Did you know Memoirs of a Geisha recently shot some scenes in the Japanese Tea Garden?
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'GEISHA'S' WALK IN THE PARK
G. Allen Johnson
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Cars are lined up along the street outside the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, which is not in itself an unusual sight. But these are vintage 1930s autos. Collectors' items. And idling nearby are even less commonly seen vehicles from that period: rickshaws.
Something's going on here.
Crossing a pathway in the park is Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, dressed in an elegant kimono, with a down jacket over it to guard against the morning cold. She smiles sweetly and heads toward the Tea Garden. At one edge of the Tea Garden, under a cherry tree in full blossom, director Rob Marshall ("Chicago") is lining up a shot for later in the day.
For two weeks earlier this month, the Bay Area played host to the cast and crew of "Memoirs of a Geisha," an estimated $100 million adaptation of Arthur Golden's best-selling novel that is targeted by Columbia Pictures for a high-profile Christmas release.
Produced by Steven Spielberg, among others, and starring Zhang (in her English-speaking debut), Michelle Yeoh, Ken Watanabe and Gong Li, "Memoirs" also may prefigure a resurgence of big-time filmmaking in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
One of Mayor Gavin Newsom's objectives has been to double efforts to get films made here -- there has been a lull in the past few years because of the perceived high price of filming in the Bay Area combined with the economic downturn. In September, Newsom appointed a new executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission, Stefanie Coyote, along with 11 film commissioners -- industry professionals who meet about once a month. The commission is budgeted at $350,000 a year and charged with attracting an industry Newsom says can bring upward of $365 million to the city's economy.
The commission's efforts are already paying dividends; feature films that have used San Francisco as a location during the past few months include "Darwin Awards," starring Winona Ryder and David Arquette; "Rumor Has It," directed by Rob Reiner and starring Jennifer Aniston and Mark Ruffalo; and "Just Like Heaven," starring Reese Witherspoon and Ruffalo. Chris Columbus' film adaptation of "Rent" begins shooting here in about a month.
"The revenue created for the city is measured in a number of ways," Coyote said. "They stay in hotels, so we collect hotel tax; they hire people, so we get payroll tax; they buy lumber; they buy paint; they eat in restaurants; they use dry cleaners. If we can get them here, there will be a lot of trickle-down benefits."
"Memoirs" may be the most prestigious production to shoot here of late. The film, which will be in English, is about an orphaned young girl, Sayuri (Zhang, star of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers"), who is sold to a geisha house in 1929 and quickly becomes a highly sought-after young woman during the 1930s, as Japan's militaristic government prepares for war. She has a jealous rival, Hatsumomo (Gong); a protective "mother," Mameha (Yeoh); and a disfigured suitor known as the Chairman (Watanabe, nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for "The Last Samurai").
Others in the cast include Koji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance?"), Tsai Chin ("The Joy Luck Club") and Youki Kudoh ("Snow Falling on Cedars").
The production filmed mostly in the Los Angeles area, especially Ventura County, where a replica of a Japanese village was built on three acres of land. Northern California locations included a vintage train station in Sacramento, the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at Moss Beach, Muir Beach, the Presidio and some locations in Sonoma County. After filming in the Bay Area was completed, the company headed to Japan to finish the shoot.
"This area is exactly what we needed, and they've been great to us," said Patty Whitcher, one of the film's producers. "Although the rain here (in early January) caused us to significantly alter our schedule, the weather is really bad in Japan, one of the reasons why we're filming here. This is a story that takes place in all kinds of seasons over the course of several years, and this area is helping us capture that."
Filming in the Bay Area isn't cheap: For the right to turn part of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve into a Japanese fishing village (Sayuri's hometown), the production paid $18,000 in permit fees and made a $28,000 donation to the San Mateo Parks and Recreation Foundation.
The company paid in excess of $100,000 to the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department to compensate for revenue lost during the three days of filming at the Japanese Tea Garden, a popular tourist site, and for special gardening fees, which benefited the facility when it reopened.
The Chronicle was permitted to visit the "Memoirs" set in the park but was not allowed to witness filming. The scene that day involved Zhang, Yeoh and Watanabe in the interior of the Tea Garden. Equipment trucks and trailers were parked outside the walls; a crane hoisted a solid black silk drape to block out the sun. Extras dressed in period clothing -- men in sharp-looking suits and fedoras, women in colorful kimonos -- milled about, waiting for their call to the set and frequenting the table filled with sandwiches, croissants and coffee. The exterior of the Tea Garden was dressed to represent the exterior of a school. Leading up to the "school" were two walls of wood that formed a 20-yard pathway; each wall featured false doors and 1930s military posters in Japanese. On the big screen, that narrow passageway will look like a small street paved with pebbles, with houses and storefronts.
Yes, it was a fantasy land. It seemed as though the only reality to be found was that beautiful cherry tree.
But wait -- it's January. Closer inspection revealed that each tiny blossom was made of silk, each delicately fastened to a branch. •
E-mail G. Allen Johnson at ajohnson@sfchronicle.com.
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