Review of Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) by Anssi V — 10 Oct 2011

This movie's been growing on me. I've watched it twice now, and I was able to enjoy it much more the second time. The first time I thought that some of the characters were a little bit too passive - Sayuri (Ziyi Zhang) for example - but this time I felt that it was more of a quiet strength in her rather than the unwillingness to do something.

And all of the good sides of the movie have remained for me. The acting is still topnotch, the cinematography, music and scenery are breath-taking, the subject matter is interesting and mysterious enough to great an interesting story and while I felt that the ending was still missing that special something, it's not bad by any means.

So yeah, this is a good movie, even great in my honest opinion. I liked it better the second time, so it might be that it needs some time to grow on you, but that's not a bad thing in itself. Definitely worth watching if can deal with a slightly slower pace of storytelling and not much action.