January 31, 2006
Memoirs of a Geisha was a good book, but a terrible movie. It was aesthetically pleasing, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about it.
My main complaints:
- Everyone had a different ‘Japanese’ accent.
- The narrative, instead of staying true to the book, tried to sound too oriental.
- Sayuri’s eyes were too blue in some scenes, which made her look fake.
- Nobu was hardly disfigured in the movie.
- Yo-yo-ma — his cello playing always invokes a picture of a little cricket playing the world’s smallest violin. I don’t know if I would consider it a good thing.
I think I would have liked the movie better if I hadn’t read the book right before watching it.
they ALWAYS screw up book adaptations… i cannot think of a movie i saw that was good at justifying the book.
i hope they dont make movies about kings Dark tower (although, i must say, the movies that were done after kings books are pretty decent.. mostly cos he had part in the screenplay .. havent seen the new salems lot though)
anyway.. they butchered up tolkien, but i’d like to see a Mars trilogy (after the books by kim stanley robinson.)
if you like sci-fi with a good story, you should check it out.
Don’t be hatin’ on Yo Yo Ma, now!
Some books just won’t make good movies. Look at the attempts to put Dune on screen. The book is way too complex for the fast pace of a movie. The Dark Tower series is not too complex, but the backward and forward jumps in time would be a challenge. I don’t think they butchered Tolkien’s work too badly. Except with the orcs crawling out of the ceiling. That was too stupid. At least there wasn’t a big Eewok party at the end or a Mardi Gras parade with Jar Jar as Grand Marshal.
yea… that’s true, but still. i cringe at most of the alterations they did…