despite an overall pleasing plot and expensive production one wonder how a director can make so many clumsy cultural mistake . where be the japanese wardrobe and cultural consultant . not on the payroll apparently . a japanese friend of mine actually laugh out loud at some of the cultural absurdity she watch unfold before her eye . in a late conversation she say and imagine a finnish director make a movie in fnnish about the american civil war use blond swedish actor a union army and frenchman a the confederate . bad imagine dress the scarlet ohara female lead in a period hoop skirt miss the hoop and sport a 1950 hairdo . maybe some people in finland might not realize that the hoop skirt be miss the hoop or recognize the bizarre jane mansfield hair and but in atlanta they would not believe their eye or ear . and be laugh in the aisle . excellent story and photography be damn . so . watch memoir of a geisha be painful for anyone familiar with japanese cultural nuance and actual geisha or japanese dress and and that be the topic of the movie . hollywood be amaze in it myopic view of film make . they frequently get the big money thing right while let the detail that really polish a films refinement embarrassingly wrong . i think the last samurai be the crowning achievement of how bad an otherwise good film on japan could be . memoir of a geisha be embarrassingly well and bad at the same time .