Movies You Should Watch Before Suicide: Memoirs of a Geisha

Some time ago, I saw a list of films under an unusual title.  "Before You Wanna' Commit Suicide, Watch These First" was the title of the list.  Even though suicide wasn't an actual consideration in the composition of the list, being the odd person that I am, I thought it might make for an interesting point of view if I did think about it from the stand point of being just about to "off" myself.  As this is the fourth film that I've taken it upon myself to discuss in the context of that mindset, I won't get into the details of the respective sizes of the original list and my list, or the difference between my taste in films and that of the author of the original list.  I'll also bypass the details of the mindset in which I'm watching these films, and of how I've assembled my list from those featured in the original list.  I've gone over that three times already. 

The film "Memoirs of a Geisha" is based on the book by Arthur Golden and stars Ziyi Zhang, Ken Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Koji Yakusho, Youki Kudo, Kaori Momoi, and Gong Li.  A young Japanese girl with eyes "the color of water", Chiyo, and her sister, Satsu, are sold by their father and taken from their home.  They are taken to a geisha house where she is accepted and her sister is not.  While she is taken in, her sister is taken away and sold to a brothel somewhere else in town.  Chiyo starts off working as a servant in the geisha house.  Later, it is decided that she is to be educated to become a geisha.  But, Chiyo is determined to find her sister at any cost.  Having found out the whereabouts of her sister, she meets with her and they plan to run away together.  But they are forced to wait and meet at a bridge outside of the town district.  But Chiyo suffers a fall from a roof top in her attempt to make it to their rendezvous.  Failing to make it to the bridge, she is left behind by her sister.  To pay off the debt for her care after her fall, she is forced to work as a slave until, one spring day, she meets a man who shows her kindness and becomes the purpose for which she lives. 

I was hooked from the moment the movie began.  I couldn't help but sympathize with Chiyo in what she went through when she was taken from her home, and even more at seeing her anguish at being separated from her sister.  Then, just when you think things couldn't get much darker, she's forced to endure the cruelty of the resident geisha Hatsumomo.  This woman is angry and merciless.  She wastes no time in making life even more difficult for Chiyo.  She is as spiteful as she is beautiful.  And, she takes every opportunity that she can to make Chiyo miserable, insulting and humiliating her at every available turn.  Hatsumomo's grace, talent, and skill afford her royal treatment as she is the principle earner in the geisha house.  The only friend that Chiyo has is the other young girl she met when she was first brought to the geisha house, named Pumpkin.  She and Chiyo watch out for each other all through their younger years. 

Early on it is decided that Chiyo will be educated in preparation to become a geisha.  This is the first bright point in Chiyo's life at the geisha house.  But, is doesn't last long.  She becomes the victim of Hatsumomo's manipulation and ends up being punished for an act that she was put up to.  She quietly endures the punishment to honor a vow she took to Hatsumomo in exchange for information on her sister's whereabouts.  Seeing this as her only hope of escaping the despair that is her life, she finds her sister and plans to run away with her.  On the following night, however, in an attempt to escape from the geisha house, Chiyo falls from a roof and injures herself.  With this injury she is mercilessly plunged back into despair with the loss of her opportunity for education, the news of her parents' deaths, and being abandoned by her sister.  At this point, she is all alone in the world, and forced to work as a slave to pay off the cost of her medical treatment after the fall. 

Finally, one spring day, as she sat on a bridge, steeped in her despair in contemplation of a dark future, she hears the voice of a stranger offering encouragement and kindness.  She turns to see the owner of the voice is a wealthy businessman, a "Chairman" as she comes to remember him, with two geisha at his side.  Complimenting her on the beauty of her eyes, he offers her a gift cherry ice, desiring only her smile as gift in return.  Leaving her with enough money to feed her for a month, pocket change to him, he took her heart with him.  From that moment, her every effort was to become a part of his world.  He became the center of her hope and the motivation for her life. 

Years later, the geisha house is unexpectedly visited by Mameha, a most respected geisha.  She enters into a wager with "Mother", who ran the geisha house.  The wager was such that if she took Chiyo under her wing, she would turn a sizable profit or pay double for Chiyo's expenses and education.  The wager being accepted, Chiyo begins her transformation from geisha house slave to geisha.  From this point in the movie on, you see almost plain, kowtowing Chiyo slowly transform into the graceful and enchanting Sayuri.  (Ziyi Zhang, the older Chiyo, is an exquisite beauty anyway.  Trying to make her look plain, in my humble opinion, is something of an impossibility.)  Mameha shares all of her wisdom and experience and trains her in all of the subtle nuances of a superior geisha's comportment. 

It was the "master" training the "student".  In this film I saw a woman who understood, by virtue of her own experience, the true power of a woman's beauty giving instruction to another who possessed a truly superior beauty.  But, it wasn't just about training Chiyo.  It was about a competition with Hatsumomo.  Mameha and Hatsumomo were great rivals.  And, Hatsumomo had taken Pumpkin under her wing to train her to become a geisha.  Between Mameha and Hatsumomo, it was about who would produce the better geisha.  And Hatsumomo played dirty. 

There were three moments in this film that stood out to me.  The first was the test of Chiyo's training.  On the street, Chiyo had asked Mameha about the ability to stop a man in his tracks with a single glance.  Chiyo was skeptical as to whether it was really possible.  Mameha asked her to choose someone out for her to
demonstrate.  With Chiyo's choice, she effortlessly demonstrated, not only that it was possible, but that she could do it quite well.  Then, Mameha chose someone for Chiyo to try.  The resulting mayhem from Chiyo's breathtaking success was both amusing and inspiring.  It was awesome.  She never even looked back to see the chaos unfolding behind her that resulted from the power of her single glance.  She just walked away with a soft triumphant smile.  As Mameha joined her, she told her, "You are ready."  I was like, "Wow.  Just, wow."  The next was after Chiyo had been given the name Sayuri.  It was her introduction into society.  Just before she was to leave, after she was finished dressing, on the way out she passed a mirror.  It was the look on her face when she saw herself as the geisha she had gone through so much to become.  The moment was humorously interrupted by Mother's voice saying, "Hurry up!  You're not making any money standing there gawking at yourself."  It caught me by surprise and made me laugh.  Finally, there was the dance that she did as the lead in a performance featuring the geishas in training.  It was just like Mameha said she would be just before she took the stage.  She was glorious.  In the film, all who watched her were transfixed.  They couldn't take their eyes off of her. 

In this film, you experience every part of Chiyo's pain, loss, and despair.  As she is trained, becomes Sayuri and is brought face to face with the stark realities of a geisha's life, you experience her pain and her triumph.  And then there's the tenacity of her desire to be a part of "the Chairman's" life.  I could watch this film over and over and over again.  (And I probably will.)  I would recommend this film to just about anyone. 

I would consider this an "inspirational" movie.  A captivating "triumph through adversity" film.  And, considering this film in the context of the above mentioned mindset, I would consider it a worthy experience, as films go, to take its place among the "last things I'd like to experience before I end my existence in this world".  As a matter of fact, this film could be something that might make me change my mind.  The depth of Chiyo's despair and the level of triumph she experienced just might be enough to convince me to try continuing on in this world.  Anyway, in the spirit in which the list was actually meant, I would recommend this as a top rater for anyone's "movie bucket list".