Can love be sold?

(Films: The Memoir of a Geisha & The World of Suzie Wong) The human desire for love is like emptiness greedy for content. The impalpable and abstract nature of love, without possibly physically seeing or grasping it, leaves us the humans in the apprehension of nothingness and the endless pursuit of fullness in love. The futility of satisfying such desire with loves airiness justifies humans tendency to confound the divinity with material and palpable sign1as suggested by Alfred Binet, a French psychologist of 19th and 20th century. By objectifying everything into something saleable, one may achieve fullness in a sense that the immeasurable becomes measurable; the uncertainty becomes certainty; the nothingness becomes something. In Rob Marshalls The Memoir of a Geisha and Richard Quines The World of Suzie Wong, women are being objectified into commodity, in which womens love becomes something that seems to be less unattainable and unfathomable to men. However, what can woman sell and customize when her body is the only available form of capital that she could use to survive2? Geisha is a sale-woman and ware in one3 as suggested by Walter Benjamin in his book Reflection. Prostitute, which is named as street girl in The World of Suzie Wong, shares the same nature. They are the one who sell, and the thing they sell. In The Memoir of a Geisha and The World of Suzie Wong, Sayuri and Suzie sell what they have to sell to be a geisha and a Wan Chai street-girl respectively. They are analogized in a sense that, it is not love that they have to sell, but a mirage and illusion of love.

1 2

Alfred Binet, Ibid Maria E. Epele, Excess, Scarcity and Desire among Drug-Using Sex Workers, Commodifying Body 3 Waller Benjamin, Reflection P.157,

In the flower and willow world of the hanamachi, love is romantic, yet illusionary. Men have entered a separate reality, away from the everyday concerns of works and family, found respite in the pleasure quarters4. Geisha thus provide a fantasy, an image of mythic femininity, holding man in thrall. The use of close up shot on Sayuris lips when she paints them with red (Fig 1a) as well as her neck when she brushes it with the white powder (Fig 1b) illustrate the masking and arouse a sense of voyeuristic eroticism. The quintessential trademark of geisha is the kimono, which also accentuates the secretiveness5 of woman as advocated by Freud. The jump cut is used in portraying the complication of wearing a dozen or more colourful contrasting layers create a kind of visual illusion. (Fig 1c &1d) They highlight the impenetrable obscurity of geisha and their love. The masking becomes the means of de-familiarizing and exoticising her body6so as to arrest and confine the gaze of man to only the appearance of hers.

Top left: Fig 1a ;Top right: Fig 1b; Bottom left and right: Fig 1c &1d
4 5

Lesley Downer, A World Behind Closed Doors, Beyond the Painted Smile Sigmund Freud, Three essays on the theory of sexuality, SE 7, P.151 6 Antony Shelton, Fetishism: Visualising Power and Desire, p.30

Sayrui has woven the mirage of love as an illusionist. The uses of close up shot on the demure little trace of naked skin of Sayruis wrist are followed by the use of eyeline matches. (Fig 2a) The enchanted facial expression of the baron is shown as if he is being hypnotized. .(Fig 2b) She has even become the object of every mans fantasy in her solo dance, which is being portrayed with the consecutive uses of medium close up shot on different male characters. (Fig 2c) They are all gazed at Sayrui on stage without a blink even when they are clapping their hands. It is the illusion of love that makes men, no matter how old and infirm, feel that they are the most attractive men alive and can still be stimulated and involved in love.

Left: Fig 2a; Right: Fig 2b

Fig 2c: The medium close up shots on different male characters

Analogically, Suzie Wong offers men the illusion of love as a Wan Chai street girl in The World of Suzie Wong. However, without the artistic beauty and seamless appearance of geisha, Suzie still becomes the object of westerners erotic fantasy and has transformed herself into the object the men want. The modern cheongsam, which is tailor-fitted with deep slits at the two sides, equips Suzie with a sense of sex appeal in the eyes of the Westerners. The eye-line matching, which is also used in The Memoir of Geisha, depicts again the enchanted and hypnotized stare of Ben into Suzies charm. (Fig 3a) The use of deep depth of field is used to include the sailors at the back, who gaze at Suzie and spellbound by her. In the film, Suzie dances and hugs intimately with the sailors whose she barely knows as it is the womans companionship and subjection that the men want. The identity of being a Wan Chai girl, however, is only valid to Suzie when she is in the Nam Kok Bar, where cigarette smoke suffuses the spaces and everything losses its clarity. In other words, it is only the illusionary self of Suzie that allows her to sell herself and to be sold in the bar; while the men in the bar are also in the dreamy illusion that they can actually get and buy the love of women with money.

