Synopsis
Memoirs of a Geisha is about a young girl from the countryside of Japan, named Chiyo. Her father sells her and her older sister to man who takes them to an okiya house. Chiyo is accepted into the okiya, a place where geisha live, while her older sister is denied and is later found out to have been sold to a whorehouse, when no okiya would take her to become a geisha. Chiyo starts out as a maid working while beginning her training to become a maiko. She meets Hatsumomo, a beautiful and mean-spirited geisha, who tells her that her sister had come to see her a few weeks before. Chiyo begs Hatsumomo to tell her where her sister is, and Hatsumomo tells her that her sister is living in a whorehouse. Chiyo leaves to try and find her sister and when she does, her sister tells her to meet her the next day to run away together. She attempts to run away, but is caught and is told she will never become a geisha and will, instead, work as a maid to repay her debts to the okiya. One day, while she meets a man who tells her to not be sad and buys her some flavored ice, she falls in love with him instantly and vows to become a geisha so that she can meet him again. A famous geisha named Mameha comes to Chiyo’s okiya to ask the head of the house hold if she can train Chiyo to become a geisha, though reluctant at first, the head of the okiya does give in to Mameha’s request. Chiyo and Mameha begin to work on training and have very little time to get Chiyo up to the same pace as other girls her age. Chiyo receives a new name upon becoming a maiko, and is now know as Sayuri. Hatsumomo who is incredibly jealous of Sayuri begins to try and sabotage her, spreading rumors and stealing away her customers. Throughout all of this Sayuri is still searching for the man who she fell in love with, and she meets him at a sumo match. Sayuri becomes a great geisha and Hatsumomo, so jealous begins a fight with her and sets fire to the okiya, which leads to her getting thrown out of the okiya. The war begins to affect the lives of the geisha, and Sayuri is sent to live with some Kimono makers who keep her safe during the war. She works there for three years, when Nobu, the business partner of the man Sayuri is in love with comes to her and asks her to help him. He and his business partner need an American permit to begin to build up their factories again, they had showed a picture of Sayuri to a man who could help them attain such a permit and he had wanted to meet her. Nobu is also in love with Sayuri and wishes to become her danna, and becomes very angry when he believes that Sayuri was willing to sleep with the general who could help them attain a business permit. Sayuri doesn’t want Nobu to become her danna, as he is the business partner to the man she loves and business partners never go after the same geisha. She creates a plan and invites the general over late at night and has her friend Pumpkin bring Nobu over to where they are in an attempt to make him hate her. But instead of bringing Nobu, Pumpkin brings the chairman, because she had held a grudge against Sayuri. When the chairman sees Sayuri sleeping with the general, he tells Nobu, who does start to hate her, but the chairman doesn’t hate Sayuri and he becomes her danna.
Historical inaccuracies
One of the main inaccuracies in the movie is the way the geisha wear their hair. In the movie many of the geisha would go out in town with their hair down, which a real geisha would never do. Also geisha would wear wigs much of the time, which the geisha in the movie are never seen in.
Historical accuracies
There were however many accurate parts to this movie, for example the difference in the way the maiko and the geisha dress. The maiko were shown wearing different length obis, more colorful kimonos, and red collars, while the geisha had shorter obis, more serene kimonos, and white collars.
About the movie
I loved the acting in this movie and how beautiful all of the scenes were. For example all of the dancing scenes were incredibly beautiful and artistic. I didn’t like the fact that geisha
were expected to never fall in love and to be happy just entertaining men, also
I disliked many of the characters like Hatsumomo and the baron for the way that
the treated Sayuri. I would recommend this movie to
anyone who is interested in Japan.