Memoirs of a Geisha, a story

Memoirs of a Geisha tells the story of Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into a life of servitude by her parents when she is nine years old. Chiyo is taken in by the proprietress of a geisha house where she works to pay off the debt of her purchase and the soiling of a silk kimono, which Chiyo was blackmailed into defacing by the jealous Geisha, Hatsumomo. One day while crying in the street, the young Chiyo is noticed by Chairman Ken Iwamura, who buys her sweets and gives her some money. Inspired by his act of kindness, Chiyo resolves to become a geisha so that she may one day become a part of The Chairman’s life. Chiyo is taken under the wing of Mameha, head of a rival geisha house. Under Mameha’s tutelage, the girl Chiyo, becomes Sayuri, the most famous geisha in all Gion, Kyoto.
Sayuri, through her work as a geisha, is reunited with The Chairman, who she has secretly loved since she was a girl; although she is led to believe he has no memory of who she was before she became geisha. Her prosperous life is cut short by the outbreak of World War Two and while the safety of Sayuri and Mameha is ensured by The Chairman, they must endure a life of hard labour. After the war, Sayuri is reunited with Mameha, and they become geishas once more. Sayuri finally reveals her love to the Chairman, which she has been harbouring for ten years, when he reveals to her he was in fact responsible for sending Mameha to her so that she may fulfil her dreams of becoming a geisha.
Memoirs of a Geisha is an Academy Award and Grammy Award-winning movie adaptation of a novel by Arthur Golden, published in 1997. The novel, told in first-person view, tells the fictional story of a geisha working in Kyoto, Japan, before World War II. The movie produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and directed by Rob Marshall. It was released in the United States on December 9, 2005 by Columbia Pictures, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment. It stars Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh, Youki Kudoh, and Suzuka Ohgo. Ohgo plays the younger Sayuri in the movie, which was filmed in southern and northern California and in several locations in Kyoto, including the Kiyomizu temple and the Fushimi Inari shrine.