“Memoirs of a Geisha” is one of those novels I keep hearing mentioned, but have no idea why. Is it good? I hear the name a lot, but have never heard it used in conjunction with the words “good”. In fact I never hear any assessment of its quality offered whenever it is discussed. This leads me to believe that it is in fact a book that no one has read. Rather, people buy it and stick on their shelves to make themselves learned. Then they ask you if you’ve read it, and then nod their heads appreciatively regardless of how you respond.

Well, maybe Rob Marshall has read it, since he’s going through the trouble to make a movie out of it. The great thing about the film version is the presence of Ken Watanabe, who I’ve been dying to see more of since his unjustly Oscar snubbed performance last year in The Last Samurai.

Filming on Memoirs of a Geisha has just gotten rolling in Los Angeles this week (thus justifying this as a news story), and according to their press release, they’ll also be shooting in Japan and Northern California, home of the ultra-rare West Coast American Geisha. In addition to setting their camera lens on the greatness of Watanabe (whose name bears a delightful resemblance to that of a delicious noodle soup) they’ll be using the incredibly gorgeous Ziyi Zhang as part of the cast. At this point you’d expect me to divulge the identity of their obligatory white guy… but there isn’t one. Instead they’ve hired the only other semi-famous Asian actor on the market whose first name isn’t Jet and last name isn’t Lee, Michelle Yeoh.

I’m told the story is sweeping and romantic. Their press release uses words like “casts a potent spell”. None of these things sound very good, unless Rob Marshall is planning to intertwine all that in with Watanabe’s little known tap dance ability. Probably not. But the cast is solid, though their English may not be. So keep an eye out for Memoirs of a Geisha some time probably in 2005.

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