Kikuchi keeps cool amid Oscar buzz

Her performance was good. My objection is that it's out of character for a teen to strip like that. It would never happen. Not with the lights on.

 

If eliminating the nude scenes would have harmed her chances for a nomination, then I think that speaks volumes of the academy and the industry in general. Sadly it seems like the only way actresses get attention and respect these days is by taking off their clothes or portraying women who are victims of abuse or other horrible trauma.

I agree with Nessie totally out of character, but all those things described about showing how disconnected from society, etc., could just as easily been done without showing nudity.

Or how about this one. O.K., show her without her clothes on, but it could easily have been simulated, i.e., shown only from the neck up (like Jennifer Anniston did in her comedy movie, she was naked but no nudity was shown). No justification exists to show the explicit nudity.

Pure exploitation.

 

Holllywood does. Look at the types of roles asian women play in, and then look at the few instances that hollywood will cast asian men (hard to find, except in jackie chan-type movies).

Why is the highest grossing asian film starring women about geisha?
It is exploitation.

 

It must have been a great performance, or her beauty lies elsewhere than her face. To think that Western guys could get a jones over this.

But "essence of her extremity" sounds more sublimated than sublime, the counterpart of Nabokov's "sceptre of my passion."

 

You avoided the question earlier -- in your opinion, is there any case when an actress, especially an asian one, can do a nude scene and have it not be "exploitation?"

It's not clear whether you are simply a prude or whether there is something about this particular performance that disturbs you.



The hyperbole of your assertion aside, this was exactly the point of the scene -- to show how her circumstances caused her to behave extraordinarily (or maybe not, depending on how you want to interpret it in context).

 

I would like to ask the people who were "shocked" by her nudity 1. how old they are and 2. what strange country they are from that they are apparently not yet used to see plenty of nudity on their television screen.

 

Yea, an actress can be nude without exploitation. It's called porno.

Like I said before, fine, she could be nude for the sake of the story. But again, it could have been filmed neck up to simulate nudity, kind of like jennifer aniston in 'the breakup.'

I would say the same thing for any actress, any race, shape, or nationality. To blatantly show nudity like that, is pure exploitation and no excuse for it. It does nothing for the storyline to show explicit nudity like that.

Again, I'll repeat for the third time, they could have shown her from the neck up. No excuses. Exploitation. End of story.

 

you are against nudity under any circumstance. I hope you can understand how most respectfully disagree with your marginal position.

(Can you even appreciate nudity in classic or ancient works or art and literature? Nudity is certainly not a characteristic specific to modern times or Hollywood.)

 

It says she was "runner up?" Since when do they announce a vote account for an awards show??? I've never heard this tiype of thing before...

 

Why should it be filmed form the neck up? If its as important to the story as anything else then why is it exploitation to show a persons naked body? You are excessively prudish about sex. Are you Catholic?

Also according to the article, she is 26 now yet made her debut at the age of 15 in 1999. Interesting mathematics.

 

Didn't Crouching Whatsit, Hidden Thingummy do better than Memoirs of a Geisha?

My primary reason for watching MoaG was to look at the kimono. But I'm a bit strange like that. I don't quite see how a film about geisha (played by actresses) is exploitation per se, though. It's not as though it primarily focuses on the sex aspect.

 

I don't know bout the rest of y'all, but where I live they definitely do not show full nudity on prime time television. Oh sure HBO and all the other movie channels are filled to the rim with nudity and sex and blood galore, but mainstream no way.

Anyways none of you can seem to justify the nudity in this film, only that it is "important" to the story. How important, what importance? Well, I should rephrase that. None of you can justify clearly why they have to show her totally nude, full frontal and all. Only that it is "important." Is it really THAT important to the story that they have to show her in all her glory instead of simulating it? I didn't think so. Are audiences that jaded and dumb that they need the tiltillation of a sexy j gal fully naked in order to "feel her pain and sorrow?" I didn't think so either.

I can understand movies that have no pretensions having plenty of nudity, like an explicit love story or a famous sexual figure. But a movie that pretends to be about something higher in life, it is shameful that the filmmakers decided to have the japanese female out of all the other characters take off her clothes and try to be sexually promiscuous (yea I know japanese school girls are sexually promiscuous so the movie is real there too, right?).

 

I forgot, I find it amusing that the article says she's the "hottest japanese actress in hollywood," hottest as in the one creating the most buzz. Exactly how many japanese actress are even in mainstream american movies anyways? She is as much a part of hollywood as rosie odonnell is a part of weight watchers. The only reason why she is "hot" is because she took her clothes off, without her doing so there wouldn't be as much buzz sad to say. Unfortunately doing unnecessary nude scenes has been the modern day version of the infamous hollywood casting couch. I'm sure the pervs who wrote the screenplay to babel made sure the japanese actress who did the role took off all her clothes. Also, it's not like hollywood is going to be busting down doors to cast her in any future american movies.

 

'Hottest japanese actress', 'j-girl', 'pervs who wrote the screenplay', 'unnecessary nude scenes', and it goes on. Ha-ha-ha.
The nude scene isn't at all offensive or erotic for that matter. The strength of Kikuchi lies most of all in her communicating with sign language which she does exceedingly well.

 

It's rjd_jr bashing something western in defense of Japan. Again. Exploitive? Yeah, I'm guessing when they were filming the movie, they decided to throw in some random nudity to attract men. Oh wait, it wasn't random nudity. It had a purpose. How they decided to portray it was up to the director. Not you. Don't like it, don't watch it. You can boycott it if you like.

I like how you just clear cut shut out everyone else's argument with lines like "No excuses. Exploitation. End of story." Please don't pretend to try to support a discussion. I also liked how you said "Japanese woman" instead of "woman". You make it sound like Hollywood is going after japanese actresses for the sake of full frontal nudity.

I bet if it WASN'T a Japanese woman, rjd_jr wouldn't have posted here at all. At least he replied to people's arguments this time, he usually posts first and gets his argument destroyed immediately afterward, then disappears from the news topic altogether.