Left: Fig 3a- The medium close up and eye-line matching; Right: Fig 3b-The deep field of depth

Illusion of love instead of love is sold. Nothing that geisha or street girl has sold to men is not deficient and incomplete as only the fragmented self of being a geisha or street girl is sold instead of the whole self. As they are sales as well as the wares as one, they sell what they love to sell which is the piece of their loveless, yet alluring self. In The Memoir of a Geisha and The World of Suzie Wong, Sayuri and Suzie have compartmentalized themselves, in other words, fragmented the total being into different compartments. Love and soul are remained and hidden in the unsold self; while the bodies of Sayuri and Suzie become the alien entities that need to be sold to men. In the former, geishas virginity, which is termed as Mizuage, has to be sold to the highest bidder, before she can become a full geisha. The selling of her most precious attribute to Dr. Crab, an infirm and weak old doctor, demonstrates Sayuris compartmentalization of her body and her love. The contrast of light and darkness is shown by the uneven light distribution on Sayuris body. (Fig 4a) The natural light penetrates from the upper window is shed on Sayuris face but leaves her body in the shadow. It suggests the fragmentation of self, in which only parts of her are put into the light and are exploited by Dr. Crab.

Fig 4a- The use of natural light and uneven light distribution

Being a geisha, in other sense, has already compartmentalized and divided herself into the flawless but loveless artwork and the lovelorn, yet sentimental women. The close up shot is used show Sayuris white face without eyebrows in the mirror

reflection. The obliteration of Sayuris eyebrows with the white powder suggests the loss of her communicating power and emotions. As the eyebrows shape the human face and give definition to one's emotions7. Sayuri has only sold her transcendent beauty and appearance, without any love-attachment. The camera zooms in for a more focus close up on Sayuris eyebrows.(Fig 5a, 5b) It further accentuates the effort she made to draw her own eyebrows, her emotion in replace for the real.

Fig 5a and 5b: The close up and zoom in on Sayuris obliterated eyebrows The repeated uses of mirror as the motif in the film reinforce the bits and pieces of Sayuris fragments. Different body parts of Sayuri have been portrayed with the close ups on the mirror reflections.(Fig 6a,b) Instead of directly shooting Sayuri, her fragmented factions of body are presented as the mirror reflections. The mirror images of her body fractions reveal not only the illusionary nature of geisha, but may also suggest her suspension of her soul and love, in which her alternative, perfect self is preserved and locked in the other world outside the mirror. This allows Sayuri to lock away her heart and save it for him, the Chairman who she loves. Love and soul may not be sold even when she sells herself, the impassive and loveless self.

Fig 6a,b: The close up shot on the mirror images of the fragmented body factions

Wikipedia: eyebrows

In The World of Suzie Wong, Suzie also sells a fragment of her loveless, but alluring self, which never shows men her traits other than a sense of sex appeal and smartness. Her shrewd and natural pretences and lies are used to build up her own reality with deceptive illusions. Suzie believes that Its better to pretend in a sense that she hopes to protect the unsold and untouched parts of hers, and deny the dirty but necessary self that she sells. Her creation of another identity, in which she has used to fool Robert, shows the deceptive and candid self of Suzie. The dear, sweet and innocent Mee-ling, who is a rich, nice virgin and has a rich father epitomizes the hidden self and soul of Suzie, however, is contrary to her identity as an inferior Chinese street girl. It is only through pretence and self-delusion that can Suzie find herself worth to be loved and can be in love. I not dirty street girl! I not dirty street girl! she claimed when Ben, a British married businessman, has withdrawn his investment of love from her, a mere commodity. The camera zooms in for a close up on Suzies depressed face, in which her eyes are closed tightly so as to escape from seeing herself being the impassive, loveless and dirty street girl.( Fig 7a,b) Therefore, she has commodified a fragment of her worthless self with the hope that she can preserve and lock her love and feelings in the remaining pieces.

Fig 7a,b: The zoomin in for the close up on Suzie

Suzie directly tells her own surviving principle to be a street girl that the flesh trade should be: No love, no feeling. Just like holding someone for dance. The mirror is used again in presenting the fragmentation of self. The presence of mirror in Roberts room suggests that Suzie can search for her alterative and perfect self when she is with Robert. The mirror images of Suzie not only signify the fragmented pieces of Suzie, but also allow audience to see her with new perceptive angles that is hidden from her appearance. The juxtaposition of Suzie and her mirror image, with Roberts presence ( Fig:8a,b)suggests a sense of oneness, that Suzie may assembles her fragmented body, love and soul into one. It implies that the hidden, unsold parts in Suzie, in which her soul and love are lodged, can only be shown and exposed when she falls in love .The fragmented pieces of Suzie are also presented by the portraits of Robert, which captures and revives the hidden self of Suzie with the beauty of art. Through the aesthetic re-interpretation of Suzie, he captures the inner but unsold self of Suzie which are far more alluring and attractive than her high cheekbones and her Oriental beauty. Suzies love, body and her soul are all separated and apart in which he is not transforms Suzie from a dirty street girl into an artwork, but to reveal and revive her artistic beauty and presents it in the canvas.

