Life as a geisha

No no no...that's not my part time job here! My job pays me well enough. :) Besides, I doubt I can ever make it as a geisha. :0

Just came back from watching "Memoirs of a Geisha", called Sayuri in Japan. Although I've been studying the Japanese language and culture for some time, the world of geisha has never really caught my attention. Maybe because I'm not a man. haha. But the movie has piqued my interest. It was really weird sitting with a Japanese audience, watching Chinese actressess acting as geisha in English and some unnatural Japanese. I felt very uncomfortable that the movie was done in English, and once in a while the actors would speak in Japanese. It was just very unnatural. Maybe because I'm watching it in Japan. I couldn't help but be curious at what the Japanese thought about the movie. Did they like it? One Japanese girl besides me was sleeping at some parts of the movie.

Gong Li was fantastic in Sayuri. Her role as a bitter, jealous and tragic geisha was played to perfection. And Zhang Zhiyi is like always, really really pretty. How true is Hollywood's depiction of the geisha? I'm a little doubtful. Do the Japanese think the movie potrays a true reality? Perhaps they don't even know. Perhaps only a geisha would know. And would Japanese actresses have been better in those roles?

I wasn't really sure if geisha were really prostitutes hiding behind the glamourous title of artistes. How can a job that's all about entertaining men and making men happy not be involved with sex? I found it hard to believe that geisha only sold their art, not their bodies. The movie showed that they do, under a mask of secrecy and deceit. What was the social status of the geisha in Japanese society? What are the many stories lying behind each restrained and graceful geisha? As Sayuri (Zhang Zhiyi) said, "My world is as forbidden as it is fragile; without its mysteries, it cannot survive."