(no subject)
... there are reasons I'm not going to see the upcoming Memoir of a Geisha. For one, the book was mediocre. For another, the book was written by a white man. For a third, the movie is being directed by a white man. The cinematographer is a white man. The writers are all white men. The costumer is a white woman. Most of the Japanese characters are played by Chinese or Korean actors. The costume design, production and cinematography are all regrettably, busily un-Japanese, while what dialogue I've heard reeks of the usual exoticism with which American studios treat Asian subject matter. So what if the Oscar buzz is huge? So what if it gets exposure for Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi, who are incidentally three of my favorite actresses? It's blackface, folks. It's the Indians in Disney's Peter Pan raising their hands and saying 'How'. You probably won't learn anything new from it; I know I wouldn't. It may try to 'explain' geisha and, by extension, Japan to you, but it will most assuredly be wrong.
Cultural dialogue works, for the most part, when it's authentic. Anything else is like playing Telephone in a language that you don't speak.
Cultural dialogue works, for the most part, when it's authentic. Anything else is like playing Telephone in a language that you don't speak.