Saw "Geisha" the other day, even though I was wary cos of Golden's reputation as someone who took too Western a view of the geisha tradition, and I do feel the movie was very much made for Western audiences too. I can understand why it wouldn't be totally well received in Japan... But as an opportunity to see the lovely Ziyi on the big screen again, and looking just gorgeous, it was welllll worth seeing! She was just breathtakingly lovely...
And gave a great performance, as expected... Her English is certainly pretty decent now (and no sign of Eminem's influence, heh heh!)
I *really* object to how for Western consumption she has had to become Ziyi Zhang instead of Zhang Ziyi - I understand this has actually happened officially. Really makes me mad (and I'm not Asian, btw) that the English-speaking world still can't accommodate the fact that other languages use a different convention for name order.
Anyway, it will be wonderful to watch her career in Hollywood now - maybe she will make it where
Anna May Wong couldn't *quite* break through.
The other thing I'm wondering is what effect the Chinese government's ban on the movie will have on her career, and the other people involved in the movie, back in China. Hmmm... Oh, great to see Gong Li in there too...