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Most of the publicity surrounding Memoirs has concerned the controversial casting of Chinese actors in this quintessentially Japanese tale. Well, I don't quite see what the fuss is about. Actors playing people from other nationalities happens absolutely all the time in movies. What bothers me a bit more is that the whole film is in English, spoken with Japanese accents. It's not a problem when there are only Japanese characters in the movie, but towards the end Americans turn up, obviously speaking the exact same language. But anyhow, it's not the first time and won't be the last. On to the film itself, I quite enjoyed it, but it certainly had flaws. The main one was that it plodded along a bit at times and the running time was far too long for what is a fairly uncomplicated and simple story. The acting was excellent across the board, however, with Ziyi Zhang impressing immensely (also the actress who played the younger version of the same character really did a great job). The exception to that is the Americans, who are ironically - given that this is an American film - portrayed as oafish caricatures. The film is clearly made with the intention of getting awards, director Rob Marshall playing it quite safe, but I don't think it really develops a good enough emotional attachment to the characters. It is a safe bet that it will win plenty of costume design awards though, and John Williams may also get some nods for his score.
The summary
Too long considering its rather slight narrative, but Memoirs is certainly a great looking and well-acted film.
