Memoirs of a Geisha

On Saturday afternoon I found the DVD of the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha" in the "Plato" cd-shop in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Japanese culture is always interesting and Geisha's are always mysterious!! J  (But I think that the photo on the DVD box also triggered my attention.)

So on Saturday evening we watched this movie together.

The movie starts with the selling of two girls from a pour farmer with a sick wife. The whole scene is depressed by darkness and rain. It rains a lot in this movie!!

The movies shows the struggle of one of the girls to find a living in the house where she will be raised. She suffers under the way the other women in this house treat her, and make her life miserable. But one time on the street she is treated by a friendly man on sweet ice cream. This man is the one she adores during the rest of the movie, without the possibility to show him her love.

The life of a Geisha is hard and she has to hide away her personal feelings all the time.

She becomes a famous Geisha: an Artist as it is called her, but at the same time her virginity is sold to the highest bidder!!

The Geisha is high esteemed, but it is very hard for her to live. There is a lot of jealousy all the time.

When the second world war starts, she is brought in safety in the mountains, where she has a hard job at a kimono workshop.

At a sudden moment one of the rich business men shows up and wants her to come, to convince an American general to fund his factory.  She is still obedient and  hopes that this will bring her back to the man she adores. It does, but she is also sexual assaulted by the general and the man she adores is aware of that. This brings her in deep distress.

On the end it appears that the man of her adoration is a better man than she even expected and he calls for her and then they both express their love for each other.

The movie is changing very sudden into a happy ending. It's almost a bit unusual for a Japanese movie. Very often they have a very "black" ending. Maybe it is because of the American producers of the movie? Anyway, on the end it is rather pleasant, and it gives a good view on the life of a Geisha!!