Memoirs of a Geisha

What is Communication?

Communication is the activity of getting across and conveying information to others. Communication is divided into verbal and non-verbal communication. In combination with non-verbal forms of communication, verbal communication acts as the primary tool for expression between two or more people. Interpersonal communication and public speaking are the two fundamental types of verbal communication. Public speaking involves one or more people delivering a message to a group, while interpersonal communication generally refers to a two-way process that involves both talking and listening.
Verbal communication can be used to inform, inquire, argue and discuss topics of all kinds. It is vital to teaching and learning, as well as forming bonds and building relationships with other people. Non-verbal communication on the other hand, describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Research shows that the majority of our communication is non-verbal, also known as body language.
Some of non-verbal communication includes chronemics, haptics, proxemics, gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles, architecture, symbols infographics, and tone of voice as well as through an aggregate of the above. Non-verbal communication is also called silent language and plays a key role in human day to day life from employment relations to romantic engagements. Ultimately, verbal and non-verbal communication both are meant to communicate or to tell others something.

What is Intercultural Communication?

          The primary purpose of intercultural communication is to increase understanding and to enhance communication between the diversed world. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In order to communicate with someone of different cultural background without offending them, is to understand what is right and wrong in their culture.
Aside from language, intercultural communication focuses on social characteristics, thought patterns, and the cultures of various groups of people. It also involves understanding the different cultures, languages and customs of people from other countries.
Not understanding one’s culture might offend them. For example, thumbs up may mean good job in a place but different in another. As a conclusion, Intercultural communication is extremely important especially now in a multi-cultural society.

Memoirs Of A Geisha

 

The history of movie

Memoirs of a Geisha is a film adaptation in the year 2005, of the novel of the same name, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Spyglass Entertainment and by Douglas Wick's Red Wagon Productions. It was directed by Rob Marshall and was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures and DreamWorks. The memoirs of Geisha stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Suzuka Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie. The movie was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, Japan including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine.


The movie tells the story of a young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into slavery by her family. Her new family then sends her off to school to become a geisha. This movie is mainly about older Chiyo, who was later given the name Sayuri and her struggle as a geisha to find love and in the process, making a lot of enemies. The film was nominated and won numerous awards, including nominations for six Academy Awards, and eventually won three out of six that are Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Later on, the film was released in Japanese with the title Sayuri, the film protagonist’s geisha name.

The movie review

Memoirs of a Geisha was set in Japan during the Showa Era which tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto, a young, poor, Japanese girl who is sold along with her older sister Satsu into a life of slavery by her parents when she is nine years old.

Young Chiyo

She was then sent by her new master to a ‘okiya’ or a geisha house. Chiyo is ‘chosen’ by the proprietress of the geisha house, oka-san which is Japanese for ‘Mother’, but Satsu is rejected and is sold to another house in the "pleasure district" of Hanamachi.

Oka-San/Mother

At the okiya, she meets another young girl named "Pumpkin”. Both girls are sent off to geisha school but Chiyo dishonors the okiya by attempting to run away and is then forced to work to pay off the debt of her purchase and for dirtying a silk kimono owned by a renowned geisha. Chiyo did so as she was blackmailed by another geisha, Hatsumomo, who also is a geisha in the okiya, a rival of Mameha. Hatsumomo is famous, beautiful and cruel but is also very jealous of Mameha. Chiya is then beaten by oka-san.

Hatsumomo

Chiyo runs away to find her sister Satsu. They arranged to meet by the Sakame bridge the day after as soon as it is dark and to escape together. When she returns in secret, she sees Hatsumomo and a young man named Koichi having sex in the shed. When she heard Mother coming, Hatsumomo shoos Koichi away and makes it appear that Chiyo was stealing money. Facing a beating, Chiyo tells Mother that Hatusmomo was having sex with a man. Mother proves it by checking her private and slaps Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo never sees Koichi again.


When Chiyo escapes again to run away with her sister, she is forced to use a different route. However she failed this attempt too after falling from the rooftop of another okiya which she tried to use to escape. The okiya happens to be the okiya of Satsu and the Mother of the okiya told her that Satsu ran away that night, without waiting for Chiyo. She never sees her again, and Mother tells her to forget that she ever had a sister, explaining, 'We are your only family now.' The Mother then places a package on her stomach, which contains a letter reporting the death of her mother, and then, a few weeks after, her father. Chiyo realised that she has no one else in the world, so she worked for Mother as a slave to repay her debts.


One day while crying in the street, the young Chiyo is noticed by the Chairman and his geisha companions. He then buys her an iced sorbet (kakigōri) and gives her his handkerchief with some money in it. Enthused by his act of kindness, Chiyo decides to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of the Chairman’s life. She spends the money, not on food, but on prayer, wishing to see him again.

Young Chiyo and her first encounter with chairman

Chiyo, now a young woman, is taken under the wing of Mameha, who has forgiven her for her actions as a child. Under Mameha's guidance, Chiyo becomes a maiko, a geisha in training. Mameha changed her name to Sayuri and soon becomes the most famous geisha in all Gion, Kyoto. Through her work as a geisha, Sayuri reunites with the Chairman and longs to catch his attention, but instead has to lead on the Chairman's friend and business partner Nobu, who falls fast for her.

