The Samurai’s Garden, through the characterization of Sachi’s personality and adversities, Gail Tsukiyama conveys the message that beauty is deeper than just the outside and this message is important because one shouldn’t judge someone just by their looks.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Aurthor Golden and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison are two thought provoking books with a unique style of writing. Memoirs of a Geisha has a beautiful poetic grammar which captures readers imagination and brings the story to life. Morrison on the other hand uses combined voices to give varied perspectives with out resorting to authorial intrusion or preaching. Memoirs Of A Geisha and the bluest eye both contain graphic realism combined with a dramatic flair, which is the key as to why both of these books have been a great success.
Gatten, Aileen. "Review: Criticism and the Genji." The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese 22.1 (1988): 84. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
In the Western world, Butterfly represents a stereotype of the Oriental woman. The stereotype of an obedient, submissive, and domestic Asian woman appeals to Westerners through other media beside the opera; for example, the “mail-order bride trade” catalogues and TV spots. The story of the white devil Pinkerton and a sub-missive Asian girl Cio-Cio-San has become a cultural myth in Western world. In M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang parodies and deconstructs this myth. In his play, a French diplomat Rene Gallimard fantasizes that he is Pinkerton and his Chinese lover Song is his Butterfly. However, as Hwang says in the “Afterword” of the play, Gallimard “realizes that it is he who has been But...
Throughout the year hotels, convention centers, and other high capacity venues are transformed into a social haven and meeting ground for fellow Otakus and cosplay fans or cosplayers for short. The act of cosplay, the abbreviated form of “costume play”, is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga and anime”. However, there is much more to a cosplayer than this simple definition leads one to believe. To its most dedicated patrons, cosplay is an art form incorporating unlimited mediums, such as textile fabrication, woodworking, clay sculpting, resin casting, and even theatrical makeup. Some enthusiasts take cosplay far more seriously than a weekend social hobby. While some would be content with purchasing a commissioned piece or mass produced costume for their convention adventures others are not satisfied until they have handcrafted a masterpiece with 100% accuracy. These cosplayers will spend week or months and hundreds of dollars insure their costume is a perfect adaption of their selected character. Yet for some that is still not enough. There are those who will not be content until they have become the living embodiment of their chosen character. They become the method actors of cosplay, memorizing the characters personality, walk, quirks, and vocalics. Going even deeper into the realm of cosplay, there are still those who are so obsessed with becoming a character they will paint their skin, whether it be pink, grey, green, or any color in between. This is where a sensitive debate explodes. Coloring yourself grey or pink for your Marceline or Princess Bubblegum adventure time cosplays will ...
Therefore, G. Gotanda’s ‘The Sisters’ Matsumoto’ has been a great epitome of indescribable pain that can be shown as a play to people in America. The play itself has become a general narrative of Japanese people who had terrible experiences from the outbreak of internment. Especially, the play indirectly mentions people from the Issei generation as they are the people who are true victims of racial segregation from a democratic country. They are the victims of the tragic event created by the country that holds values highly on equality. Therefore, people should acknowledge their voices that had been lost as they had lost everything that they had worked for during the internment. And it was more painstaking for them as their children also had to suffer discrimination from their community. For example, Gotanda has used Togo Matsumoto, father of Grace Matsumoto, to show the voice of people of Issei generation. The author has not made Togo to appear in the play, but his presence to other characters is massive as they hold reminiscences of him even after his tragic death in the internment. Togo Matsumoto is a respectable man as he holds lots of wealth and properties, but like others from Issei generation, he has lost everything including his pride of being a successful businessman. It is tragic to see that a
Other research has devoted to unveiling the origins and the development of their stereotyping and put them among the historical contextual frameworks (e.g., Kawai, 2003, 2005; Prasso, 2005). Research has shown that those stereotypes are not all without merits. The China doll/geisha girl stereotype, to some degree, presents us with a romanticized woman who embodies many feminine characteristics that are/ were valued and praised. The evolving stereotype of the Asian martial arts mistress features women power, which might have the potentials to free women from the gendered binary of proper femininity and masculinity. Nevertheless, the Western media cultural industry adopts several gender and race policing strategies so as to preserve patriarchy and White supremacy, obscuring the Asian women and diminishing the positive associations those images can possibly imply. The following section critically analyzes two cases, The Memoirs of a Geisha and Nikita, that I consider to typify the stereotypical depictions of Asian women as either the submissive, feminine geisha girl or as a powerful yet threatening martial arts lady. I also seek to examine
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Saikaku, Ihara. Life of a Sensuous Woman. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 3rd Ed. Volume D. Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton, 2013. 591-611. Print.
In the novel Life of a Sensuous Woman, Ihara Saikaku depicts the journey of a woman who, due to voraciously indulging in the ever-seeking pleasure of the Ukiyo lifestyle, finds herself in an inexorable decline in social status and life fulfillment. Saikaku, utilizing characters, plot, and water imagery, transforms Life of a Sensuous Woman into a satirically critical commentary of the Ukiyo lifestyle: proposing that it creates a superficial, unequal, and hypocritical society.
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