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About This Quiz
This vivid and colorful epic took us into the world of pre-war Japan and a young girl's difficult climb to the top of a mysterious profession! Now, revisit this dazzling film with our quiz!
What kind of town did Chiyo grow up in?
a big city
a farming village
a fishing village
Chiyo tells the story of how, when their mother became ill, their father threw the day's catch back into the sea and let his daughters go hungry. So they would learn the feeling of emptiness, he said.
a factory town
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Chiyo's mother compared her older sister Satsu to wood. To what element did she compare Chiyo?
air
earth
fire
water
Water can carve through stone, Chiyo's mother told her. And when trapped, "water makes a new path."
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Chiyo is taken by the proprietress of an okiya (geisha house). What is Satsu's fate?
sent back home
made a servant in another okiya
turned away to be homeless
sold to a brothel
Chiyo is chosen because of her good looks and blue-grey eyes. Her older sister isn't so lucky.
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What is Chiyo's older sister's name?
Yuki
Tomei
Yoko
Satsu
The movie opens with the two daughters spying on negotiations their father is making with a man, Tanaka-San, while their mother lies dying. The girls don't know it, but they are about to be sold to Tanaka, to be taken to the entertainment district in Kyoto.
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Who tells Chiyo where her sister is living?
Auntie
Granny
Hatsumomo
Hatsumomo sees Chiyo as a threat and is trying to destroy her. But tells Chiyo where Satsu is -- perhaps predicting that Chiyo will then run away with her sister, which is what almost happens.
Pumpkin
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What ruins Chiyo's plan to escape with Satsu?
Mother locks everyone in the okiya
Hatsumomo locks Chiyo in a closet
Chiyo falls from a rooftop
both #1 and #3
Mother locks up the okiya because Hatsumomo has been sneaking out to see her lover, Koichi. Chiyo has to try to flee over the rooftops, but falls and is injured.
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What is Chiyo's punishment for trying to run away?
cleaning the toilets for a week
being sold to a brothel
being made mother's house slave
Previously, Chiyo was going to geisha school with Pumpkin. But now, she loses her chance at being a geisha and will be a slave -- indefinitely, since she can never earn enough money in that role to pay back her debt to the okiya.
being beaten
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What kind of sweet ice does the Chairman buy for Chiyo?
cherry
lime
sweet plum
both #1 and #3
When he meets Chiyo crying on a bridge, the chairman asks her what kind of ice she prefers. But then he buys both -- and gives her money for supper as well.
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What does Chiyo do with the money that the chairman gives her?
buys supper
gives it to a temple
Chiyo gives the money to a temple, praying to become a geisha. Her change of heart happens because she realizes that becoming a geisha will allow her to see the chairman again.
gives it to a beggar
puts it toward her debt to the okiya
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Who unexpectedly champions Chiyo?
Granny
Hatsumomo
Mameha
Mameha is Hatsumomo's great rival. She was played by Chinese-Malaysian actress, Michelle Yeoh.
a sumo wrestler
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What did Chiyo do to Mameha, earlier, that makes Mameha's kindness to her surprising?
stole her jade comb
outed her as having a secret lover
ruined her kimono
Chiyo didn't do this on her own. Hatsumomo made her do it, back when Chiyo was still doing everything Hatsumomo commanded in hopes that Hatsumomo would tell her where Satsu was.
tripped her on the stairs
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What new name does Mameha give Chiyo?
Hana
Miyuki
Midori
Sayuri
The renaming of girls who become apprentice geisha is implied to be traditional. But Pumpkin remains Pumpkin -- perhaps to not confuse the audience.
