Let's be realistic.

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's suh an amazing movie! But as it was discussed before, it's not accurate..unfortunately. The movie is based on a book and the writer of the book (based on the interview with Mineko Iwasaki) misunderstood the whole thing. Geishas are represented literally like whores (which is not true). And then people think of geishas like that. That is the problem. But if we put that aside, the movie is still beautiful and one of my favorites!

As a Chinese, I don't know anyting about Geisha, maybe there's plenty of mistakes in this film, but I appreciate it all the same.For me, film is film, it's not a textbook, I don't care those things.In 2005,when I just graduated from my university,I don't undersand why Zhang ZIyi and other two actress join this film, I hate Japanese that time,now, I can see things more rationally. d

This movie is a dive into the world of Japanese Geishas. Its a misunderstood profession, full of mysteries even today. However, the film makes everything wonderfully enjoyable, emotional, so intense and engaging that I almost didn't feel the two and a half hours the movie takes. The story begins when young Chyio is sold by her parents to a geisha house. At once, it shows the drama of the separation, and we almost feel the child's excruciating pain in the incessant search for her sister, who quickly becomes the last family she feels she has. Then it will end, as Chyio takes his only remaining path of life: the life in the geisha house, ​​learning their profession by initiative of a mature geisha, who takes her as an apprentice. Other strong themes of the plot are the envy, rivalry between geishas and the difficulty they have to keep a romantic life since they're expected to be single and not behave like prostitutes. In any case, the plot captivates our attention and Chyio, later Sayuri, becomes a character the audience is able to empathize with.Despite having a good Eastern cast, mostly female, the highlight goes to Ken Watanabe, Ziyi Zhang, Suzuka Ohgo and Li Gong. Watanabe is virtually the only sounding name for western audiences, as he has a solid career in Hollywood, but the three female actresses I mentioned have brightened more than he did, as their characters have more presence and prominence than his Administrator. Li Gong is truly hateful as a villain, while the two actresses are the children's/adult version of Chyio/Sayuri. Cinematography, costumes, make-up and art direction are also brilliant and deserves to be congratulated. The film is visually magnificent, and the audience truly understands the effort made to make it realistic and believable. Mistakes or problems? In my opinion, perhaps just the difficult of reconciling English dialogue with specific Japanese terms. If they're terms without strict translation to English this is perfectly understandable. Anyway, since I watched the film with subtitles for European Portuguese, this linguistic issue didn't represent a problem for me, although I admit that English-speaking audiences may feel some difficulty with Japanese terms they don't know.

It is very well acted first of all and looks beautiful . This is a great story about the life of an orphaned girl sold by her dying parents to the sex trade. Then brought up to become a geisha.It is a very moving story and is very much a chick flick but it is far from boring and unsatisfying.If you do not like chick flicks then I would not suggest this to you but I do not like chick flicks usually and I love it still. If you manage fall asleep watching this film then you should just stick to watching explosions.But if you like movies with great acting and a compelling story then you will likely love this movie.