Two things stick in your mind while watching "Memoirs of a Geisha"; the first, just how visually exquisite it is, and the second, how the story sputters under this spectacular veneer.

From the opening scene of a peasant farm house where two young girls are sold into the Geisha trade by their impoverished parents "Memoirs" offers a vision of the last days of classical Japan. Every visual element, whether sets or cinematography, is crafted to postcard perfection. As a cart carries the girls away from their small village even the twisted tree trunks and branches lend a haunting Asian aesthetic to the composition.

Once in the city the sisters are sold to separate Geisha houses and the story follows Chiyo (Suzuka Ohgo) the younger of the two. Chiyo is introduced to the women who will shape her future and we are introduced to another piece of visual inspiration the film makers had up their sleeves.

"Memoirs of a Geisha" caused a minor furor in Japan because the three primary roles went to Chinese actresses. But to an American audience the reason the film makers took that creative license is easy to appreciate. The three: Ziyi Zhang as the adult Chiyo, Gong Li as her nemesis, the geisha Hatsumomo, and Michelle Yeoh as Chiyo's mentor Mameha are not only talented actresses but exceptionally beautiful. Dress them up in the exotic makeup and fashions of a geisha and it's hard to look away.

This is the kind of stuff you'd expect from director Rob Marshall. He comes from a musical theater background and has a finely tuned instinct for showy visuals whether in his actors or the sets they inhabit. In fact, whenever Marshall finds as chance to have his geishas put on a show the movie ramps up a notch.

But Marshall isn't just putting on a show, he has a story to tell and here's were the creative genius that informs the visual elements of "Memoirs" is suddenly in short supply. It's hard to pinpoint exactly were the script goes wrong except to say this: the title itself, Memoirs of a Geisha, evokes an image of an exotic, fate-driven life. Given that, the haunting recreation of a distant culture and the talent of the actors it's easy to be lulled into an expectation of a complex, poetic story.

Instead we get Fox Network's "The O.C." re-envisioned as costume drama.

The noble waif Chiyo struggles to the pinnacle of geisha world and on her way falls in love with a wealthy businessman. Of course the jealous and wonderfully Machiavellian Hatsumomo is there to frustrate her efforts at every turn.

This is pretty much a tale of girls fighting over guys. And, considering that the guys are in reality "clients" in a business that has fuzzy borders with the sex trade, the story keeps slipping into a slightly creepy anti-feminist fantasy that only a talk-radio host could love. While "Memoirs" tries to keep that inconvenient aspect at arms length and treat us to a good old fashioned Hollywood romantic ending, it can't quite reconcile the two.

But all is not lost. Gong Li squeezes every ounce of melodrama out of her evil geisha role. With locks of hair hanging across her face and her kimono elegantly askew she is the great guilty pleasure of the film as she torments the hapless Chiyo. The other virtues of this movie not withstanding, she's worth the price of admission all by herself.

Bruce Bulloch writes regularly in these newspapers and can be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com