This entry will be different from my usual entry. I normally do not watch a lot movies. Very few movies speak to me, which may explain the lack of interest. But I do think if you look at a person’s favorite movies, you can learn something about who they are as a person. The movies that mean something to them reveal their heart. My roommate who wants to be a teacher loves the movie Freedom Writers, which is about a teacher who inspires her students to overcome racism and hold tight to the future ahead them, regardless of their background. Because indivudals are unique, movies that speak to each person differs. What speaks to you will not necessarily speak to me. Therefore your favorite movie will not be my favorite.
What you should know is that the movies I enjoy are typically bittersweet as well as tragic. To live is to experience rain as well as sunshine. Movies that are bittersweet as well as tragic involve suffering but a sense of victory or overcoming of suffering. My favorite movie is called Memoirs of a Geisha. The plot is too intricate to explain. But it speaks to me, and that is why I love it. “Geisha” is the japanese term for artist. A Geisha’s job is to entertain at social gatherings with music and dance. Historically, however, geishas could also at times be regarded as sex slaves. In this context, women did not choose to become geisha, they were forced into it to pay back their debts.
The story opens with Sayuri reflecting upon her life as a Geisha, starting from her childhood. She begins, “I wasn’t born to the life of a Geisha. Like so much in my strange life. I was carried there by the current.” As a child, Sayuri is sold to an okea, a place where she will be trained to become a geisha.
Throughout the movie, the circumstances of Sayuri’s life are beyond her control. Her attempt to escape from the okea fails and as a result she is forced to become a slave. She is now utterly and totally alone; her sister has run away without her and her mother and father have passed away. Sayuri has nothing…no hope, no future.
A frequent symbol used in the movie is water, because “water can carve its way, even through stone. And when trapped, water makes a new path.” Sayuri finds the courage to forge a new path, despite all opposition throughout her life. Sayuri finds her hope restored after encountering unconditional love for the first time.
One day Sayuri meets a man known as the Chairman. On this occassion, the Chairman shows Sayuri kindness and love without strings attached; he does not love her because of what she can do for him or for what she can give. He is kind to her without a desire to get something in return. This pure love gives Sayuri the hope to endure the trials that accompany her life. Older Sayuri reflects on the encounter, “In that moment I changed from a girl, facing nothing but emptiness to someone with purpose.”
Finally, in the course of time Sayuri has her chance at a new path; Mameha takes Sayuri under her wing to train her to become a geisha and thus free her from her life as a slave. But the deeper she journeys into the mysterious world of geisha, the more insight she gains into this mysterious world. To the naked eye, the world of a geisha seems to be nothing but beautiful and captivating. But behind it lies darkness.
You could draw many parallels from the movie to real life. The world of a geisha gives insight into the nature and demand behind the sex industry. As Mameha reveals, “We create another secret world, a place only of beauty.” Men trapped in arranged marriages and their own harsh realities look to the Geishas to accompany them and create for them a world of fantasy. This best describes what drives the sex industry - lonely men seeking out the affirmation of beautiful women. They look to these women to create for them a secret world, a world of fantasy in which they are wanted and accepted by beautiful women, no matter who they are. But fantasy, of course, is not reality.
Sayuri finally sees the Chairman again and converses with him beneath the Sakura, or Cherry Blossom, tree. In Japanese culture, the Cherry Blossom symbolizes love and affection as well as the ephermeral, fleeting nature of life. The Chairman muses, “you have to savour life while you can…We must not expect happiness Sayuri, it is not something we deserve. When life goes well, it’s a sudden gift, it cannot last forever.”
When Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom it is absolutely beautiful and mesmorizing. Typically, the flowers on the tree bloom and fall in a weeks time. It’s beauty, though awe-inspiring, is short-lived. This is the nature of life - fleeting and ephemeral. When life goes well, it is a sudden gift that we should savour. “The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” Ps 103: 15-16
Sayuri is repeatedly used and abused by others, trampled on again and again. Everything in her life says that she is worthless. Sayuri fights to cling to the belief that she has worth and value in the face of circumstances that say otherwise. At the height of the movie, Sayuri’s life is most out of control; Nobu, a man who has helped to save her life, now wants to own it in return. Tormented by the prospect of continuing to live her life in bondage to others, Sayuri desperately ponders a way to break away from Nobu.
Mameha, however, opposes Sayuri’s decision: “You cannot refuse him, you must not.” “But Mameha…” “What is he to think? He safeguarded your life!” “So he owns it?!” “Sayuri, I know what it is like to try to scrape by without a patron.” “I would do something, anything else.” “Letting rooms, scrounging for every meal? Is this the life that you want?” “I want a life that is mine!” “Nobu has never treated you with anything other than kindness.” “I don’t want mere kindness.” “What? What more can we expect? We’re Geisha.”
Sayrui reveals what the heart desires. The heart does not want mere kindness, kindness that is kind because of what it can gain in return or because that is simply what is expected. She wants true kindness, based on love, not gain, kindness that does not hold a debt over your head.
Nobu has in fact been kind, but Nobu’s kindness is situational. His kindness is based upon convenience. He was kind to Sayuri not just for her benefit, but for his own; as a result, he feels entitled to her. His kindness brings Sayuri into debt and obligation to him. His act of kindness is a stark contrast to the Chairman’s kindness to Sayuri.
Unfortunately, Sayuri’s scheme at freedom backfires. Sayuri is betrayed by a close companion, and her scheme instead hurts the Chairman. Disgraced and utterly ashamed, Sayuri loses what hope she had left for a better life. Sayuri reflects, “The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves…until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains. She paints her face to hide her face. Her eyes like deep water. It is not for Geisha to want. It is not for Geisha to feel. Geisha is an artist of the floating world. She dances. She sings. She entertains you, whatever you want. The rest is shadows. The rest is secret.”
This is the woman the world desires. This is the model women trapped in the sex industry. She entertains you, whatever you want. She hides herself, her real self, and becomes a mystery, a fantasy for men. She wears a mask, always happy, never revealing her true emotions or her agony. The men never hear what really goes on beneath the mask. They are oblivious because they’re paying her to hear that they are something special. They are paying for a fantasy.
At the end, Sayuri receives an unexpected visit from the Chairman that changes everything.
Sayuri: Chairman! Where is Nobu-san?
Chairman: He won’t be coming.
Sayuri: Is something wrong?
Chairman: He knows what happened. It is not in his nature to forgive.
Sayuri: Chairman, what happened on the island…
Chairman: Please, you do not have to explain.
Sayuri: But I have shamed myself so deeply…past all forgiveness.”
The Chairman goes on to reveal how he was the one responsible for Mameha getting Sayuri out of slavery. He reveals that he asked Mameha to take Sayuri under her wing. The Chairman had stepped aside and kept his silence because of Nobu. But, now, he could not wait any longer.
Chairman: I hope… it is not too late.
Sayuri: Can’t you see? Every step I have taken, since I was that child on the bridge, has been to bring myself closer to you.
The Chairman and Sayuri are finally together after all that has happened to keep them apart. Sayuri ends her story, “You cannot say to the sun ‘more sun,’ or to the rain ‘less rain.’…And yet to learn of kindness after so much unkindness. To understand that a little girl with more courage than she knew, would find that her prayers were answered. Can that not be called happiness?”
Did you see it? Did you see the traces of the story of redemption and salvation? If not, look again…
