Memoirs of a Geisha Movie Review

Me and my sisters watched Memoirs of a Geisha at Glorietta yesterday afternoon in celebration of our birthdays (Feb 21st and 22nd)

Story: Before her mother dies, the main character Chiyo and her older sister Satsu are taken to Gion by one, Mr Tanaka. Her sister is sold to a brothel and Chiyo is sold to an okiya, a house for geisha.

With her unusual blue-grey eyes, Chiyo is to train to become a geisha, but is constantly antagonized by Hatsumomo, the top geisha of the Nitta okiya. The arrogant Hatsumomo recognises Chiyo’s potential and is upset at any hint of competition. Due to Hatsumomo’s machinations, Chiyo is reduced to becoming a maid in the okiya, ostensibly with no future of becoming a geisha.

An encounter with the wealthy and benevolent Chairman changes her luck. Chiyo wins the eye of the most successful geisha in Gion, Mameha, who is despised by Hatsumomo because she outshines her in every aspect and cannot be toppled because, unlike Hatsumomo, Mameha has earned her independence as a geisha. She adopts Chiyo as her apprentice and trains Chiyo to rival Hatsumomo. Chiyo’s entrance into apprenticeship is marked by being given a new name: Sayuri.

With her success and her virginity sold, Sayuri not only becomes a highly successful geisha, she manages to pay off all the debts that bound her to the Nitta okiya when she was a maid and also is adopted by the mistress of the okiya. The outbreak of World War Two, a theme foreshadowed by growing reference to the Japanese military, represents, structurally, another major challenge for the heroine. Her successes are quickly made irrelevant, and her physical beauty is tarnished by manual labour and a lack of food. The life of luxury is replaced by a new reality; her personal dark valley.

During her time as a geisha before the war, she encounters the Chairman again, but finds it impossible to get close to him as she desires. Instead, she finds herself constantly being pushed to be with Nobu, the Chairman’s most trusted friend. It is Nobu that saves Sayuri from the harsh labour of the war until Gion is able to open again on the condition that she will allow him to become her patron, despite the fact that it is the Chairman she desires. Sayuri and Mameha destroy Hatsumomo’s reputation entirely thereafter and Hatsumomo is thrown out of the okiya.

However, it is not until she puts herself in an undesirable position that Sayuri’s desire to be with the Chairman truly frees her to pursue her own destiny. When the Chairman frees her from the okiya to become his mistress, she sets up a lavish teahouse for Japanese businessmen in New York so that he may save face in Japan when his daughter is about to marry a man set to be the Chairman’s heir.

Source: Wikipedia
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Visit the movie site here : http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/memoirsofageisha/

Close To You Movie Review

Story: Manuel (John Lloyd) and Marian (Bea) have been best friends since they were kids. They are so close that they know each other’s secrets…well, almost. For the last 16 years, Manuel never had the courage to tell Marian how much he loves her.

On the other hand, Marian sees Manuel as no more than her best friend. Marian’s greatest love has always been Lance (Sam), a classmate who protected her from bullies back in grade school. Ever since Lance and his family migrated to migrated abroad ten years ago, Marian never had the chance to establish contact with him again. The only thing that Marian knows is that Lance has become the lead singer of the new rock band, Orion.

Good fortune smiles on Marian when Orion decides to tour the Philippines. Marian is intent on seeing Lance again, and she brings Manuel with her on a chase that brings them around the Philippines and abroad. Manuel believes that the whole chase is futile because a popular star like Lance will not remember a simple girl like Marian, but Marian does not believe him.

When Lance and Marian finally meet again, sparks fly between them. Marian now has to decide - Will he let his best friend be happy with her Prince Charming, or will he fight for the love that has kept him alive for the last 16 years?

Firewall Movie Review

We watched Firewall last night.

Synopsis: omputer security specialist Jack Stanfield (HARRISON FORD) works for the Seattle-based Landrock Pacific Bank. A trusted top-ranking executive, he has built his career and reputation on designing the most effective anti-theft computer systems in the industry, protecting the bank’s financial holdings from the constant threat of increasingly sophisticated internet hackers with his complex network of tracers, access codes and firewalls.

Jack’s position affords a comfortable life for him, his architect wife Beth (VIRGINIA MADSEN) and their two young children – a standard of living that includes a beautiful home in a residential community just outside the city.

But there’s a vulnerability in Jack’s system that he has not accounted for: himself. It’s a vulnerability that one very ruthless and resourceful thief is poised to exploit.

Bill Cox (PAUL BETTANY) has been studying Jack and his family for many months; monitoring their online activity, listening to their calls and learning their daily routines with an arsenal of digital and video recorders and parabolic microphones that tap into the most personal of information. He knows the names of their children’s friends, their medical histories, and the I.D. code for the security station that guards their neighborhood. Having spent the better part of a year methodically infiltrating every aspect of Jack’s identity, Cox is now ready to make good on his investment.

Leading a tight team of mercenary accomplices, he seizes control of the Stanfield house, making Beth and the kids terrified hostages in their own home and Jack his unwilling pawn in a scheme to steal $100 million from the Landrock Pacific Bank.

With every possible escape route shrewdly anticipated and blocked by Cox, every potential ally out of reach and the lives of his wife and children at stake, Jack is forced to find a breach in his own formidable security system to siphon funds into his captor’s offshore account – incriminating himself in the process and eradicating any electronic evidence that Cox ever existed.

Under constant surveillance, he has only hours to accomplish the risky transactions while desperately hunting for a loophole in the thief’s own impenetrable wall of subterfuge and false identities to save his family and beat Cox at his own game.

Firewall website - http://firewallmovie.warnerbros.com/