Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 205 Geisha Tragedy
Chiyo finally failed to see her sister Natsuko.

Her second escape plan also failed, and she could only learn from Mama-san that her sister Natsuko escaped alone.

At the same time, she also received a letter from her hometown, saying that her father and mother had passed away.

At this moment, Chiyo finally gave up.

But because she had brought discredit on home ownership, Mama-san stopped her geisha studies and asked her to work to repay the debt.

It was at this time that she met the president.

When he saw the president played by Zun Long on the screen, Bunch repeatedly praised: "It's so charming."

"Yes, I like his last emperor very much." Phoebe Sona next to him echoed.

"Me too." Fernando on the other side also shrugged.

"It seems we have the same aesthetic." Bunch smiled and continued watching the video.

With a snow-like complexion and thick black eye shadow, she looks like a ghost and is extremely beautiful.

Bunch watched her graceful dance on the screen. Although he didn't understand the culture of the island country, he could still appreciate the feeling of enjoyment.

Because she thought about everything she had endured, she felt that everything was not in vain.

Now let’s see how the story develops.

The audience watched in amazement as she danced on huge wooden clogs, and they all felt the huge strength under her frail body.

The story progresses little by little, with Chiyo and Hatsumomo confronting each other on different occasions.

On the bridge, the president comforted Chiyo, gave her a handkerchief, and bought her shaved ice.

As the music rose and fell, she began to dance, and snowflakes fell from her head.

However, the dance was soon interrupted by the appearance of Hatsumomo, who mocked Chiyo at the banquet.

It wasn't until Hatsumomo privately told other guests that Chiyo was a slut who could do anything she wanted, that the conflict between the two finally broke out.

She regained hope in life, and Bunch watched her running through the orange torii gates. The camera followed her steps through the layers of doors, as if leading to a new life.

"Beautiful... so beautiful." Bunch felt that with the audiovisual, color, and camera quality of this movie, there would definitely be no shortage of nominations for major awards.

Then she turned her head slightly, allowing everyone to see her makeup clearly.

Bunch looked away from the notebook and looked at Chiyo, who was receiving praise and gifts on the screen.

Thanks to Tang De.

When the melodious flute sounded, the lights dimmed, leaving only a silver-white light.

Because this scene will be the climax of the color and lighting of the entire film, after this scene ends, the entire film will enter a sad rhythm.

In order to change this view, Mamiyu won the position of the lead dancer in a large-scale geisha performance party for Chiyo's first night.

The film critics in the theater also praised it.

Yes, Tang De has improved this dance a lot, it is much longer and more difficult than the original version.

Little Chiyo walked out under the light. She was wearing a white kimono, holding a blue and transparent umbrella, and stepping on huge and heavy wooden clogs. The height made all the audience stunned.

Then the time of the film passed, and after a beautiful scenery transition, Chiyo grew up.

Chiyo-chan also sarcastically responded.

In this way, Chiyo started her career as a geisha.

At the same time, he wrote in the book: "The first night of a geisha is more important than their lives, because it is a necessary process to become a perfect geisha. They can only rely on ambitious men to have a quiet life in this troubled world." "

Bunch was amazed when he heard about the auction of a geisha's first night in the movie.

Chiyo started a crazy dance in the snowflakes. Her movements were violent, left and right, with tears in her eyes, like a confused person looking for the life she wanted in the snow.

At this time, the door suddenly opened and it was the president.

Until the day of the party, after rounds of geisha performances, Chiyo-chan made her final appearance.

Through the gap in the door, she peeked at Little Pumpkin's face that looked extraordinarily beautiful after makeup, and she was filled with envy.

Until she appeared with heavy makeup.

Chiyo ran away after looking at him, but the president kept watching her back.

A few days later, Zhen Meiyu, played by Michelle Yeoh, suddenly came to visit. She used her benefits to persuade Mamasang to take away Chiyo.

After that dance, she became the focus of all men's eyes, and her right to the first night was about to be auctioned.

"Good." Bunch wrote this scene in his notebook to provide content for subsequent film reviews.

She and Mamiyu learn fan dance, steps, language skills that geishas rely on to survive, and everything that can be used to please the powerful.

