Ken Watanabe Worldwide Fans/Sekaijuu ni Watanabe Ken no fan
Ken Watanabe as the Chairman in 'Memoirs of a Geisha'

Memoirs of a Geisha -- 2005
(Japanese translation, geisha no kasooiki")

Many of Ken' fans were talking about how wonderful he would be in the role of "the Chairman" long before he was ever approached for this movie. It is so thrilling that he has landed this role!

This movie, based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, will be relelased sometime in 2005 (date to be announced). Filming began in the middle of October. It stars Zhang Ziyi as Nitta Sayuri, a woman whose father sold her to a slave-trader after the death of her mother, and who is separated from her sister and becomes a slave in a Kyoto "okiya" (geisha house).

As a teenager she must learn the fine arts and ways of seduction of a geisha, under the tutelage of Mahema (Michelle Yeoh), while dealing with the beautiful and jealous Hatsumoto (Gong Li), who is determined to ruin Sayuri's reputation in the Gion district. Sayuri meets the owner of a successful company in the street who treats her with kindness, and she falls in love with him. In a culture where love is not to be hoped for, her dream of meeting The Chairman again (Ken Watanabe) and winning his patronage gives her the strength to build her presence in Gion, through harships such as her mizuage (the auctioning of her virginity at age 13), beatings by the okiya proprietess, the complication of passionate interest from the Chairman's partner Nobu (Koji Yakusho), and the ongoing evil machinations of Hatsumoto.

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