Mameha

Hatsumomo becomes Sayuri's rival and seeks to destroy her. As Sayuri grows in popularity, Hatsumomo spreads lies and rumours to ruin Sayuri's reputation. Meanwhile Mameha starts a bidding war for Sayuri's mizuage, which is a ceremony undergone by a Japanese maiko to signify her coming of age. The mizuage which will make her a full geisha. Sayuri gets named the lead dancer for the Spring Dances, where she dances wonderfully and catches the attention of bidders, including the Baron, Mameha's danna, who invites Sayuri to his house for a party and gives her a kimono. He, however, forcefully strips her.

Sayuri's Spring Dance

After the party Mameha hears what happened and believes that the Baron took Sayuri's virginity, and claims that Sayuri's bids may not come through if she is found to be "worthless." Sayuri cries and tells Mameha that nothing happened and she is not worthless. That night the bid is finally placed by an elderly doctor known as Doctor Crab, for 15,000 yen, the highest mizuage bid in history.


Mother then chooses to "adopt" Sayuri as the heiress of the okiya, a title that Pumpkin and Hatsumomo had been longing for. Mameha tells Sayuri later that the bid was down to two people, Dr. Crab and the Baron, but Mameha let it go to Dr. Crab because of her feelings for the Baron, despite his bid being even higher.


When returning home, Sayuri finds Hatsumomo in her room. Hatsumomo found the Chairman's handkerchief and attempts to burn it, but unsuccessfully. Sayuri and Hatsumomo fights and accidentally start a fire. Finally to her breaking point, Hatsumomo purposely begins to burn the rest of the house and then leaves, knowing she has reached the bottom.


Sayuri's flourishing life is then cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While the safety of Sayuri and Mameha is ensured by the Chairman, they must endure a life of hard labour. Sayuri and Mameha are separated, with Sayuri going to the hills to work for a kimono maker. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geisha once more to impress an American Colonel that is going into business with Nobu and the Chairman.


Sayuri meets back up with Pumpkin who is now a risqué, flirty escort/prostitute who tries to act like a geisha. Sayuri goes on a trip with Nobu, the Chairman, Pumpkin and the Americans to the Amami Islands. While they are conversing in an onsen, Sayuri participates in the game 'Truth and Lies'. She started to explain the "story" of how, when she was a little girl, a 'handsome man was kind enough to buy me a cup of sweet ice'. Before she can continue, the Chairman interrupts and changes the subject, clearly uncomfortable with her statement.

Nobu

Afterwards, the Colonel attempts to "hire" Sayuri for "services", but is rejected. Nobu saw the incident and confronts Sayuri. He has thought that they, Sayuri and the Colonel had made an arrangement. Finally, he confesses his feelings and that he wants to be her danna. Sayuri is distraught and devises a plan to humiliate herself with the Colonel in front of Nobu. She arranges for Pumpkin to bring Nobu by an abandoned theater at a predetermined time, and "stumble" upon Sayuri and the Colonel making love. But because her secret resentment of Sayuri for being adopted by Mother, Pumpkin brings the Chairman instead. Sayuri believes that the Chairman is lost to her forever.

Pumpkin

A few days later Sayuri discards the Chairman's handkerchief by throwing it off a cliff above the sea, and later receives a call to go to the teahouse. While waiting Sayuri expects Nobu to arrive, but instead the Chairman comes where he finally reveals to her that he knows she is Chiyo. He tells her that he was responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she could fulfill her dreams of becoming a geisha. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harbouring for over fifteen years. The film ends with their loving embrace and kiss and a stroll through a beautiful Japanese garden with waterfalls and rocks.

 

The Cultural Aspect Of The Memoirs Of a Geisha

Although the majority of the movie was spoken in English, a little Japanese was spoken too. Important terms such as names, maiko, danna, oka-san, one-san and etc is maintained in Japanese with the right pronunciation.


Despite the language, Memoirs of a Geisha, no matter where it was filmed, portrayed a very good geisha culture in Gion, Japan. It shows with such perfection the art of becoming a true geisha from dance, to music; flirting to manners; hair to make-up and so on. In the movie, it showed the process of training and the transformation and of a slave girl to an elegant geisha in few minutes. The stages of becoming a geisha are not an easy task. A maiko have to endure difficult levels of training.


Throughout the movie, all geishas are seen in a kimono. They wore high clogs called the okobo and handled the shamisen, which is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The tea-pouring ceremonies were also shown. Not to mention, the beautiful geisha fan dance and spring dance.


The movie also explained clearly that a Geisha do not engage in sexual activities. Geishas are entertainers. They entertain guests with art, music and elegance. A maiko will only lose her virginity to the highest bidder in the mizuage ceremony.


In the memoirs of a Geisha, the era of World War II was also shown. Of how the life of the Japanese people and every geisha including Sayuri’s changed. Ultimately, after going through hardship, they returned to what they were destined to be, a Geisha.


The memoirs of a Geisha is truly a beautiful story depicting the life of the mysterious Geisha of Japan.


”You cannot say to the sun "more sun", or to the rain "less rain". To a man, geisha can only be half a wife. We are the wives of nightfall. And yet, to learn kindness after so much unkindness, to understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find her prayers were answered, can that not be called happiness? After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.”