Memoires of Another Kind

In terms of the new film Memoirs of a Geisha, let's get all of the biases out of the way from the get-go: I have never read the book upon which the film is based. Ziyi Zhang plays Sayuri, a peasant girl who becomes a legendary geisha after being ripped from her family at an early age. Despite the antagonism of Hatsumomo (Gong Li), Sayuri is nurtured by mentor Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) and quickly rises to prominence during the golden era of geishas; but when WWII threatens to destroy the decadent culture that gave rise to the geisha lifestyle, Sayuri discovers that her own feelings may be the only thing she can rely upon. That said, Zhang, Li and Yeoh are game to the task of bringing this world to life, even if their director is not, and offer shades of complexity that elevate the streamlined, melodramatic script to something genuinely moving. So no matter what your reservations, I have to half-heartedly recommend it; because if the film brings you to such venerated classics as To Live, Ju Dou or earlier Japanese films like Rashomon or Mizoguchi's Story fo the Last Chrysanthemum, these were memoirs worth hearing.