Review of Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) by Valentina K — 07 Jan 2014

After reading the book, I was looking forward to seeing the film. While I was blown away by the art design and cinematography, I was disappointed in the choice to have the characters speak English. Obviously, I know that a film like this needs a well-established star (Zhang), and that she can't speak Japanese.

But I'd rather have all the characters speak Japanese (even with an accent) than have everybody speak with really heavy English. It takes you out of the story.