Growing up I fell in love with all kinds of movies because they give you hope but they also show you how ugly the world can be especially in another country.  Memoirs of A Geisha impacted me in a way where I became interested in another culture.  I re-watched this movie several times because I fell in love with the story.  I was a teenager when first watched this movie but at that age, I didn’t quite understand the complete concept of the story.  Now that I am an adult re-watching this movie and reading reviews, I am looking at this in a complete different view.

In my teenage self, I saw this movie as a beautiful movie about geishas and how they were looked at as the most beautiful women in Japan.  I first came across this movie after my mother bought it on DVD randomly.  No one told me to watch it and I always watched movies alone in my room.  I had a movie night one day and decided to watch this movie.  The movie is very honest and there are no secrets.  I didn’t notice until I re-watched this movie recently that they don’t use profanity much in this movie.  The only word in this entire movie is, “Bastard” , something I never quite noticed when I was a teenager.  I tried to consider another movie that derived from this movie and I couldn’t think of one.  Memoirs of A Geisha is a one of a kind movie that doesn’t compare to others, in my personal opinion.

The movie was both conventional and unconventional.  It was more on the unconventional side because in the middle to the end of the movie there were some scenes that could offend people.  There were scenes about prostitution where Sayuri’s sister gets taken to the pleasure district to become a prostitute and being that she was a child can offend people.  Witnessing Sayuri being basically raped in a geishas world when the Baron undresses her Kimono because he wants to, “just see what she looks like”.  Men in this era get aroused by being able to see a woman’s wrist.  As the conventional part of the movie, this was made from the book, “Memoir of A Geisha”: by Auther Golden.  Being that is was a great selling book they had the instinct of the movie doing great and it did. With six academy awards nominations after the movie release, this movie is still impacting people today.

Like I said earlier I viewed this movie as just a culture movie, but now I see this movie as children being sold for their virginity.  It’s a deeper meaning for me now and honestly, it’s saddening that these girls at a young age are being sold and bid on for their virginity.  At the end of the movie, before World War II came to Kyoto, Sayuri was becoming quite famous and the geisha who has the highest bid ever and she was only about 15 years old.

I read two different reviews and after reading them I agree with them completely.  Back when I was a teenager I probably would have disagreed due to the fact that this was only a cultural vision for me and I enjoyed the beauty.  The woman of Kyoto were viewed as a walking piece of art, this is what geisha actually means.

I watched two interviews both with the main character of the movie, Sayuri, she expressed that the emotion she had to bring to the movie was intense for her. There were times she wanted to cry and she had to keep it in. She expressed after the movie was over she had to go into a corner because she was sad.  This shows just how much effect this movie has on one’s emotions.

This movie helped me a lot on how to consider others culture and history.  We can’t be exactly sure how someone’s culture is by watching a movie one time.  It takes time and more research to truly understand the culture and how people were treated.  I highly recommend watching this movie it can be life-changing.