The film feels overly long and drawn out, I guess there is a fine line between the portrayal of mundanity and the inducement of boredom. Without wanting to seem too elitist, it feels like exactly what it is: a Hollywood spectacle... perhaps in the hands of an art-house director it would feel somewhat different.
There was a lot of complaints from both Japan and China when it was revealed that the lead female roles were going to be given to the sirens of Chinese cinema (Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh). Chinese women were too good to the Chinese to be portraying Japanese, and Chinese people aren't Japanese said the Japanese, never mind the fact that they would be speaking English (a very foreign language for the first two, I believe) in a Hollywood movie. The voices were the worst part for me: sure, it's great to use real nationals to play roles, but sometimes the words came out like an episode of Beck (or those 'American' submariners in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S). What I found most surprising is that Michelle Yeoh clearly struggled, I am quite certain that English was a very major language in her childhood (her second language, but from a young age)... Maybe she is just rusty. All the actors made good attempts, but the mama-san (a native Japanese speaker) and Hatsumono (Gong Li's character) were sometimes quite difficult to understand.
Now, it would have been far more preferable for me if they would have used Asian-Americans to play the parts, or at least people with a much stronger history of English. That's not to say that I didn't like the girls, it just appears that you should really do things in one of two ways: native language with subtitles (not really possible when the girls also don't speak Japanese), or use make sure that native language is English (but not dubbing...) (also, this is true for a few of the minor roles). The problem is that the lines are easily mangled or badly emphasised by foreign speakers.
However, that said, the girls were brilliantly cast. Suzuka Ohgo, the young Chiyo, did a fantastic job of speaking English, and furthermore the likeness between her and Ziyi Zhang is uncanny. Gong Li is as sultry and gorgeous as ever, on form even with language problems. Ken Watanabe and Koji Yakusho also do a pretty good job. Of course, all the actors do an excellent job on the language front, but as I said, it's just as though something is lacking in their lines. However, some of the best bits were the Japanese, unsubtitled bits (the start mainly) where the feeling is arguably more apparent.
The blue eyes thing really irked me... I know Arthur Golden included it in the book, and in the film there were times were it worked really well and subtlely, but then when it was glaringly pointed out and became the subject of conversation god knows how many times, it just wore thin. Plus, how natural can it be? Unless Chiyo's mum was playing away from home
Where the film worked most for me was in the cinematography. The beauty and darkness of mid-20th Century Japanese society were beautifully portrayed. The sakura viewing party had a stunning landscape, as did the Japanese garden elements. Oh, and another element I really liked was the radio excerpts (in English) that tell you where you are at in history: invasion of Manchuria, start of World War II, etc.
It's not a bad film, just an average one in my eyes. You should probably see it at least once, but don't expect grand things.
By far the most interesting event of the night was seeing mrandyyu with a girl! I'm waiting for details but I put this to him now: let me know if you fancy a night at Le Figaro with the girls
I could do with a nice meal and the scandalous whispering is piquing my interest 