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What is a maiko?
an apprentice geisha
The maiko has a "big sister" geisha: Pumpkin's is Hatsumomo, and Mameha is Sayuri's. Unfortunately, this makes the two maikos, formerly friends, rivals.
a delectable shark meat
a musical instrument
a dance performance
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What is a danna?
a low-level city official
a geisha's patron
The movie protrays a danna as the closest thing a geisha will have to a husband. Sayuri guesses that Mameha had special feelings for her patron, the Baron.
a police officer
a rival geisha
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What is Mameha's ultimate goal for Sayuri?
to go to America
to take over Mrs. Nitta's (Mother's) okiya
Mameha knows that if Mrs. Nitta "adopts" Pumpkin and leaves the okiya to her, Pumpkin will just be Hatsumomo's puppet. More power in the hands of a woman who hates Mameha and Sayuri would be disastrous.
to have the Chairman as her patron
to open her own okiya
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Where do Mameha and Sayuri meet the Chairman and Nobu?
a bathhouse
a cherry-blossom viewing
a sumo match
The Chairman's business partner, Nobu, doesn't like geisha. But he loves sumo. Sayuri softens him up by asking him to explain the rules of the match to her.
a teahouse
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Why does Mameha cut Sayuri's leg?
she slipped with the sewing shears
she was angry with her
she wanted to take Sayuri to Dr. Crab
Dr. Crab is a potential bidder on Sayuri's mizuage. By giving Sayuri a flesh wound, Mameha has created an excuse for Crab to see more of her body than he normally could have, hopefully stirring up his interest.
she wanted to arouse pity in potential patrons
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At the sakura (cherry blossom) viewing party, how does the Baron get Sayuri alone?
he takes her on a nature walk
he says he has a message from the chairman
he shows her his kimono collection
The Baron also says that he has a present for her, a kimono. But Sayuri balks when he wants her to try it on in front of him, leading to a wrestling match in which he partially undresses her by force.
he follows her as she is exploring the estate alone
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Why is Mameha angry at Sayuri after the party?
Sayuri didn't pay enough attention to Nobu
Sayuri ditched her to go off with the Chairman
Sayuri drank too much
Mameha thinks Sayuri let the Baron have sex with her
Mameha must know that if the Baron had sex with Sayuri, it would have been rape, yet she doesn't seem sympathetic at all. The only thing that matters to Mameha is keeping Sayuri's reputation safe until her mizuage (ritual deflowering).
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What price does Dr. Crab pay for Sayuri's mizuage?
1,000 yen
5,000 yen
10,000 yen
15,000 yen
The "mizuage" is the honor of deflowering a geisha, at least in the film. But other sources note that "mizuage" is simply a coming-out party for a maiko when she becomes a full geisha.
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Who was the actual highest bidder for Sayuri's mizuage?
the Baron
Mameha says that she let everyone believe the highest bidder was Dr. Crab, for reasons Mameha says Sayuri will understand. It's likely that her reason was her personal feelings for the Baron. Or perhaps she didn't want to give Sayuri to a man who'd treated her so roughly at the sakura-viewing party.
the Chairman
Nobu
it was really Dr. Crab
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Whom does Mrs. Nitta adopt, making her the heiress to the okiya?
Hatsumomo
Pumpkin
Sayuri
This devastates Pumpkin, who had counted on inheriting the okiya to secure her future. Kind-hearted Sayuri suggests that Nitta could adopt both of them, but Mrs. Nitta rejects this idea.
no one
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How does the fire in the okiya start?
Hatsumomo and Sayuri knock over a lamp in a fight
Hatsumomo shatters oil lamps on the floor
Pumpkin starts the fire in the kitchen
both #1 and #2
Hastumomo and Sayuri fight over the Chairman's handkerchief, which Hatsumomo is threatening to burn. But even after the fire starts, Hatsumomo makes it worse by shattering lamps on the floor. It's her letter of resignation!
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What happens to Hatsumomo after she is kicked out of the okiya?
she goes to a rival okiya
she works in a common brothel
she runs away with Koichi
we never learn this
Actually, any of the previous three answers seem like a likely possibility. But we never learn Hatsumomo's fate.
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When the war comes, to what city are Sayuri and Mameha supposed to be relocated?
