Rob Marshall directs Ziyi Zhang, Michelle Yeoh and Ken Watanabe in this historical drama where a young girl is sold into service at a geisha house and witnesses the end of an era.

One thing the Noughties fully embraced was a big budget adaptation of mass market literature. Book club sensations repurposed as Oscar Bait and potential blockbusters. For a fair few years Spielberg dithered over whether to focus his energies into this multiplex friendly take on Arthur Golden’s historical fiction bestseller. As always with these decade spanning tomes there are a few too many characters and subplot strands for the whole to feel balanced over two hours. But it is pretty lush and some set pieces marinate long enough to have genuine impact. Would it work better as a miniseries with only Japanese actors in the Japanese roles?… Well, of course. Yet it is hard not be seduced by the Asian star power press-ganged into the service of all this epic sweep. Michelle Yeoh is radiant. Gong Li deliciously villainous.

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Perfect Double Bill: Snow Falling On Cedars (1999)