This piece by L.A. Times reporter John Horn about how and why Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha (Columbia, 12.9) was spoken in English is almost…I was going to say “hilarious” but I think “staggering” is a better term. Especially this paragraph: “American moviegoers aren’t terribly keen on subtitles, but in truth that wasn’t the sole reason that Marshall filmed only the opening segment with Japanese dialogue. Had the actors performed the entire movie in the language, the director says, ‘I never would have known what they were saying.'” My God, the sheer, take-it-or-leave-it bluntness of that statement! If that isn’t a compelling reason to film a Japan-based movie in English, I don’t know what would be.
