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Parents' Guide to

Memoirs of a Geisha

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Gorgeous but slow-moving; inauthentic cultural portrayals.

Movie PG-13 2005 143 minutes
Memoirs of a Geisha Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 14+

Based on 4 parent reviews

age 13+

Beautiful Movie

Really emotional and amazing movie would highly recommend
age 13+

Fantastic

I have seen a lot of bad reviews for this movie and I think they are wrong. This film is beautiful, the actors are amazing and it is one of my all time favourites. I wouldn't let my 7 year old watch it yet though, I think she'd appreciate it more in her teenage years.

This title has:

Great messages
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4 ):
Kids say (5 ):

Less intriguing than it promises, this film leaves little to the imagination with its series of heavy-handed set pieces. Based on Arthur Golden's novel and directed by the dramatically unsubtle Rob Marshall, Memoirs of a Geisha is disappointingly predictable, unwieldy, and exotified.

This is by no means the fault of the performers, who commit to their roles. The women are stunning, although one wishes their spoken English, inflected with overtly Chinese accents, was simply swapped for Japanese -- both in language and in casting. And even though it's great to see a female-driven film, the geisha whose memoirs the viewer is meant to follow isn't so much remembered as she is conjured and undermined, repeatedly.

Movie Details

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