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It was much better than I thought it would be. It would be a bit worried about the way they portray Japan and the geishas in general. But it was pretty well done, pretty authentic, there you couldn't hear a pin drop in the theatre. (What?)They've really kept the audience's time.
David, there is a little bit of controversy surrounding this film, and why don't you lay it around forth who is upset about this film and why?
Well, some of the Japanese are upset, only because their own actresses were not used. But the reason for that is A, there weren't enough powerful actresses who would fit the role, who could also speak English enough that would be easy to understand. And that, you know,I mean that's just a fact, so there is nothing you can do about that. The other issue is that some of the Chinese people who are somewhat nationalistic in nature, are upset that...that Chinese actresses would cross over to the Japanese side(Yeah.) and participate in such a Japanese film. And in a way, you know, right now there's a lot of political fiction, but in a way, the movie did, uh, beautify the Geishas to the extent that all the men were decent people, everybody was kind to each other basically. But in reality, I mean, you had er... during the war, the comfort women issue, which of course is not mentioned, even though there are many war scenes. There is a war's period during the movie, of course that's not even mentioned. And none of the men were particularly ,ur,what you would call crude or mean.(Yeah. Really.) So when you go back into history, especially if you're a Chinese or Korean rather from other parts of Asia, people have such vivid memories of Japanese activities during the war(Yeah.) that they might find the movie yield a little bit too soft, in those areas.
Well, David let me ask you one last question, if you're an American audience, this is... this is coming from an American book by an American author. I would think it is being made by an American director primarily, principally for the American film going audience. How much should we care about the... this controversy?
I would say that there is nothing to be concerned about(yeah.) when you think about the American audience, they will love it, they will like it. It's epic Oscar type of movie, and the historical era during the war, I don't think will be issues, not really that well known. (right)The Geisha world itself is such a non-known entity to Americans, they'll find it very enticing and mysterious, you know. For Japanese, of course, it's no bother really,so, it is a different approach to the movie, but I think I should say it's really made for the American audience. And I don't think they'll have any problem with the fact that Chinese acters are playing it. As a matter of fact, no one in the theatre really seemed that was unnatural after about five minutes and everybody speaks English.(Yeah.) And half of them being Chinese, after a while, it really made absolutely no difference at all, (ok)overall enjoyment of the movie.
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