Arthur Golden's blockbuster bestseller, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, has been brilliantly brought to the big screen by Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall (CHICAGO). The film opens in a remote Japanese fishing village in 1929, where two sisters, Chiyo and Satsu, are sold by their troubled father to people who place Chiyo in a classy geisha house known as an okiya in Gion and Satsu in a much more vulgar and dangerous district. Chiyo becomes a maid to Hatsumomo, a cold, controlling, and calculating geisha who is instantly jealous of Chiyo's unusual, beautiful eyes and childish innocence. Chiyo is befriended by Pumpkin, another maid at the okiya, but the two are soon driven apart. Chiyo is shown compassion by the Chairman and another, more successful geisha, Mameha, who takes her under her wing as her "little sister," furthering the battle between Chiyo, now called Sayuri, and Hatsumomo. As Sayuri is trained in the art of being a geisha, learning how to walk, talk, dance, and serve (up to a point) in order to please and honor her distinguished male clients, World War II looms on the horizon, threatening to upend Japan and its old ways.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA is a lush, sweeping historical and romantic epic, featuring gorgeous period costumes, primarily the exquisite kimono worn by the geisha. Ziyi Zhang (HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS) is outstanding as Sayuri, who stands up to the oppressive Hatsumomo (the effervescent Gong Li), while Michelle Yeoh, who starred with Zhang in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, is splendid as the wise and elegant Mameha. Ken Watanabe (THE LAST SAMURAI), Koji Yakusho (SHALL WE DANCE?), and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (ELEKTRA) are among the men who take an interest in Sayuri, who is continually faced with difficult choices that will shape her destiny, just as Japan's destiny is changing shape with the coming of the West. John Williams's soaring score is enhanced by solos from virtuosos Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.

Theatrical Release: December 9, 2005

UMD Features

2-Disc Set
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.78
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 - English
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary - 1. Colleen Atwood, John Myhre, Pietro Scali - Costume Design, Production Design, Editor
2. Rob Marshall and John DeLuca - Director and Co-Producer
Bonus Featurette - 1. Sayuri's Other Journey: From the Novel to the Screen
2. The Road to Japan"
3. Building the Hanamachi
4. The Look of a Geisha
5. The Music of MEMOIRS
6. A Geisha's Dance
7. The World of a Geisha
8. The Way of a Sumo
Bonus Footage - 1. Geisha Bootcamp

Ziyi Zhang: Chinese actor, CROUCHING TIGER.../MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
Ken Watanabe: Actor
Gong Li: Chinese Actress/"Ju-Dou"
Michelle Khan: Hong Kong Action Star
Koji Yakusho: JAPANESE ACTOR
 Mako: Character Actor/ THE SAND PEBBLES, CONAN THE BARBARIAN

Rob Marshall: 

Steven Spielberg: Director/Producer/Screenwriter
Roger Birnbaum: Producer/Executive
Lucy Fisher: Producer, STUART LITTLE 2 (2002)
Douglas Wick: Producer, GLADIATOR (2000)

Robin Swicord: Screenwriter
Doug Wright: screenwriter, QUILLS

John Williams: American Film Composer, STAR WARS (1977)

3 stars out of 5 -- "Zhang is loveliness incarnate. And the great Michelle Yeoh, her co-star in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, possesses a touching gravity..."
"The exquisite Ms. Gong looks like a gift that keeps on giving when trussed up in silk, but she and the film come most alive when her hair tumbles down and she sashays about the okiya, stirring the air with her tremulous rage."
"As beautiful-looking a film as you'll see....Often magical."
"On the evidence of Marshall's film, the geishas are like highly trained birds kept in intricately woven bamboo cages; they are made temporarily fascinating by the skills of the film's true artists -- its troika of fine leading actresses..."
"Dion Beebe's gorgeous cinematography is delivered with sharp images..."