Not so much a glimpse into the powdered and painted world of women as a peek into the snake pit. Director Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha finally brings to the screen Arthur Golden's tale of life in a Geisha house – and a sumptuous, visually-thrilling insight into a world of grace, elegance and startlingly imaginative cruelty it is, too.

Set in pre-second-world-war Japan, 9-year-old Chiyo (played as an adult by Ziyi Zhang, House of Flying Daggers) and her sister Satsu are sold by their father to Kyoto 's Geisha district. But the economics of beauty are immediately realised: while Chiyo with her unusual blue eyes and burgeoning beauty is accepted by her okiya (a geisha house), plain Satsu is consigned to prostitution.

At first little Chiyo thinks only about finding Satsu and escaping, but a chance encounter with the Chairman (Watanabe) shows her that becoming a Geisha is the escape route. And, more importantly, a route into the Chairman's world.

It's a painful journey though, littered with regret, revenge and loss, not just for Chiyo, but for all the women in her closeted Geisha world. In that microcosm, where beauty means success, she quickly becomes the target of jealous machinations, especially from the vindictive Hatsumomo. It's only when the beautiful geisha Mameha (Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) strategically plans to make Chiyo the greatest Geisha in the Hanamachi over bitter rival Hatsumomo that Chiyo's fortunes change.

Geisha are professional companions, with the distinction from prostitution emphatically argued by its followers. It's a kind of artistry – not just in the painting of faces, but in the graceful movements (a kind of unceasing choreography, in everything from etiquette to sleeping and walking,) as well as skills in music and dance. Rather than high-class prositution, Geisha are supposedly more like the objects of medieval courtly love.

Having said that, it's a little ironic that Chiyo only becomes a full-fledged Geisha once she sells her virginity to the highest bidder.

That, however, is one of the lesser controversies surrounding a film which is gearing up for the full awards showdown (already with two Golden Globe nominations); with threats of legal action from the ‘real' Geisha of Gion whose life Golden based his book; as well as the fierce storm that has brewed as a result of the casting of the leads.

Marshall 's (Chicago) cast is, essentially, a snapshot of the current successes of Asian film-making, and builds on triumphs of films like Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers – using the lead actresses from those films again here.

And that's part of the problem, as far as Japanese audiences are concerned – none of the lead actresses are Japanese, in what is such a Japanese tale.

Asian audiences are already familiar with acting talent and genre evolutions such as in Crouching Tiger, films which have also initiated Western audiences. But it does make you wonder if Marshall's casting is based not only on the getting good actors for the parts (and undoubtedly they are) but also a tiny little bit of ‘surely no one will be able to tell the difference…'

Like Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, Memoirs is a tale of the passing of eras: the end of childhood innocence, the end of the ‘willow and flower world', of the ordered, elegant and exceptionally ritualised world of the Geisha under the encroachment of the West, and war.

Marshall's depiction is fittingly artistic and undeniably beautiful, although the moving and emotive ending seems a little too pat and glossy/glossed in contrast to the intricate detail lavished over the rest of the film.

Memoirs of a Geisha may well be one of the most visually-loaded, engaging and evocative films you see this year. And with a New Year release - and a welcome relief to the cinematically dull conclusion to 2005 - it looks like this could be another Year of the Dragon…