ASIAN FUSION

The road to becoming a geisha is no petal-strewn path---just ask actress Ziyi Zhang and director Rob Marshall. Zhang stars as a legendary geisha in the big-screen adaptation of Arthur Golden's novel Memoirs of Geisha. Preparing for this role meant she had to buckle down and learn to speak English, through sheer force of will. The Beijing native said it's the toughest thing she's ever done for a film. The result is her first English-language performance in one of the most epic films of this decade. The romantic novel was the book of the year in 1997---selling more than four million copies, and was translated into 32 languages. The story follows Nitta Sayuri, a poor fisherman's daughter sold at the age of nine into the Kyoto geishahood. She becomes one of the most sought-after geishas of her time, struggles to find her place in a male-dominated culture and is haunted by her love for the one man who's out of her reach. Find it on dvd.