The story is not good. Since Sayuri grew up, the story has been basically straightforward. Whether it is becoming a geisha, a war, a disaster, or a reunion, the story does not have any prominent points. Each part has the same amount of pen and ink. It is a real memoir. Drink boiled water. Drink it enough!
The plot of the love story is artificial. Sayuri's love with the chairman is entirely a subjective guess. Sayuri’s unrequited love is reasonable, but the chairman’s feelings towards her are purely inexplicable: I love her, so I send her to study geisha; I love her, and I am willing to let my friends own her; I love her because "principles" don’t fight for her. The first night. I didn't see the chairman's love for Sayuri in the movie, what I saw was just love. Therefore, the reunion at the end of the film is very abrupt, as if it was forced to give the audience an explanation for the big group members. Sayuri's happiness comes purely from coincidence, from the voluntary withdrawal of the chairman's friend. This happy ending is the biggest failure of the whole story. If the passage of Sayuri’s hopelessness adds a lot of profound ideological meaning to the film, then this ending completely obliterates these meanings.
Zhang Ziyi has almost no acting skills, and the acting is too naive. More and more find that Zhang Ziyi has only three kinds of emotions that perform well: pure happiness and hatred and incompetence. She is really a singular actor, and perhaps the experience of life cannot allow her to express the complex emotions of the five flavors. Unlike Zhao Wei, who has experienced so many misfortunes in life and had a breakthrough in "Love Knot". As a geisha, although Sayuri needs to suppress her emotions and become a quiet lady, as a plump character, the audience needs to see the passion, longing, pain and confusion hidden under the quiet. But the Sayuri shown by Zhang Ziyi is a dull woman. Except for the little secret in her heart, it seems that it is difficult to move her from the outside world. Her feelings for everything are indifferent and mechanical. Under this indifference, the audience can't see any inner world, or that the inner world of Sayuri, who lacks emotion, is blank. And also the role of Michelle Yeoh, who is also burying the yearning for happiness in the bottom of his heart and showing no change on the surface, shows the inner struggle and disappointment through his eyes in the details of the dialogue with Sayuri. Although Zhang's blue pupils are beautiful, they are so transparent and pure that you can see clearly. Such innocence is appropriate when Sayuri has just become a geisha when she is 15 years old, but since she was on stage and betrayed her first night, there should be more pain, determination, courage and many other things in her eyes. Especially the solo dance in the snow, it expresses what a profound despair and bitterness. Sayuri who can jump out of the essence of this dance is definitely not just a child who is still ignorant of the world.
Gong Li is the biggest highlight of this film. Her appearance can definitely be called glamorous, her eyes are flowing, and she is irresistible. She showed the hatred and jealousy of a popular geisha who couldn't woo a popular geisha, and her years passed away. However, Xiao Ke didn't feel that the performance was too strong. Because in a rainy night, when Gong Li’s character was warned by the old bust that the geisha had no right to love, after her resentment, the despair and resentment of her fate, but still the helpless expression is making people criticize the crime. Absolutely. Gong Li is a woman with stories in her eyes. She is full of amorous feelings, and the corners of her eyes and eyebrows are scenes. Of course, this role has a lot of room to play, and the performance is true temperament, which is more attractive than the repressive and plain running account Sayuri.
Michelle Yeoh doesn't have many dramas, but the confidence, elegance and calmness of a mature geisha are performed very well by her. Xiao Ke thinks that she is the most successful geisha in the whole movie, and Zhang Ziyi's Sayuri can only be regarded as a pediatrics compared with her. Not elegant enough, not persistent enough, lacking self-confidence.
Yo-Yo Ma's cello is still as refreshing as ever, and his voice is full of love. The movie screen is exquisite and the colors are outstanding. As for whether the film objectively and truthfully embodies Japanese culture and real geisha, I don’t know if I’m not Japanese.
Before entering the movie theater, I thought this movie was an epic about geishas. It would make me respect these hard-working artists because I learned about the geisha's superb skills, hard life, and their struggle and dignity. It's a pity that the story layout of this movie is too detail-oriented, and the different parts of the plot are too even to obliterate the theme. Stepping out of the movie theater, Xiao Ke asked himself: What kind of theme should the movie express? I can't answer. I did read the first half of Sayuri's life, but the only thing left in my heart was: "Oh, that's how the life of a geisha is." There is no respect, no contempt, and no emotion. This is too far from the original expectation, it is really tasteless: I have seen disappointment, but it is a pity not to see it.
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