EYES OF WATER

Do you choose your own life? Sometimes we choose our own path in life, but sometimes life itself chooses you for something you’d never expect. Like it or not, we all have to survive no matter what kind of life we’re living in. There’re times when our life is drifted by current. Fighting back seems useless, and yet we follow – follow but still wary, trying to grasp everything we can to hang on and survive.

Let me share you a unique story that can only happen in Japan. Memoirs of a Geisha tell a story about a little girl named Chiyo who became a mature girl named Sayuri. It’s a journey from Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) – a cute little girl who turned into Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) – a skilled-stunning-beautiful Geisha. Chiyo had eyes like water – the eyes which gleamed, flew, and melt the heart of anyone who saw them. I like the idea of becoming like water. Water is strong and able to make its own way no matter what, even through walls or stones. Water is flexible, able to put off fire, and even destroy steels. You can bet that women have their own powers which men can’t ever have.

Little Chiyo was taken and brought into a life she would never expected. A drastic change in her life and suddenly being taken from a normal life made her cried and became desperate. Teardrops fell from her watery eyes with empty soul and no hope… until a man named The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) caught her weeping on a bridge. The Chairman quickly brought a smile upon Chiyo’s face and all the tears stopped. Suddenly life had a purpose again and hope emerged from the heart. The real struggle was just about to begin for little Chiyo.

Some people said a mentor will come if you’re ready. That’s what happened to the young Chiyo. An experienced Geisha named Mameha (Michelle Yeoh) taught Chiyo about how to become a woman – or should I say a Geisha. Many people had mistaken the profession of a Geisha. A Geisha is not a whore or a wife. They don’t sell their bodies, but they sell skills as they should master social and artistic skills. A geisha is a walking world of art – able to grasp the attention of men in one single glance. Just like any other profession, the bad image occurred not because of the profession, but because of the bad people inside it.

Growing up was never easy and it’s even more difficult to survive at adulthood. It’s nice to be a witness of this simple but entertaining movie. Men have honors, but women also have their own. Would Sayuri a.k.a Chiyo be able to become top number one Geisha – to become a respected woman? Would the path of becoming a Geisha also bring Sayuri to her true love? It’s a contest of agony and beauty, where beauty and agony walked side by side.

If you think it’s difficult to be a man, well, it’s not easy to become a woman either. Directed by Rob Marshall, this movie told not just a story about growing up, but also the war and struggles between women, with deep love story concealed in it. What is a man without a woman, and what is a woman without a man? They’re destined to fulfill each other’s life. It’s time that man and woman walked side by side – hand in hand – not first or second.

Ivan the Freelancer