semalam pada ketika ini saya sedang menonton memoirs of a geisha.seperti menonton national geographic + movie.secara personal,movie ini sangat cantik dan indah.ini pandangan dari aspek seni.ia juga beri perspektif sebenar tentang geisha.mata saya rasa sayuri itu cantik tapi hatsumomo lebih cantik

Memoirs of a Geisha
Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel by Arthur Golden published in 1997. The novel tells the story of a geisha working in Kyoto prior to World War II. A film adaptation of the novel directed by Rob Marshall and starring Zhang Ziyi was released in 2005.

Contents
Before her mother dies, the main character Chiyo and her older sister Satsu are taken to Gion by one Mr Tanaka. Her sister is sold to a brothel and Chiyo is sold to an okiya, a house for geisha.
With her unusual blue-grey eyes, Chiyo is to train to become a geisha, but is constantly antagonized by Hatsumomo, the top geisha of the Nitta okiya. The arrogant Hatsumomo recognises Chiyo's potential and is upset at any hint of competition. Due to Hatsumomo's machinations, Chiyo is reduced to becoming a maid in the okiya, ostensibly with no future of becoming a geisha.
An encounter with the wealthy and benevolent Chairman changes her luck. Chiyo wins the eye of the most successful geisha in Gion, Mameha, who is despised by Hatsumomo because she outshines her in every aspect and cannot be toppled because, unlike Hatsumomo, Mameha has earned her independence as a geisha. She adopts Chiyo as her apprentice and trains Chiyo to rival Hatsumomo. Chiyo's entrance into apprenticeship is marked by being given a new name: Sayuri.
With her success and her virginity sold, Sayuri not only becomes a highly successful geisha, she manages to pay off all the debts that bound her to the Nitta okiya when she was a maid and also is adopted by the mistress of the okiya. The outbreak of World War Two, a theme foreshadowed by growing reference to the Japanese military, represents, structurally, another major challenge for the heroine. Her successes are quickly made irrelevant, and her physical beauty is tarnished by manual labour and a lack of food. The life of luxury is replaced by a new reality; her personal dark valley.
During her time as a geisha before the war, she encounters the Chairman again, but finds it impossible to get close to him as she desires. Instead, she finds herself constantly being pushed to be with Nobu, the Chairman's most trusted friend. It is Nobu that saves Sayuri from the harsh labour of the war until Gion is able to open again on the condition that she will allow him to become her patron, despite the fact that it is the Chairman she desires. Sayuri and Mameha destroy Hatsumomo's reputation entirely thereafter and Hatsumomo is thrown out of the okiya.
However, it is not until she puts herself in an undesirable position that Sayuri's desire to be with the Chairman truly frees her to pursue her own destiny. When the Chairman frees her from the okiya to become his mistress, she sets up a posh teahouse for Japanese businessmen in New York so that he may save face in Japan when his daughter is about to marry a man set to be the Chairman's heir.

Controversy
After the novel was published, Arthur Golden was sued by the geisha (Mineko Iwasaki) with whom he worked, for defamation and breach of contract. According to the plantiff, the agreement was supposed to be total anonymity for the main character of his story. This was because there is a code of silence among the geisha community and breaking that code is a serious offense. Additionally, Iwasaki claims that Golden's fictional novel portrayed geisha as high class prostitutes. For example, in the novel Sayuri's virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder, a concept that particularly offended Iwasaki. She stated that not only did this never happen to her, but that no such custom existed at all in Gion. By basing his character, Sayuri, on Iwasaki and implying that she herself was a prostitute, Iwasaki claims that Golden broke his agreement and caused great dishonor and shame to herself and the geisha world. After Iwasaki's name was printed in the book, she received numerous death threats and requests of censure for dishonoring her profession. In 2003, Iwasaki and Golden settled out of court for an undisclosed sum of money.

