Holizz versus the Web

Tonight I watched Memoirs of a Geisha. I must say that it’s the worst film I’ve seen in a long time.

The random interjections of Japanese amused me. I’m not entirely sure as to their purpose, but I understood most of it. I’m starting to understand the concept of categorising speech into understood and not understood.

Most of the time, Sayuri referred to Mameha as oneesan (literally, big sister), but once or twice she said honorable sister, which is a ridiculous mistranslation. In a sense the o of oneesan adds to the politeness of the word thus leading towards translating it as honorable, but then it’s the same o used in oyasumi (good night) – have an honorable sleep?

Most of the cast didn’t sound Japanese, nor did they look Japanese (since most of them aren’t Japanese). I doubt most people noticed, but it made me very aware that I was watching a movie shot almost exclusively in America. The book was so much more engaging.

Even bad films can at least engage me, but this really bored me near the end. I was tapping my geta and trying to remember some Japanese words I’d forgotten.