Rosalind Chao (Chinese) playing Keiko O’Brien nee Ishikawa (Japanese)
Garrett Wang (Chinese) Playing Harry Kim, (sounds more like Korean, but the character’s ethnicity was never explicity mentioned)
Jaqueline Kim (Korean) Playing Demora Sulu (Japanese)
How about Western actors who take on roles spanning ethnicities and nationalities? Doesn
Given that Western actors are routinely playing different nationalities and not even bothering to get the accents right (the wooden Kevin Costner as Robin Hood with an American accent? 
Gimme a break!), I guess Hollywood thought Asian stars could do that too. But racism in Asia runs deep, and they touched a raw nerve with this one.
Personally, I’d prefer British actors doing Robin Hood and Bond, and Japanese actors for Japanese roles, and so on, unless there are no qualified actors available, and an actor from elsewhere has the right face and accent to cross over.
Maryl Streep as Lindy Chanmberlain. Someone around here has her famous “the dingo took my baby” as a signature. I’m sorry, though she did alright, I’m yet to hear a yank pull off a convincing Aussie accent.
Dunno about Russel Crowe in Beautiful mind, he sounded alright to me.
HG
Owz this, myte? 
I’d rather smell the glove!
HG
Have to agree on that one. I didn’t think about this as an issue at all when I watched the movie last week. What I did have a problem with though was everyone speaking English with a fake Japanese accent, straight up horrible.
Have to agree on that one. I didn’t think about this as an issue at all when I watched the movie last week. What I did have a problem with though was everyone speaking English with a fake Japanese accent, straight up horrible.[/quote]
I. heard. the. actors. speak. like. this. each. time. they. open. their. mouths.
I don’t think, in fact I would bet my life on it, that the casting was based on studio bosses figuring that all Asians look alike to white folks. What their decision was based on was star power, audiance familarity and bottom line-money. There are no female stars in America that are Japanese and the audiences are familar with. All of these actress, have a fan base in America which translates into dollars for studio bosses. Most of whom couldn’t tell you what Citizen Kane was really about.
I’ve been watching “Geshia” for the past couple of days. Yes it is that Freakin boring. And I read the book when I was in Japan. The movie is like the book,IMO a man’s subtle vouyeristic(sp) fetish of the world of women who are 'demure and submissive". The movie should have been directed by a woman, since this is about women’s lives in a certain world. Also, Hollywood should have taken the risk to cast a Japanese woman. But just like with the movie “Selina” where they supposedly did a nationwide search and ended up with Jennifer Lopez :loco: the whole decision process was based on $$$$$$.
I think it’s all down to poetic license for the sake of entertainment … or making loads of money in the name of entertainment
Zhang Ziyi looks no more Japanese than Brad Pitt looks like Achilles, but she’s hot and famous, and will therefore be a financially excellent choice. Most people won’t mind because it doesn’t affect them, and some will use it to express views that they had before the choice was made.
It could also have been done on purpose in order to create a stir and thus more publicity. I’m sure more people in Japan will watch the movie now than if there were Japanese actresses as the leads.
Anyway, I’m still gonna watch the movie and will still enjoy it if it’s good. I don’t think that will be decided by whether or not the geishas slits (in their eyes) are Chinese or Japanese. If an Irishman can play Alex the Great, then I"m sure they’ll be able to pull it off!
teggs
[quote=“teggs”]I think it’s all down to poetic license for the sake of entertainment … or making loads of money in the name of entertainment
Zhang Ziyi looks no more Japanese than Brad Pitt looks like Achilles, but she’s hot and famous, and will therefore be a financially excellent choice. Most people won’t mind because it doesn’t affect them, and some will use it to express views that they had before the choice was made.
It could also have been done on purpose in order to create a stir and thus more publicity. I’m sure more people in Japan will watch the movie now than if there were Japanese actresses as the leads.
Anyway, I’m still gonna watch the movie and will still enjoy it if it’s good. I don’t think that will be decided by whether or not the geishas slits (in their eyes) are Chinese or Japanese. If an Irishman can play Alex the Great, then I"m sure they’ll be able to pull it off!
teggs[/quote]
You know if it’s all about $$, recognition of a star in the US, and using Japanese ethnic actors, they could have used the many, many renowned Japanese or Japanese-American porn stars that are household names in the US and abroad to play a geisha.
Absolutely right JB.
I read a report the other day that China’s censor was vexed by the film and considering banning it on concerns it would ignite another round of Japan bashing. However, pirated DVDs are already available all over the country. Hooray for the black market!
