Author defends ‘Geisha’ as art, not history
The author of “Memoirs of a Geisha” is defending the film version amid criticism from experts in the geisha world.
In a letter to the Washington Post published Monday, Arthur Golden wrote that “no storyteller or journalist is ever exact enough for an expert.”
The movie, based on Golden’s novel, chronicles a girl’s rise from poverty in a Japanese fishing village to life in high society as a geisha -- a woman schooled in the art of dance, singing and conversation to be a companion for wealthy men.
The Post ran a story Dec. 15 quoting experts who criticized the accuracy of the costumes and dancing in the film.
“It’s worth bearing in mind that ‘Hamlet’ makes poor Danish history and that ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ grossly oversimplifies the politics and cultures of the Middle East,” Golden wrote. “I don’t mean to say that drama should never concern itself with factual accuracy, only that a work of art must be judged by a higher standard.”
The English-language film also has been criticized by those who felt a movie about Japanese culture should feature a Japanese actress. The movie stars Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li, and Chinese Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh.
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