Many people say the movie's happy ending is a minus point. But what I saw was a breathtaking, depressing, lamentable tragedy.
(Please contextualize the following with the relevant time period)
Beauvoir, one of the founding fathers of feminism, argued in The Second Sex that "a woman is not born a woman, but becomes a woman later." She believed that "women" on a social level were molded by men.
If that's a bit vague, look at it from one extreme: the "geisha" is the product of male fantasies of the perfect woman in a patriarchal society.
Men, on the one hand, enslave women, override them, dominate and control them; on the other hand, they want to occasionally adopt the following "look up", want to appreciate, be fascinated by, and crave. So I hope to find the "perfect woman" in real life: young and beautiful, educated, sociable, able to sing and dance well ...... to watch under the stage or to bring with them, to place them on the table, to use them as bargaining chips.... ...
So they are trained from an early age in rigorous, grueling and complex training: culture, etiquette, language, adornment, poetry, books, the qin and the lute ......
"The pain of beauty is two sides of the same coin for us. Your feet will endure suffering, your fingers will ooze blood, and even sitting, standing and lying down will be an ordeal."
Women, in order to achieve the perfection of men's fantasies, do not hesitate to live in pain every day, grinding and sculpting themselves like ascetics and practitioners. They are willing to make such sacrifices because they aspire to the capture and control of men after reaching that state of perfection -- "You are not a real Geisha until you can make a man stop with just a look."
This fatal attraction to men gives the geisha a certain superiority, a certain illusion of being above men.
The "work of art" thinks it is elegant and noble because it pursues and owns art, but forgets the cruel fact that it is essentially "objectified".
So pathetic. They thought they had gained dignity, thought they were living a life of elegance and independence, but what they thought they had gained through their dreams, sweat, tears, blood, and youth, was actually imposed on them for their own needs. And the money and status they thought they were fighting for on their own, they also got from the men, and the reason why they could get it was that the men were originally willing to give it.
In the end they still need to rely on men. It's like when mom cross-examined Hatsumomo, "Don't exaggerate, you don't even have a man to provide for you!" Like Mameha questioning Sayuri: "How can you live without a man?"
They wanted them to be pure and undefiled, so Geisha were not allowed to marry.
They wanted them to be beautiful, so the geisha were left alone in their sad art.
This mentality has not diminished with the times, and now there is the song "Flammable Explosive".
And this elegance, this honor, this purity, all in order to use the "sense of distance" "sense of taboo" to double, deepen the other side of the acquisition, trample on the pleasure.
When they really want to have them, they use money, power and force.
When the baron tore off Sayuri's clothes one layer at a time, originally at all times with a frame, elegant and dignified Sayuri began to panic, confident eyes began to flicker, unable to resist also have no way to resist the time when she realized her own situation, the elegant and elegant she can only be in front of him at this moment, under the feet of the fragile prostrate on the ground in a panic to cover up their shame.
When the Geisha is stripped layer by layer of her luxurious and exquisite clothes, "not to be played with" is forced, is stained, when the illusion is mercilessly stripped away, she is just an ordinary "woman".
"The Geisha is an artist of a lost world, she dances, she sings, she pleases you, she takes what she wants, the rest of her life is shadows, secrets."
The ending.
Is it a happy ending, a "lovers' happy ending"?
But I saw the most stinging and suffocating tragedy.
The President confessed, "Years ago, I was on my way to the theater, and I saw a little girl in tears on the bank of the Sandy River, and I stopped to buy her a cup of shaved ice."
"You know which girl I was?"
"Did you never think that Mameha would become your protection?"
"Mameha came to me because of you ...... I wish you had told me sooner."
Then Chiyo confessed to the President, "You know what? Every step I've gone through since I met you by the bridge when I was a kid, it's all been for the sake of what to be able to get a little closer to you ......"
"It's all for him, for him to become better."
"You can't ask the sun: give me more sunshine. Nor can you ask for rain: less rain."
"For a man, a Geisha can only be half a wife; we are the wives of the Higurashi. And yet, after experiencing countless misfortunes, isn't it the greatest joy to learn to experience the feeling of happiness, to appreciate the unimaginable courage possessed by that little girl, and to realize that one's dreams have finally come true?"
The concluding words, she is still obsessed, still living in fantasy, still in the posture of a humble giver, constantly relieving herself, paralyzing self.
How sad, how pathetic, and ultimately still not awake. She thought she finally got what she wanted at the beginning, thought she realized her lifelong dream. She didn't realize that she got it because he wanted to give it, even if he wanted it. What she thought she was trying and striving for, what she thought was sensational self-touching, was nothing more than him single-handedly manipulating it.
What if he didn't want her in the first place? Even if she had been inspired to become a Geisha, how would that have been possible? I'm afraid she would have to carry the love, loneliness and pain of being a servant for the rest of her life.
One heaven, one earth, and it wasn't even his idea?
The age of the Geisha was over.
However, the figure of "Geisha" can still be glimpsed: men and women, life and love ......
Being created by the illusion, living in the illusion of the creatures, do not know, do not want to wake up.