Susan Hated Literature

Dir: Clint Eastwood
Writ: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis, based on the book Picture Letters from Commander in Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Tsuyoko Yoshido

• Ken Watanabe - General Tadamichi Kuribayashi
• Kazunari Ninomiya - Saigo
• Tsuyoshi Ihara - Baron Nishi
• Ryo Kase - Shimizu
• Shido Nakamura - Lieutenant Ito
• Hiroshi Watanabe - Lieutenant Fujita
• Takumi Bando - Captain Tanida

I’m not sure what I was really expecting from this film; but I know I didn’t get it. The companion film to Eastwood’s Flag’s of our Fathers, this tells the story of the battle for Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective. The story begins with the arrival of Kuribayashi who is taking command of the island’s defences, sometimes without the support of his officers. He does however seem to be well liked by the “ordinary” soldiers, as he stops the endless digging of the beach defences, and instead concentrates on higher up in the island.

Told through a number of different points of views, and with flashbacks, this isn’t as confusing time-wise as I found Flags of our Fathers. However, it still isn’t a great film. If I had to, I’d label it as a worthy film, but not really one that works as a film. Still, it deserved to be made, and the story is one that should be told, so the film makers deserve credit for that. It is simply that as a whole I didn’t care one way or the other about the characters, and never felt myself drawn into their story.

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Tags: 5 Stars, based on book, Clink Eastwood, Hiroshi Watanabe, historical fiction, Iris Yamashita, Japan - wwii, Japanese, Kazunari Ninomiya, Ken Watanabe, Letter from Iwo Jima, Paul Haggis, Picture Letter from Commander in Chief, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, soldier, subtitled, Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Takumi Bando, Tsuyoko Yoshido, Tsuyoshi Ihara, USA - wwii, War, worthy film, WWII

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• Ziyi Zhang …. Sayuri
• Youki Kudoh …. Pumpkin
• Li Gong …. Hatsumomo
• Ken Watanabe …. Chairman
• Kôji Yakusho …. Nobu
• Michelle Yeoh …. Mameha

In short, this is a film that is pretty to look at, but boring to watch.

Okay, I’ll say a bit more about it:
Based on the novel by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha has been somewhat controversial. Some people complained about casting Chinese actors in the roles of Japanese women. And recently China banned it because, well I suppose because of their historical issues with Japan.
The film opens with two young sisters being sold by their father, one of whom is our heroine. I’m going to call her Sayuri, although she only gets this name later in the film. Sayuri ends up in a geisha house, and is mistreated by the head geisha, Hatsumomo, because of the possibility that she will grow up to be a rival to Hatsumomo.

Too much of the film is spent in her childhood. There is no tension in this entire period. We can’t hope that she escapes from the house because we know that she doesn’t. the film is called Memoirs of a Geisha afterall, not Memoirs of a someone who once spent some time in training to be a geisha.

But eventually Sayuri grows up, and is taken under Mameha’s wing. Mameha is Hatsumomo’s rival, and there is much bitching and snide comments between the two, and also between Hatsumomo and Sayuri, as Sayuri attempts to learn how to be geisha. But the comments are never quite bitchy enough, they don’t make an impact, although we do get the impression that Hatsumomo wishes looks really could kill.

One of the big problems I had with the film is that you just don’t care. You aren’t really invited into the world of the geisha’s, you are simply a distant onlooker. We never really know what a geisha is, apart from a skillful entertainer, and an artist.

There is quite a big deal made about the fact that being a geisha is not to be a prostitute. Yet they sell off their virginity. Getting money for sex means prostitution, doesn’t matter how classy you pretend to be.

And the whole romance thing with The Chairman was utterly boring to me. I mean, were we really supposed to believe that she fell in love with him when she was nine, and her feelings never altered? Then again I suppose it was meant to show her determination. Sayuri was so taken with his little act of kindness that she built him up and made him the goal of her future.

But all in all the film is too long, too distant, and this may be petty, but the accents annoyed me. I’d much prefered to have watched it subtitled in Japanese, although they probably would have had a problem with the cast not speaking the language then.

IMDb | Official Site | Confessions of a Movie Critic | Shanghai Birch | Entertain your Brain | Casadecasa

Tags: 5 Stars, Arthur Golden, based on book, Bored Now!, historical fiction, Japan, Kôji Yakusho, Ken Watanabe, Li Gong, looks pretty, Memoirs of a Geisha, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, Ziyi Zhang

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