Two minutes later, the dance ended, and the audience immediately burst into warm applause.

When Zhang Ziyi saw her stunning dancing on the screen, she couldn't help but shed tears.

She is still working diligently, and the little pumpkin who studied with her has already appeared on the stage as a geisha.

This made Hatsumomo furious, but there was nothing she could do.

This made Chiyo-chan's eyes shine, and she began to admire the president.

But at this moment, she received an invitation from the baron.

The baron was the auctioneer of Mamiwa's first night right, and he once sold the highest price of 10,000 yen.

The era in the movie was still in World War II, and the exchange rate between the Japanese yen and the U.S. dollar was about 2.5 to 1, which means that Mamiwa's right to the first night was worth $4000.

This is undoubtedly a very high price, and it is also an important reason why geishas think that Mamiha is a palace-level geisha.

Little Chiyo accepted the baron's invitation, or she simply couldn't refuse such an invitation.

But before meeting the Baron, she met the president.

In fact, she still loves the president, but this society is a man's society, and love and love can be traded at this time.

For example, the president has been pushing Chiyo to his friend Nobue, played by Ken Watanabe.

Because he was a life-saving benefactor to the president, and because he liked Xiao Chiyo, the president reluctantly gave up his love and kept helping the two of them.

In the baron's yard, the president was still very graceful, which made Chiyo's heart flutter.

But the two of them never broke through, nor did they go any further.

However, when Chiyo faced the Baron alone at night, she found that he just wanted to take away her first night.

Fortunately, she resisted and cried, which made the Baron lose his interest.

And when Chiyo came back from the baron, her right to the first night finally had a price.

Fifteen thousand yen, six thousand US dollars. It is higher than Mamiyu's first night right, which indicates that Chiyo-chan will become a legend.

But Hatsumomo on the side was crazy. She couldn't believe that Chiyo could get such great favor. Jealousy and resentment filled her face.

What makes her even more unacceptable is that Mama-san suddenly announced that her house purchase will be inherited by Xiao Chiyo instead of Xiao Pumpkin as originally planned.

The inheritance of a house is related to everything the geisha will do after they grow old. They can train their own geishas and help them take care of themselves in their old age.

If there is no house to buy and no man is willing to provide for it, then the ultimate fate of the geisha will be nothing more than living in exile.

Bunch looked at the confrontation between Hatsumomo and Mama-san and cursed. Mama-san's words penetrated Hatsumomo's heart like a steel needle.

It also made him gradually understand the geisha's helplessness.

Only after the matter settled, Hatsumomo appeared in Chiyo's room, and the two had a violent argument. During the fight, Hatsumomo set the house on fire.

The down-and-out Hatsumomo finally left the home, the place she relied on for survival, and was never seen again.

Xiaochiyo replaced her and became the most outstanding geisha in the city.

Tang De also added many new scenes here to show Chiyo's life after becoming a palace-level geisha.

Her demeanor and expression gradually moved closer to Zhen Meiyu, becoming reserved and proud.

It was just the attack from the west that turned everything into dust.

All the dreams and prosperity came to nothing under the director's sanctions, and the geisha also changed from a superior woman to an embarrassed woman.

Fortunately, Chiyo was lucky and escaped the city with the help of the president.

The two people looked at each other quietly in front of the carriage, just like they first met on the small bridge many years ago.

Little Chiyo left the city and spent a year in a quiet mountainous area.

It wasn't until the end of the war that she saw Shen Jiang again.

Nobujiang came here to ask Chiyo to help him, because of his career and because he was an American.

To put it bluntly, he needs Chiyo-chan to use her charm to help him negotiate cooperation.

He and Chiyo talked about many follow-up matters, such as the president.

He was dead, killed in the flames of the war.

Chiyo was so sad that she and the president missed it after all.

But even so, she still agreed because she wanted to repay Shenjiang and also wanted to return to the place where she grew up to look at buying a house.

But when she came back, she found that everything had changed.

The streets were full of prostitutes, who wore kimonos and put on white powder, claiming to be geisha in broad daylight and providing services to American soldiers.

Mamiyu, a former palace-level geisha, was so depressed that she lost her former big house and various jewelry.

