China and Japan, which are usually at each other’s throats over something, finally seem to agree on one thing: Hollywood’s latest release is a cultural dud.
Hollywood’s “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which had its world premiere in Tokyo recently, has triggered consternation in Japan because none of the three lead actresses are Japanese; two of them are Chinese and another is an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia.
Citizens polled about the matter in Tokyo questioned why Hollywood chose Chinese actresses to portray geishas, quintessentially Japanese women trained in traditional arts of singing, dancing and accompanying wealthy men.
If there’s dismay in Japan, there’s outrage in China, but for a different reason: Many Chinese are beside themselves that the film’s star, Zhang Ziyi, China’s best-known actress, is depicted in the movie as having sexual relations with a Japanese man.
“She deserves to be chopped into a thousand bits,” said one Internet user, one of more than 1,000 people who posted on the subject at the Tianji (Sky’s Edge) Web portal.
“She should be deprived of Chinese citizenship,” another posting said.
Relations between China and Japan are at a low ebb. Despite deepening economic ties with Japan, China still harbors bitter feelings toward Japan dating to the period before and during World War II, when Japan invaded large parts of China and dealt brutally with the Chinese people.
The film, which was released recently in the United States, is an international production. Its director is American Rob Marshall. In addition to Zhang Ziyi, the movie stars Japanese actor Ken Watanabe (“The Last Samurai”), Chinese actress Gong Li and Malaysian martial-arts star Michelle Yeoh, an ethnic Chinese who’s playing the role of mentor to the movie’s protagonist.
This time being multiculural doesn’t help.