I was really surprised the reviews were so felgercarb, coz personally i thought the movie was beautifully made, on the whole. I haven't read the book, but the movie made perfect sense to me. I have to say it was a bit long, and I did catch myself dozing off a little towards the middle, but Gong Li was perfection and I enjoyed the movie despite the poor english, which I was really surprised about. I think with a little cropping and a little more real Geisha-ness, like those fan dances and things, the movie potentially could've been a bit better.