Gong Li

Finally saw "Memoirs of a Geisha". I had resisted because of the whole Speilberg/Dreamworks/John Williams thing
I heard they didn't use the make-up, hair or kimonos so I didn't go.

The real reason to see it, of course, is for Gong Li, as Hatsumomo, with her hair down as a madwoman from the Edo?, nothing like a Geisha,
Startlingly fine. Looking fine 12 (?) years after Red Lantern.
The DVD has the director and Colleen Atwood, the costume designer, seperately excusing themselves for not using the true Geisha look. Something about Supermodels, or didnt test. Every scene is stuffed with details shipped from Japan (contrast with the spare interiors in most Samurai pics) but the actual kimonos apparently had "too much detail" - Li does appear in one fine piece. I havnt seen Wayne Wang's "Chinese Box" so perhaps this actually is Li's first English language film. She is suitablty trashy in Maimi Vice & Hannibal, but Memoirs is a tour de Force.


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Jim Kane J. P. S. Brown aka Pocket Money
Apparently made into a movie with Paul Newman and Lee Marvin, supposed to be nmg (not much good)
The book is about a gringo and a Mexican, the movie about 2 gringos?
Anyway Aro Video doesnt have "Pocket Money"
The great Lee Marvin only made it to 63. I am watchng AgeAtDeath closely these days

An arriero is a driver of animals, a drover .. . a man might answer politely, with meaning, a lady who thanks him for fixing her flat tyre
"Arrieros somos, En el camino andamos. Algun dei nos encontramos"
"We are drovers, we travel the road. Someday we are bound to meet"
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Arriba ya del caballo. hay que aguantar los reparos
Once youve chosen to mount a horse you have to, as a man, take any pitching and bucking he might decide to hand you.
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Gong Li