Entertainment

11:08 AM CST on Friday, December 16, 2005

By CHRIS VOGNAR / The Dallas Morning News

Most American moviegoers probably don't care that Memoirs of a Geisha , set in Japan before and during World War II, is peopled mostly by Chinese actors. And the average viewer is probably ecstatic that the film is in English. Only black-and-white scares away timid escapists more than subtitles.

But it's not hard to see why the casting and language questions create problems for some in the East and for others who don't live in a historical vacuum.

First things first. Director Rob Marshall and Columbia Pictures have the right to cast whomever they want in whatever they want. The Geisha actors do a fine job, particularly Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li. Mr. Marshall has been adamant that he cast the best actors available, regardless of country of origin, and I'm sure he's right.

But he can't be surprised at the more vitriolic responses to his decisions. Chinese director Chen Kaige is just one of many to raise objections. Internet chat rooms have also been abuzz with protest.

Japan occupied China from 1931 to 1945. As the late Iris Chang chronicled in her book The Rape of Nanking, the 1937 assault on Nanking was a horrific affair: up to 300,000 Chinese civilians slaughtered; up to 80,000 women raped. These atrocities have only been magnified by Japan's refusal to acknowledge them.

Movies are enormously powerful cultural symbols, and they've always been closely tied to nationalism. And it's not like we're talking about ancient history here. Sixty years is a drop in the bucket for countries with histories as vast as those of China and Japan.

Then there's the movie's subject matter. Geisha are not prostitutes; they're elegant arm candy, companionship hired to make men comfortable. Many have pointed out that Japanese troops stole Chinese women and used them as "comfort women" throughout the war. Now Chinese actresses star in the Hollywood version of the geisha life. For some, that cuts a little close to home.

It would be great to say the world is past such conflicts and details. It would also be naive. Yes, American stars have long played characters from other countries. Charlton Heston played a Mexican police inspector in Touch of Evil. Marlon Brando was a Japanese interpreter in Tea House of the August Moon.

But these casting decisions don't carry the same kind of cultural freight as Geisha. A movie about Japanese, set in Japan, features Chinese actors speaking English with Japanese accents. From a Chinese perspective, this means some of your country's most glamorous stars are in a high-profile movie set in the World War II era, as citizens of a country that pillaged your own and hasn't apologized. From a Japanese perspective, it means your own actors, and your own language, have been cast aside to meet Hollywood needs.

There's nothing simple about that.

E-mail cvognar@dallasnews.com