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Memoirs of a Geisha - Does it stick close to the book?
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No, it doesn't stick close to the book. I know that movie adaptation of the book sometimes needs to cut some parts of the book. Movie Memoirs of a Geisha took a general iddea from the book. For me it was very americanized (made especially for US public).
no, it sticks to spielberg more than the book. what a disappointment.
Anna wrote: "No, it doesn't stick close to the book. I know that movie adaptation of the book sometimes needs to cut some parts of the book. Movie Memoirs of a Geisha took a general iddea from the book. For me ..."Thanks for confirming my impression, Anna. I didn't remember the scene with the fire being in the book, nor did I remember anything about the war. Were those things in the book? They were in the movie.
Phillip wrote: "no, it sticks to spielberg more than the book. what a disappointment."Thanks, Phillip. I was disappointed too.
In a book war was rather distant and not shown directly - just through problems with food supplies and less clients. And what fire???
Anna wrote: "In a book war was rather distant and not shown directly - just through problems with food supplies and less clients. And what fire??? "There was a fire in the movie when the two geisha's were having an argument. I saw the movie on a DVD, not in the theater.
Can anyone pinpoint the differences between the book and the movie?
Hi Joy, thanks for alerting me to this group. :)
I don't really recall any structural differences, the fire referred to above was when the geisha of the house, the one that was so mean had the difference with the protagonist, yes? The protagonist was not a geisha yet IIRC, and was in fact, still quite young.
I did read the book, and see the film some months, maybe a year apart, so perhaps that affects my recall of both. I know sometimes a film and book will blend given enough time, for me at least. :)
I think one scene that I definitely recall in some detail was the one when the girl first "flirted" with a boy/man...the one on the bike that lost his balance. I thought that was carried out just the way I pictured it from the book.
I don't really recall any structural differences, the fire referred to above was when the geisha of the house, the one that was so mean had the difference with the protagonist, yes? The protagonist was not a geisha yet IIRC, and was in fact, still quite young.
I did read the book, and see the film some months, maybe a year apart, so perhaps that affects my recall of both. I know sometimes a film and book will blend given enough time, for me at least. :)
I think one scene that I definitely recall in some detail was the one when the girl first "flirted" with a boy/man...the one on the bike that lost his balance. I thought that was carried out just the way I pictured it from the book.
Thanks, Pontalba. So I assume the "fire" scene was in the book as well as in the movie.I read the book a long while ago. So my memory of it has faded. It's just that the movie seemed to have so many scenes I don't remember.
I do remember the "Chairman", as they called him in the movie. She always dreamed of him and finally they found each other again, many years after their first encounter when she was very young. Why did they call him the "Chairman"?
He was the Chairman of the company's Board, Board of Directors as far as I could tell. She'd seen him before, at some of the get togethers that the geisha's were invited to, and at the end, after the war the "friend" of hers did in fact double-cross her as depicted in the film and it was only luck that got them together afterwards, IIRC.
The "politicking" of the geisha houses was as in the book as well.
The "politicking" of the geisha houses was as in the book as well.
I guess a lot of the politicking went over my head. The movie emphasized the competition between the women in the Geisha house. My memory of the plot in the book is too vague to make many comparisons. The movie didn't help me recall much except for the involvement of the Chairman in Chiyo's life.
Tom wrote: "As a film by Rob Marshall, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA can be nothing other than vile."Hi Tom. Can you elaborate? Have you read the book or have you seen the movie? Or both?
Tom wrote: "Sorry to hijack the thread, never mind."OK.
There's a lot of differences between the movie and the book. This is one of the many cases in which the book was better than the movie.
The book (of course) was so much better. There were a lot of things that were missing or just different. The movie was good, but just a let done after reading the book.
Audrey wrote: "The book (of course) was so much better. There were a lot of things that were missing or just different. The movie was good, but just a let done after reading the book. "Audrey, I felt that way too.
Sorry, guys. Couldn´t disagree with you all all the more. The book was faithful. There was a fire and there was World War II. The only difference that I can recall is that the last scene in the novel, we see an elderly, fragile Japanese woman garbed in geisha clothes in Times Square New York City, where she has relocated to live with the Chairman. And yes, he was the Chairman of the Board, the disfigured suitor was his chief engineer.The book went into extreme analytical detail as to the interweaving between a sociological, cultural, and psychological framework for each incident, each character´s motivation, etc. I believe that was the strength of the novel in that it offered an insider´s intimate view of a world most westerners will never be privy to. But such as it might make for great reading in that it reads in part as an entertaining sociological treatise, by being so explicit it leaves little for reader inference.
Yes, it is high on my list of likeable books and it is one I plan to read once again, as I do the movie.
Geoffrey wrote: "Sorry, guys. Couldn´t disagree with you all all the more. The book was faithful. There was a fire and there was World War II. The only difference that I can recall is that the last scene in the nov..."Geoffrey, I guess I'll have to take your word for it because my memory of the book is very sketchy.
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Memoirs_...
It's supposed to be based on the book, _Memoirs of a Geisha_ (1997), which I read a while ago. However, it seems to me that the movie is different from the book in several respects. Can anyone confirm this for me? Did the movie stick close to the book or not?