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In Reply to: Taking you to task posted by Victor Khomenko on December 9, 2005 at 16:42:44:
I would say, Yes, she is obviously not japanese to the asian viewer. Crouching Tiger was not a success in mainland china (it was laughed at, in fact) because it had Taiwanese actors attempting to play what were essentially mainland characters...
Follow Ups:
I meant "Hong Kong" actors, not Taiwanese...
But I strongly disagree with that notion... when Omar Sharif played Dr. Zhivago the failure (or lack thereof) of the film had NOTHING to do with the fact the actor was obviously not a Russian type.
...and it is clear that these are Chinese actors speaking English; pronunciation, intonation, mannerisms.....none of it Japanese.....most american audiences won't notice this, but it is rather disconcerting if you know Japan and Japanese...they are just out of place in this context.
You can say opera is more symbolic than movies, but in reality this is not so - all performing art has this, and we expect the actor's talent to shine through the layer of superficial details.I intentionally mentioned the Rose. In the case of Geisha you are familiar with the details, and you are stuck on them. We all are far less aware of the subtleties of the 14th century life, so pretty much everything goes - including actor's impecably groomed beard.
Much has been written on whether a black actor could convincingly play Hamlet. I don't see why not.
...in what we are willing to accept. And, you're right--familiarity has a lot to do with it. A black actor playing Hamlet woudn't bother me, but part of that might be that Hamlet tends to transcend the time for which it was written. It doesn't really matter that Hamlet was a Dane in the grand scheme of things.Americans are notriously naive about other cultures and ethnic groups, and "Memoirs of a Geisha" is just another in a long line of examples regarding Asia.
I would venture to guess that this movie will not do well in Japan (because of the Chinese actresses--not their fault, mind you), nor will it do well in China--the problems between these two countries run deep and to this day. It's only real chance is in the US....
But that may be based in the dislikes the two peoples still to large degree have towards each other more than the actress' nationality.Shame... really...
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