Memoirs of a Geisha: Actress defends film’s artistic license
Cultural News, December 2005
Veteran Japanese actress Kaori Momoi who makes Hollywood debut in Memoirs of a Geisha, defends the creativity of the film. (Cultural News Photo)
In a scene of “Memoirs of a Geisha,” Momoi (l) plays Mama-san, owner of the Geisha house and Michelle Yeoh acts as Mameha. (Photo by David James S.M.P.S.P.)
By Gavin Kelley
While in one form or another, Asian-themed films have been present in Hollywood for the last 70 years or so, and Japanese film splashed onto the world-wide silverscreen in 1950 after Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon,” few can deny the recent fast and furious increase in Asian and Asian-themed films in local U.S. movie theaters.
With direct-from-Asia releases such as “Hero,” “Zatoichi: The Blindswordsman” and “Kung Fu Hustle” getting major releases in the United States, and an increasing number of Asian-themed Hollywood films being produced, including the two “Kill Bill” Volumes, “The Last Samurai” and even the upcoming third installment of “Fast and Furious,” the blend of East and West in American movie theaters could be long term rather than just a trend.
This month, American and Japanese movie theaters will be treated to another Pacific Ocean cross-cultural production, with Hollywood’s take on “Memoirs of a Geisha.” While the film is set in the Gion district of Kyoto, and the story revolves around Japanese women, very few Japanese actresses were actually employed for the film.
Based on the novel penned by Arthur Golden, the film was produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Rob Marshall, who helmed “Chicago;” “Memoirs of a Geisha” tells the story of Nitta Sayuri, a girl from a small fishing village who becomes one of Japan’s most celebrated geisha.
The movie stars Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi as Sayuri, Ken Watanabe, who was introduced to American audiences opposite Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” as The Chairman, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Mameha and Koji Yakusho, who most will remember as the Salaryman who learned to dance in “Shall We Dance?” as Nobu.
While most of the leading geisha rolls were given to non-Japanese Asian actresses, the Japanese actresses who were brought on for the film include Kaori Momoi and Yuhki Kudo.
Many will get to know veteran Japanese actress Momoi for the first time this December, after “Memoirs of a Geisha” opens up, as a cruel and vindictive Mama-san, owner of the Geisha house. However those who have followed Japanese film will recognize her from her work with Akira Kurosawa (“Kagemusha”), Shohei Immamura (“Eijanaika”) or many of the other great film directors of Japanese cinema.
Late last month Momoi sat down with Cultural News to talk about the upcoming release and the new audience she will be exposed to. As she explained, it “feels like she has become a young actress again,” and is experiencing “a second life starting at 53.”
She explained that she considers herself very fortunate to have worked with some of the great directors of her time, now including Marshall.
On her first day on the set she said she “looked around the set and realized they must have spent a lot of money.” But beyond that, she saw very few differences between Japanese and U.S. feature films.
The film, shot both in Los Angeles and on location in Japan, is already receiving some emotional backlash from Japanese and Japanese Americans in Los Angeles, for lack of historic accuracy for one and lack of Japanese actresses for another. But despite all the negative talk surrounding the film, Momoi is steadfast in her positive take on the film.
Momoi first explained that those who mistake the film for historical accuracy or a biopic (biographical picture) will be missing out. In “Memoirs” she explained, “we are like fish swimming around Ryugujo (classic Japanese story of a castle at the bottom of the sea). Just like that ‘Memoirs’ is a fantasy … Japanese geisha speaking English is unthinkable, yet the whole film is in English.”
Momoi went on to explained that the film is “a total imagination,” pointing even to the styles and way the kimono’s were worn, “unthinkable from the Japanese point of view,” yet, Momoi continued to explain, the costume design along with the set design and cinematography helped to create a film that is “pure fantasy and visually stunning.”
Gavin Kelley is a Los Angeles-based writer who is currently working on a compilation of short-stories. He worked at the Rafu Shimpo as a staff writer and assistant editor under the guidance of Takeshi Nakayama from 2000 through 2001.
Cultural News, December 2005
Versatile musician Masakazu Yoshizawa is the busiest Japanese traditional musician in American films. He not only played for the latest big budget film “Memoirs of Geisha” but also gave a consultation to the composer of the film and wrote a piece for the film. (Cultural News Photo)
By Takeshi Nakayama
Japanese traditional instruments such as shakuhachi, koto, tsuzumi drums and Japanese flute are today having a greater influence on American movies than ever before.
