Editor’s Note: By arrangement with Sony Pictures, The Honolulu Advertiser has arranged for exclusive interviews with some of the primary creative players involved in the making of “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

Today: the author of the best-selling novel on which the movie was based

Tomorrow: Ziyi Zhang, who plays Chiyo

To Arthur Golden, the informed, imaginative leap that enabled him to write from the point of view of a Japanese woman in his novel, "Memoirs of a Geisha," is not unlike that taken by American director Rob Marshall — or the film's three Chinese stars — in the new movie based on the book.

So while Golden is happy that Marshall's film retains the spirit and much of the letter of his 1997 novel, he's also appreciative of the fact that true "fidelity" isn't the goal. It's the director's own creative vision that brings the story to life on the screen, he says.

"I hope people enjoy both the book and the film," says Golden. "They have different aims. They are necessarily different, for better or worse, because the medium is so different. I hope people will see the film for what it is."

The film, which has stirred controversy over cultural appropriation in Japan and China, but has received generally strong reviews on the Mainland, opens in Hawai'i on Friday.

The story follows the tumultuous life of a country girl, Chiyo, who is sold to an okiya (geisha house) after her mother falls ill. Set in the 1930s, the end of the so-called Golden Age of the Geisha, Golden's original story traces Chiyo's harsh life as an indentured servant and her eventual rise, amid rivalries and intrigues as complex and explosive as that of Victorian court life, as the top geisha of her time.

It is the distinct voice of Chiyo (later given the geisha name Sayuri) that drives the book, providing an eloquent and reflective narrative presence to explain the intricacies — some real, some imagined — of the Japanese subculture.

That the character was first conceived in the mind of a writer born in Chatanooga, Tenn., and educated at Harvard College — "a white guy who wrote first-person as a Japanese woman," as Golden calls himself — has been a source of consternation among some critics, who view it as a kind of theft of another's culture and voice. But Golden says that kind of reaction hasn't been widespread.

"I was expecting more of a backlash when the book came out, but the response was positive," Golden says. "It worked out nicely. The subject did come up in Canada, though."

Golden acknowledges that only someone writing from within a given culture can represent it with a high degree of accuracy and authority. Everything else, he says, is interpretation.

And yet literary fiction exists in part because of the willingness and ability of authors to enter imagined and interpreted spaces to craft their work. Hemingway, after all, was not an impoverished Cuban fisherman, nor is Annie Proulx a gay cowboy.

For Golden, it's the particulars of the given story that matter. So if he's asked how he can write from the point of view of a woman waking up in the morning, his response is simple:

"What woman," he asks, "and what morning? It has to be specific."

In fact, without expecting it, Golden spent much of his adult life preparing himself for the novel. He studied Japanese art at Harvard and earned a master's degree in Japanese history from Columbia University (where he also learned Mandarin).

He first came up with the idea of the novel when he was working in Japan for a year. One of his friends was the son of a geisha, and Golden found himself intrigued by the often-misunderstood profession.

A period of intense research yielded a first draft of the novel, but Golden says it was based too heavily on "book learning." Real insight came when a Japanese friend of the family arranged for him to meet a retired geisha named Mineko.

While his Sayuri character is not based on Mineko, Golden says, speaking with her allowed him to imagine the world in which his character lived and the rigid social hierarchies that governed her life.

Golden says he was taken aback by the immediate success of "Memoirs of a Geisha," a book that crossed over from literature to pop culture.

"I was stunned when Madonna showed up at an awards show dressed as a geisha," he says, laughing.

Golden served as a consultant on the screenplay for the film, but was not involved once actual production began. Still, he says, he was comfortable with Marshall's vision for the film.

"His concern was artistic," Golden says. "He wanted to make an interpretation of the (geisha) life.

"Rob re-read passages of the novel on his way to the set each day to remind him of the texture and the content," Golden says. "There were many moments in the film where I felt he really captured the scope of (Sayuri's) life and her struggles."

Golden says he was equally impressed with the performances of stars Ziyi Zhang ("captivating"), Michelle Yeoh ("very soothing"), and, in particular, Gong Li.

"Gong Li is amazing," Golden says. "She talked to me to find out how to interpret the character, and it was amazing how she gave herself over to the role. She said she would wake up thinking about it."

Golden says he is sympathetic to the effort and imagination the Chinese actresses put into assuming their roles as Japanese geisha.

"The craft of acting is amazing to me," he says. "I'm amazed that anyone can do it."

With the film soon to be in general release, Golden says, his involvement with the project is winding down, and he'll be happy to be able to devote his full attention to his next novel.

The new project is about a young man who emigrates from Amsterdam to New York in the 1850s and finds work as a meat packer. It's a decidedly different kind of story, but one that will again require a great leap of imagination.

"Having a novel published and being very successful helps a lot in quieting the anxiety of 'Is anyone going to read this?'" Golden says. "It brings other problems, I suppose, but these are good problems to have."

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EDITOR'S NOTE

By arrangement with Sony Pictures, The Honolulu Advertiser has arranged for exclusive interviews with some of the primary creative players involved in the making of "Memoirs of a Geisha."

Today: the author of the best-selling novel on which the movie was based

Tomorrow: Ziyi Zhang, who plays Chiyo

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.