HG
I can’t understand why this is such a big deal elsewhere in the world when it’s not really been a big issue here :s
[quote=“Miranda”]I’ll be interested to see how they turn this book, which is about the selling into sexual slavery of a pre-pubescent Japanese girl, into any kind of film at all. There’s not much to the book other than, “Ooh, look what the Japanese used to do! Golly!” and it’s not well written. It will trade on the fact that we have an American writing about Asians for a market of white Americans and Europeans who would have difficulty finding Japan on a map. A sort of new James Clavell, except thank God not as verbose. We can see how much attention is being paid to authenticity with the selection of actors. Do people here really think there are no Japanese actors who can speak English? Wow.
I think the film will be hilarious. Presumably the dialogue will be in English. So, I wonder will it follow the war movie style of each character saying a few lines in Japanese and then launching into heavily German-accented, sorry, “Japanese-accented” English for the rest of the film? Why Chinese actresses? So Gong Li and that Zhang “I’ll Shag Any Director That Gets My Talentless Ass Into A Film” Ziyi are famous Chinese actresses. So I guess the criteria for the studio was any famous actress from Asia who will speak English with a thick accent. I presume the main reason US actresses couldn’t be used is that their English would be too good! Obviosuly I am assuming here that the studio doesn’t think these actors are capable of putting on an accent.
Anyway, this is hardly a new thing. We’ve had Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans playing (with ) each other for years on the screen.[/quote]
No Geishas are not prostitutes or whores, but entertainers and artists, and not for sex, so I don’t know why you have that preconcieved notion that they are. In fact Geishas hold a privaledged spot in Japanese society, while whores do not.
PS: I didn’t see the movie so and the book was written by some Caucasian guy, and not an autobiography, so what do you expect?
Finally came to Taidong ("opens island-wide- HAH!) and the woman at the box-office tried to warn me away, as it was a Japanese movie with Chinese subtitles and I wouldn’t understand it- tried to explain to her that it was an American movie, but she wasn’t convinced, and wouldn’t believe I could read Chinese well enough to catch the story. Finally got a ticket by saying I was just taking my wife and didn’t want to see it anyway (true enough)
I just saw the movie tonight and here’s my soft side - The movie was beautiful but I was hoping the ending would have took another twist.
I read the book first and then watched the movie, which most of the time, books are better than movies.
Michelle’s acting was wayy better than Zhang, her English is better too. Then again, Zhang’s line is usually one sentense, nothing more or less…
[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”][quote=“Miranda”]I’ll be interested to see how they turn this book, which is about the selling into sexual slavery of a pre-pubescent Japanese girl, into any kind of film at all. There’s not much to the book other than, “Ooh, look what the Japanese used to do! Golly!” and it’s not well written. It will trade on the fact that we have an American writing about Asians for a market of white Americans and Europeans who would have difficulty finding Japan on a map. A sort of new James Clavell, except thank God not as verbose. We can see how much attention is being paid to authenticity with the selection of actors. Do people here really think there are no Japanese actors who can speak English? Wow.
I think the film will be hilarious. Presumably the dialogue will be in English. So, I wonder will it follow the war movie style of each character saying a few lines in Japanese and then launching into heavily German-accented, sorry, “Japanese-accented” English for the rest of the film? Why Chinese actresses? So Gong Li and that Zhang “I’ll Shag Any Director That Gets My Talentless Ass Into A Film” Ziyi are famous Chinese actresses. So I guess the criteria for the studio was any famous actress from Asia who will speak English with a thick accent. I presume the main reason US actresses couldn’t be used is that their English would be too good! Obviosuly I am assuming here that the studio doesn’t think these actors are capable of putting on an accent.
Anyway, this is hardly a new thing. We’ve had Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans playing (with ) each other for years on the screen.[/quote]
No Geishas are not prostitutes or whores, but entertainers and artists, and not for sex, so I don’t know why you have that preconcieved notion that they are. In fact Geishas hold a privaledged spot in Japanese society, while whores do not.
PS: I didn’t see the movie so and the book was written by some Caucasian guy, and not an autobiography, so what do you expect?[/quote]
Only the “top” Geishas were pure entertainers. The cheaper ones were also courtesans (though I suppose they were dismissed as being not real geisha)(kinda like top actors now are only entertainers, but struggling actors often turn to stripping, porn, or prostitution). And it was a sort of slavery, since girls were sold by poor families to be groomed into geishas.
Hate to split hairs, but there it is.
Sad…but true…I remember a female friend of mine who attended the Royal Academy of Dance in London…she mentioned something like 60 percent of the female ballerinas were hookers on the side…I guess being bendably flexible can come in handy for the night job. 
I haven’t seen geisha and probably never will but I am assuming it can’t ne as bad as the new “batcrap begins” with Micheal Cain and that ego maniac, what’s his name, from American Psycho. Batcrap begins. Now that is a truly bad movie. I mean deeply, profoundly even, bad. Look up bad and I’m sure it will say - Batman begins. My friend made a copy of a pirated copy and it was still a rip-off. I can’t believe I wasted two hours of my life on that piece of shit.