Fig 8a,b: The deep depth of field that includes Suzie, her mirror reflection and Robert

The compartmentalization of body and love can be seen as a sort of customized love, in which the fragmentation of woman into body, love and soul is far more precise and concise to fulfill mens need and desire. Ironically, men fail to see or accept the fact that what they can get is only an illusion of love and the body of a loveless and impassive. The egotism of men devours the clarity of their perception. They believe that it is love that the commodified women are selling when they sell themselves. Both geisha and street girl have turned into the miserable beggars for love, who seek for their owners to accommodate their love from the mens perspectives. In The World of Suzie Wong, Robert shows his impatience when Suzie keeps selling herself and show her desire to be his permanent girlfriend. It is as if she is begging for the love of Robert. The high angle shot is used to depict the submissive and inferior Suzie from the point of view of Robert with the use of eye-line matching. (fig 9a,b) It is his sense of mastery that unable him to feel rather than afford the love confessed by Susie, a commodity.

Fig 9a,b: The use of high anle shot and eye line matching. In The Memoir of a Geisha, Nobu, who has fallen in love with Sayuri, shows his determination to be the man of means. His stern desire to buy Sayuris love by becoming her danna reflects his belief that he can only afford to love her when he

has power and money. The close up shot and side lighting are used to highlight Nobus severe and solemn face.(Fig10a) The low light intensity, in which only the feeble oil lamp flickers the yellowish light, can suggest the inaccuracy of Nobus perception towards the Sayuris feeling. His gesture of grasping Sayuri from the back, without looking at her face, (fig 10b) further illustrates that his sense of ego and mastery has blinded him. This elucidates the difference between the perspective of man and woman. The bestiality of Nobus love has urged Sayuri to sell her love and creates a sense of womens inferiority and subjection. However, it is not love that Sayuri has sold and would like to sell.

Left: Fig 10a; Right: Fig 10b The geishas total being is a work of art, 8 in which they are forbidden to love but only to be loved by men. Love is not recognized and permitted in the world of geisha, which is the sacrifice that every geisha has to make. Despite the fact that Hatsumomo has madly fallen in love with Koichi, the love between her and the poor young man is considered as shame. It changes her from the legendary geisha into a common prostitute, as commented by the mother of the okiya. Nevertheless, the scenes that portray Hatsumomo and Koichis love relationship are probably the most erotic but humane in the film, which illustrates the ardent passion that should be found between man and woman in love. The excitement of the rapturous intimacy,
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Andrew. L. Maske, Acknowledgement, Beyond the Painted Smile

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such as hugging and kissing, as well as love making are all captured in frames candidly. The voyeuristic perspective is used to stimulate the audience with the heat of humans love infatuation.(Fig 11a,b) Hatsumomo is being treated as woman instead of commodity as Kiochis love allows her to have respite from selling. Ironically, the selling of geishas Mizuage to man whom she is hardly known is celebrative instead of indecent, which is considered as a rite of passage9. This suggests that love need not to be sold, as no man can afford it financially. But if luckily, men can still be able to afford the souvenir of love.

Fig11a, b: The use of voyeuristic perception to depict the intimate love relationship I like, but cannot afford said Robert, the male protagonist in The World of Suzie Wong when Suzie asks him whether he wants her to be his permanent girl friend, suggests the distorted perception of Robert towards the love of Suzie. Indeed, the desire to become mans permanent girlfriend can be seen as a bold confession of love, in which the woman love towards man is attached, if she is not a Wan Chai girl. However, being a commodity, Suzies love and feelings are confounded with her commodified body, in which her love is considered as a product. He simply said I like without mentioning the subject, which may imply his affinity towards Suzie as a woman or a commodity. However, he is restrained from liking or loving Suzie due to his limited budget. It suggests that the act of Suzie to show her love has wrongly
9

Liza Dalby, The Exotic Geisha, Beyond the Painted Smile

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interpreted by Robert as selling her love, who even fails to realize that he is actually affordable to love Suzie with his love instead of money. Geisha is a vintage culture. Their seamless white masks, the delicate kimonos and their titillating, yet demure skills daze the vision of men. While the Wan Chai street girl is an epitome of Hong Kongs culture in the sixties. The Oriental face, the exotic high-slit Cheongsam and the art of flirtation arouse the mens curiosity and inquisitiveness. Both cultures fantasize and commercialize the normal relation of men and women. Illusion of love is created and sold, which has fantasized love; The fragmented and loveless self is compartmentalized and sold, which has locked away love. But the love of Sayuri and Suzie in both films is preserved and unsold, as no one on earth knows how to sell love and can afford love with dollar sign instead of love.

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