Film adaptation
A movie adaptation of the novel, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall, was released in the United States on December 9, 2005. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh and Suzuka Ohgo (In reality, Watanabe and Kudoh are Japanese, while Zhang, Gong are Chinese and Yeoh Malaysian of Chinese descent.) Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the film. The movie was filmed in southern California and in several locations in Kyoto, Japan, including the Kiyomizu-dera temple and the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine.
The Japanese release of the film is titled "Sayuri" (Latin alphabetic)

Casting controversy
Some people were upset that central characters in the movie were not played by native Japanese actresses, notably that the lead role is played by a Chinese actress. It was called "a movie about Japanese played by Chinese, written by whites". The production crew paid little attention to the casting, a move that some consider ignorant pan-Asianism and a refusal to recognize the diversity of cultures in Asia.
While many people are offended by the casting, Korean-Canadian actress Sandra Oh advocates inter-Asian acting. In a recent magazine article (Bust Magazine June/July 2005), she defends her roles as characters of Japanese (e.g. Rick) and Chinese descent by pointing out similar behavior from white actors who play European characters interchangeably:
"Ralph Fiennes can play an English person, a German person, a Polish person, a Jewish person. He can play anything, and no one questions him. He is a handsome, Caucasian-looking-ish man. So, to American audiences, Europe looks like that. Europe does not look like that. But that is the image we have been fed for 60 years, so we accept that. But what I have big problems with is when people put those limits on me. I just think, "Give me a fucking break. You have no idea what I am." Because when you meet someone, you never say, "I met Joe Schmoe, and he's Irish-French." But there always has to be a quantifier or qualifier when it comes to me." (Sandra Oh, Bust Magazine)
In China, the casting caused a stir in the Chinese Internet community where some users were unhappy due to rising nationalist sentiment, especially because some mistook geisha for prostitutes. A profession similar to that of a Geisha existed in imperial China. These women were refined in art, literature, history and social manners. They lived in brothels but did not make a living by selling their bodies. Their job was to entertain male guests with their talents in music, go, calligraphy, painting and other arts, a practice known in Chinese as "selling one's talents instead of one's body". Though highly refined and famous (involved in innumerable Chinese poems, literature, legends and folklore), they did not enjoy the status accorded to geisha in Japan. Some people unfamiliar with this cultural difference misunderstood geisha in a negative way.
Some argue that part of the negative reaction was due to the relative rarity of a famous actress playing a prostitute in native Chinese films, due to government pressure and the generally conservative values of Chinese society. Even in Hong Kong, Michelle Yeoh was surrounded by reporters asking her why she accepted the part. Others argue that this is a red herring. Cecilia Cheung, for example, played a prostitute in One Night in Mongkok in 2004. In time, the controversy died down and the majority of Chinese were not affected. Many people, including the media, are waiting to see how these three Chinese actors perform in a film adapted from a novel set in traditional Japan.

Banned in China?
Memoirs of a Geisha was scheduled to debut in Chinese cinemas on the 19th of February but, as of the 17th of January, its release has been put on hold. Some Chinese newspapers, including the Shanghai based Oriental Morning Post and the Shanghai Youth Daily have claimed that Chinese censors are considering banning it outright. See AP Hollywood's 'Geisha' a delicate issue for China's censors
Newspaper sources have quoted the fears that the film may be banned due to concerns it could rouse anti-Japan sentiment. There have been claims that Chinese nationalists may want to restrict the film because of the fear that it could evoke memories of Japanese wartime aggression towards mainland women.

Gift from a geisha
On a recent visit to Tokyo to promote the film, Zhang Ziyi received a mysterious parcel and letter, revealed to have been sent by an elderly Japanese woman who had once worked as a geisha. In her letter, the woman stated that she had been touched by the trailer of the film and expected the movie to bring back fond memories for her and her friends. Inside the parcel were several exquisitely worked antique kimono. Zhang Ziyi was moved to tears by the gesture and sent the woman an invitation to the film's Japanese premiere. (The Star Online).

The Book
Golden, Arthur, Memoirs of a Geisha, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 ISBN 0375400117 (Hardcover)
Golden, Arthur, Memoirs of a Geisha, London & New York, Vintage, 2005 ISBN 0099498189 (Paperback)