Even the little pumpkin changed from a geisha to a slutty prostitute, drinking wine and playing with the soldiers.

Only Ma-san, who buys a house, has not changed much and is still living a cool life.

Anyway, to her, it was just as simple as turning the geisha under her control into a prostitute.

Under Shen Jiang's arrangement, she met the top brass of the American military and successfully made him fall in love with her.

Then came the contract negotiated between Gou Xi and Shen Jiang in the house.

Seeing Zhang Ziyi's tears on the screen when she was violated, Bunch felt that his heart seemed to be broken.

It was a look that no longer cared about anything in the future. Perhaps when he learned of the death of the president, Chiyo lost hope in life.

At this point, the story has finally come to an end.

On the top of the cliff, Chiyo threw away the handkerchief given to her by the president with a lonely expression. The handkerchief drifted farther and farther with the wind, just like the relationship between the two and the former scenery of the geisha.

Then the narration sounded, it was the old voice of Chiyo Chiyo.

She said that the reason why she became a geisha was because of the arrangement of the president, who asked Mamiyu to train her.

She said that the president also liked her, and the reason why he didn't confess his love was because of Nobu Jiang.

She said that the president had been guarding her secretly. The baron failed to get her that time, and it was the president who helped him calm down.

But all this has passed. Little Chiyo has been around the US military and businessmen, inherited a house, and has not escaped the ultimate fate of generations of geisha.

The screen gradually dimmed, and as the subtitles appeared, Bunch couldn't calm down for a long time.

Assistant director Rob led the actors to stand up, and everyone applauded.

"Don De has made a wonderful and sad tragedy." Bunch sighed and applauded.

The next day, various media released film critics' reviews of "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Bunch's comments were also published on his personal website and in partner magazines.

"First of all, the conclusion: This is a tragedy of an era and a true portrayal of that era."

"Then let's talk about the score. On a 10-point scale, in my opinion, this movie can get 8.7 points. Excellent audio and video performance, excellent character growth, excellent movie ending, and not excellent narrative rhythm."

"Tang De's pictures and colors are as gorgeous as ever, without being cluttered. The long lens is used just right. What impressed me most was undoubtedly the look between Chiyo and Hatsumomo on a rainy night. The silence left by that space for imagination. great."

"The dancing in this movie is also very exciting. I have to praise the actors. Zhang Ziyi's crazy dance in the snow was so awesome that I couldn't breathe at all during the movie."

"As for the plot, I like the ending. Chiyo did not transcend the limitations of the times and became a character like Mama-san. This is a kind of reincarnation, and it is also different from ordinary love stories."

"But in terms of pacing, I think it's a bit slow. The two-and-a-half-hour viewing process is really long. In fact, it might be better to delete some people."

Fernando's review in The Hollywood Reporter was different from Bunch's.

"I think the pace of the film is moderate, because the concept of geisha and the environment they live in must be explained in length. If the speed is too fast, the audience will not be able to immerse themselves in it and understand their emotions."

"I like the sound and picture performance of the film and the various colorful colors, but I don't like the ending of the film. I think the heroine should take on the function of breaking through the limitations of the times and lead the audience on a path of awakening, rather than becoming the palm of a businessman. Although it is very real, I think it is a bit artificial.”

Phoebe Thorner of "Cinema Art" has a different focus than both of them. He talks about it from an actor's perspective.

"The character of Chiyo-chan is obviously the epitome of a geisha. She is shy, sensitive but not fragile. She is gorgeous, humble but still innocent. We can find all the beautiful qualities of a geisha in her."

"But I like Hatsumomo better. She lives a more real and willful life. She is like a rose with thorns. After the flowering period, only the hurtful thorns remain. It's like she has never given up, time and time again. pierced Chiyo’s disguise.”

"Although most of the movie is devoted to the fight between Hatsumomo and Chiyo, I can never hate her. Maybe it's because of Gong Li. She is so beautiful and performs so well that I can't hate her. she."

"In the final analysis, she is just a poor person. In this island country and in the geisha profession, everyone is the same."

Although the reviews of various film critics are different, everyone basically gave it an 8 or above.

When these movie reviews appeared, movie fans were also affected by them and prepared to go to the theater to see what happened.

(End of this chapter)