Entertainment

06:21 PM CST on Monday, December 12, 2005

By BARRY KOLTNOW / The Orange County Register

Novelist Arthur Golden never thought that his international best-seller Memoirs of a Geisha would be made into a movie.

Even after producers Douglas Wick and Lucy Fisher bought the movie rights, he didn't think it would be made into a movie.

"Hollywood buys a lot of stuff, but they don't make everything they buy," the author said. "Besides, this would be a long shot anyway. It would be a movie with an exotic subject and an all-Asian cast. Who knows if anyone in Hollywood would want to make this kind of a movie?"

Then Steven Spielberg expressed an interest, and everything changed.

"That was the first time that I imagined it might actually be made into a movie," Mr. Golden said. "That also was the first time I started to get excited about the possibility of it being made into a movie.

"My wife and I went to see Saving Private Ryan, and when it said 'Directed by Steven Spielberg,' I got a little chill down my spine. I turned to my wife and said: "Wouldn't it be amazing if one day we saw the words 'Memoirs of a Geisha directed by Steven Spielberg'?"

Well, Memoirs of a Geisha is opening in theaters (the film opens Friday in Dallas), and it does not say: "Directed by Steven Spielberg." Instead, it says: "Directed by Rob Marshall," and that seems to be just fine with everyone involved.

Mr. Wick, the Oscar-winning producer of Gladiator who optioned Memoirs of a Geisha upon its publication in 1997, said Mr. Spielberg dropped out shortly after his initial interest because he didn't feel he was the right director. However, he remained on the project as a producer.

The story is a fictionalized account of a young girl in pre-World War II Japan who is sold by her peasant family to work as a servant in a geisha house. Eventually, the young girl becomes an apprentice and learns the trade, transforming into a beautiful geisha.

Geishas (it's pronounced GAY-sha) are not prostitutes, but rather they are trained dancers, singers and musicians who are skilled in the art of conversation. They entertain wealthy businessmen at social functions but are not sexual escorts.

Once Mr. Spielberg dropped out of the running, Mr. Wick said he and his producing partner (Lucy Fisher is also his wife) began an exhaustive search for a new director.

"We needed a director who was capable of creating a whole new world," Mr. Wick said. "We needed a director who was a storyteller and understood the Dickens aspect of the story.

"It would be easy to make a less-good version of this book, but there was a great version to be made in the right hands."

Then the producers saw an early cut of Mr. Marshall's movie musical, Chicago, which went on to win six Oscars, including best picture.

"We knew immediately that Rob Marshall was our guy. He dealt with the rivalry between two women, he created a new world in period Chicago, he had an eye for the visual, and he had a background as a dancer and a choreographer so he would understand the discipline of the geishas. He was the perfect director for this job."

But Mr. Marshall wouldn't even return their calls.

So the producers decided on a different strategy. They started bombarding the director with gifts. "We sent him every Japanese-themed gift we could think of," Mr. Wick said, "from sake and books on geishas to Japanese prints. But I think what won him over was the Barbie doll dressed in a kimono."

Mr. Marshall isn't saying if the Barbie doll sealed the deal, but he agreed in 2003 to direct the $80 million film.

Casting became a thorny issue when Ziyi Zhang, the Chinese star of Hero and House of Flying Daggers, was picked to portray Sayuri, the lead character. Japanese actor Ken Watanabe was cast as her love interest, but some of the film's other important characters are played by Chinese actresses, including Michelle Yeoh.

There have been no threats of demonstrations or boycotts of the movie from Asian-American media watchdog groups, but those involved with the film said they are aware that it strikes a nerve with some people.

"We are very mindful of the cultural sensitivities," Mr. Wick said, "but in the end, we made a creative choice. Ziyi was the best actor for the part, period. And she is beguiling in this role. She has both an Audrey Hepburn innocence and a sophisticated beauty. I can't imagine any other actress in this role.

Ms. Zhang said she never hesitated when she was offered the role. "I am a professional actress, and that is what I do. I learn about a character, and then I play that character."

The actress said she didn't know anything about geishas before taking on the role, and learning about them became the second-most-difficult task in preparing for the role.

"The most difficult was learning English," she said. "When I heard that the entire movie would be in English, I worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. Now that it's over, I am very proud of what I was able to do."

Mr. Golden said he was unfamiliar with the world of geishas before he began preparing to write his book, which sold 4 million copies in English before being translated into 32 languages and remained on The New York Times best-seller list for two years.

"I didn't know anything about geishas when I lived in Japan in 1981 after school.

"It wasn't until I got back to the States and started thinking about writing a book. I remembered a guy I had met whose father was a businessman and whose mother was a geisha. Then I read Liza Dalby's book (Geisha, based on her experiences as the only American to be accepted as a geisha). That's when I decided to write a book about geishas.

"I imagine that a lot of people assume that I was fascinated with geishas my whole life, and then decided to write a book about them. But it is the opposite case. I decided to write a book, and then learned everything I would need to write a book."

Mr. Golden said he didn't see the finished film until three weeks ago in New York City.

"I was very impressed with the movie," he said, "but I have to admit that the experience was a little surreal. It was almost like it was happening to someone else. I had to remind myself that I dreamed this whole thing up."

Danna: a man who financially backs the geisha's expenses

Hanamachi: a geisha district

Maiko: Kyoto term for apprentice geisha

Obi: decorative sash tied around a kimono

Okasan: head of geisha household (addressed as "mother")

Okiya: geisha household

O-nesan: older geisha sister

Shamisen: stringed instrument used by geishas