memoir of a geisha be a visually stunning melodrama that seem more like a camp and drag queen satire than anything to do with real people . the first half of the film defensively keep insist that geisha be neither prostitute nor concubine and that they be the embodiment of traditional japanese beauty . but other than one breathtaking dance and the rest of the movie degenerate into pretty baby in storyville territory and or at least vashti and esther in the purim story and a all the woman effort at art and artifice be about entertain much and much old and drunken boorish men . maybe it be japanese culture that be be prostitute and and not just to the american lout after world war ii . perhaps it the strain of speaking in english and but ziyi zhang show barely little of the great flare she demonstrate in house of fly dagger ( shi mian mai fu ) and hero ( ying xiong ) . michelle yeoh occasionally get to project a glimmer of her assured performance in crouch tiger and hidden dragon ( wo hu cang long ) . only li gong show any real life . otherwise and i keep picture charles ludlam in various role and or even cillian murphy and a in kabuki theater and particularly a the plot drag down in cat fight after cat fight . the suppose love story have zero chemistry and mostly due to the age difference and and i mostly felt sorry for ken watanabe and hop his hollywood pay check compensate for his loss of dignity a the mysterious chairman . i remember more emotion in portrait of jennie a the young girl be anxious to grow up into jennifer jones to please joseph cotton . we see brief glimpse of reality when the geisha pose with regular woman a photographic attraction and and a an ageless ziyi zhang live out the war year in a very colorful kimono die operation . the finale have little sense of normality . the score include many chop up traditional melody and with cello by yo yo ma and violin by yitzhack pearlman instead of traditional instrumentation and that be beautiful to listen to in accompaniment to the lovely cinematography and as long a one completely ignore the plot and stiff acting . a my mind wander and i wonder how the great japanese director of samurai movie would have deal with this story and which probably would have be more formal and but a lot more emotional .