Hoikkado
Nagoya
Osaka
The Chairman says that Osaka will be a target in the war, and he and Nobu arrange for Mameha and Sayuri to be sent elsewhere. When looking for the two women, the Chairman asks people, "Have you seen Sayuri?" not "Mameha and Sayuri," indicating his deep feelings for the geisha that his friend Nobu likes.
Sapporo
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What does Sayuri do up in the hills, during the war?
helps on a farm
makes kimonos
We see Sayuri at work, rinsing dyed material in a creek and hanging it up to dry. She describes her life as "work ... rice ... work ...rice." (We've had days like that, except with us it was coffee).
she's a nurse's aide
she works in a munitions factory
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Who comes to visit Sayuri after the war is over?
the Chairman
Mrs. Nitta
Pumpkin
Nobu
Nobu probably has ulterior motives for coming to see Sayuri (like being in love). But his purpose is to ask her to put on her geisha kimono once again and entertain American military men who can provide funding for the Chairman and Nobu's factory.
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Why does Sayuri arrange to meet Colonel Derricks privately?
to secure funding for the factory
he offers her a great deal of money
she likes him
she wants Nobu to see them together
Sayuri asks Pumpkin to "accidentally" bring Nobu to the spot where she'll meet Derricks, knowing Nobu could never love her again if he saw her having sex with the American colonel. She wants to dissuade him from becoming her danna, to clear the way for the Chairman.
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What happens when Sayuri arranges the tryst with Derricks?
Pumpkin brings Nobu, and the plan works
Pumpkin brings the Chairman instead
Pumpkin claimed earlier that she wasn't carrying a grudge over Sayuri, taking Nitta's okiya from her. But we learn that she was lying. She tells Sayuri "Now you know how it feels" to lose the one thing you really want.
Derricks doesn't show up
Nobu thinks it is a rape and defends Sayuri
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Who is waiting for Sayuri at the teahouse, at the film's end?
the Chairman
The film comes to a surprisingly happy ending. The Chairman isn't angry about what Sayuri did with Colonel Derricks, although Nobu is. This gets Nobu out of the way, and the Chairman and Sayuri can, at last, be together.
Mameha
Nobu
her sister Satsu
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In addition to confessing his love, what else does the Chairman tell Sayuri at the teahouse?
that he is going to America and wants her to come
that he has become fabulously rich
that he has lost all his money
that he arranged for Mameha to take Sayuri under her wing
The Chairman never forgot the girl on the bridge. He arranged for Mameha to train Sayuri to become a geisha -- but then he stepped aside when it seemed that his friend, Nobu, might find happiness with Sayuri.
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What was controversial about the film "Memoirs of a Geisha?"
the casting of Chinese actresses
One of the producers of "Memoirs" said that no Japanese actresses turned up at an open casting call for the film (which sounds odd, given the demand for any role in a major Hollywood production). The real issue might have been finding stars as bankable as Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh for the roles of Hatsumomo and Mameha.
the implication that the mizuage was a form of ritual prostitution
the sympathetic depiction of Japan in wartime
the depiction of cruelty and abuse in the okiya
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The word "geisha" most literally translates to what?
artist
The kanji that make up the word "geisha" are "art" and "doer." Geisha learn several arts -- including conversation, which definitely counts but is rarely practiced as such anymore!
girl
shamisen player
willow
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Who wrote the book, "Memoirs of a Geisha?"
Arthur Golden
Arthur Golden is related to the Sulzberger family, who own the New York Times. Mineko Iwasaki, incidentally, was a former geisha whom he interviewed for the book, and on whom he modeled many aspects of Sayuri.
Mineko Iwasaki
Michael Chabon
Liza Dalby
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Ted Levine, who played macho Colonel Derricks, had which very different role earlier in his career?
Hedwig in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
Jame Gumb in "Silence of the Lambs"
Ted Levine generally plays straitlaced, masculine characters, like his long run as Captain Stottlemeyer on "Monk." But early in his career, he was the creepy serial killer keeping girls in a well in "Silence of the Lambs."
Rolf in a stage version of "The Sound of Music"
Harvey Milk in an early biopic
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