Leading the vanguard of Japanese traditional musicians in American films is Masakazu Yoshizawa, known for his expertise on Japanese flutes and percussion instruments. He is a major contributor to the musical score for the big budget movie, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Yoshizawa, 55, received a call from Sony last December offering him an acting job playing a drummer in “Geisha.”
This year, he was hired to play shakuhachi and other Japanese instruments for the film’s sound track. But before starting the session on Aug. 4, John Williams, the film’s composer, wanted to study how to use the Japanese instruments in the score.
“Many composers don’t care about how to use Japanese instruments,” he complains. “They just call me and say ‘Can you play something just looking at the movie? Because I don’t know how to write for shakuhachi.’”
On the other hand, Williams tries to be accurate, Yoshizawa points out. “He is such a great musician. He is authentic but creative.”
Making sound tracks for major movies usually takes about five days, he says. “But for ‘Memoirs for a Geisha,’ we wound up playing over one month because, instead of doing the sound track in a big recording studio, John Williams wanted to do it concert-style. For three days we moved to Royce Hall at UCLA ... He wanted to have small ensemble sections—only koto and shakuhachi in one section, or only percussion in another.”
“Memoirs of a Geisha” is unusual in movie scoring, Yoshizawa notes; it uses traditional Japanese musical instruments as much as possible. And it features solo players such as Yo Yo Ma on cello, Itzak Pearlman on violin, Hiromi Hashibe on koto, Tateo Takahashi on shamisen and Yoshizawa.
“I was so happy to be there, because there were so many great studio musicians and the session was so great,” he exudes. “We had a really good time.”
Williams also asked Yoshizawa to write original music for the dance number when Sony couldn’t get permission from Kyoto to use a special piece. “I composed about 400 measures in two nights ... I ended up composing and arranging four pieces in the score, besides playing and acting, so it was a lot of extra work,” reveals the veteran of 100-plus movie sound track performances.
Japanese instrument becoming sound elements
American movies in the 1950s and 1960s used Japanese instruments only in Japan-themed movies like “Sayonara,” Yoshizawa comments, but in the 1970s and 1980s, composers started using Japanese instruments as an element of the sound.
“When I started,” he notes, “they wanted a sound Western music didn’t have--Shakuhachi or other Japanese instruments--a sound that was new and fit the film. In ‘Jurassic Park,’ nobody notices the shakuhachi playing. It sounds like a dinosaur’s cry, so John Williams (composer of ‘Jurassic Park’) said we’re going to use shakuhachi.”
Yoshizawa prefers working on non-Japan-themed films where he can still use the shakuhachi or other Japanese flutes. “I feel more comfortable with that,” he says. “When they make a Japan-themed movie using traditional instruments in kind of a strange way, I feel it distorts our tradition. I feel more comfortable, and have more fun, working on other movies.”
Versatile musician
Born at Kawai Village near Hida Takayama city in Gifu prefecture, Yoshizawa graduated with a degree in Western musical tradition from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
Coming to America in 1976 to attend the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, he moved to Los Angeles later that year. He has done studio work, movie and television music, and numerous concerts over the past 29 years. He plays the shakuhachi, woodwinds and percussion, as well as clarinet and saxophone.
Yoshizawa first used shakuhachi in 1978 for a Los Angeles performance of “The Teahouse of the August Moon.” He was playing saxophone, clarinet and flute when the director asked him if he could play the shakuhachi.
A few months later, he met Osamu Kitajima, who invited Yoshizawa to play shakuhachi in his band. “We played together on almost all of Osamu’s CDs and all of his gigs for more than 20 years,” Yoshizawa says. “And, Osamu recommended me as a shakuhachi player in studio for many other musicians. We played on some movies together.”
Yoshizawa has also worked on “Jurassic Park,” “Lost World,” “Gung Ho,” “Bat 21,” “Karate Kid (II and III),” and “Joy Luck Club,” among others, as well as numerous TV shows.
“I love doing studio work, and I also like doing concerts,” he says. “Studio work is most comfortable, most challenging, and the pay is good.”
Beside his solo activities, Yoshizawa has formed “Kokin Gumi” trio with Koto player Hiromi Hashibe and Tsugaru-Shamisen player Tateo Takahashi since 1993. The trio has appeared in numerous events in Los Angeles, Japan, and nationally in the U.S. They have released four albums: Sorin, Wakyo, Zen Garden, and Medeta.
Takeshi Nakayama is a free-lance journalist who lives in Walnut, Calif. He has written articles for the Nikkei West, Nichi Bei Times, Gardena Valley News and many other publications, and is a former editor at the Rafu Shimpo.