Memoirs of a Geisha Film Revives Book Sales

Posted on December 15, 2005

The Book Standard reports that the new film Memoirs of a Geisha is really helping revive book sales of the novel.

Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha moved from No. 8 to No. 5 on the Fiction Chart after selling 43,000 units last week. The movie adaptation, which went into limited release on Dec. 9, stars Chinese actresses Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yeoh and will open nationwide Dec. 23. On Tuesday, the film adaptation received two Golden Globe nominations (Ziyi Zhang for Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture - Drama and John Williams for Best Original Score - Motion Picture). "Geisha was written by an American-Jewish guy," producer Doug Wick told The Hollywood Reporter. "He wrote a book that was popular around the world but not well known in Japan. The story itself leapt past any national barriers."

The film goes into wide release on December 23rd. So far the reviews have been mixed, with the consensus being that the film has beautiful cinematography, but moves a bit slowly. Still, we always like to decide these things for ourselves.