Malaysian star Michelle Yeoh with her Chinese counterpart Zhang Ziyi at a news conference for their new film Memoirs of a Geisha in Tokyo. (AFP)

A dream team of movie stars from China and Japan gathered in Tokyo on Monday to promote Memoirs of a Geisha, the first big-budget Hollywood romance to feature an almost entirely Asian cast.

But a day ahead of the world premiere, some in Japan were wondering why homegrown talent was shut out of the leading roles in a film that celebrates Japan’s unique culture.

Harsher comments have come from China, where bitter feelings over Japan’s 1931-45 occupation of parts of the country make the idea of Chinese playing geisha unacceptable to some.

Based on a best-selling novel, backed by Steven Spielberg and directed by Rob Marshall of the multiple Oscar-winning Chicago, Memoirs has generated enormous media interest.

The cast adds up to Asia’s A-list, with China’s Zhang Ziyi starring as Sayuri, a poor fisherman’s daughter who transforms herself into a legend of Kyoto’s mysterious entertainment world in the 1930s.

The two other leading roles are played by Gong Li, also of China, and ethnic Chinese Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, with Japanese performers relegated to secondary roles.

Memoirs, reported to have cost its makers $85 million, can ill afford to alienate moviegoers in Japan, the second biggest market for Hollywood films.But some have already expressed anger at what they see as a cavalier attitude to the subtleties of traditional costume and dance in a movie largely shot on a specially built set in California.

“According to this film, ‘geisha’ dance in a bizarre fashion, as if they were in a Los Angeles strip show,” one Japanese film fan complained on a Web log, or blog, adding that the lights and special effects were more reminiscent of modern Las Vegas than old Kyoto. “We should boycott this film and send a clear message to Hollywood. Why on earth have they made a film making fun of the Japanese, when they cannot get by without us?” the blog continued. Chinese bloggers were outraged.

Dressed in an off-white cocktail dress with her hair piled high, Zhang told a packed news conference she saw the film as a step forward for Asian actors. “I am really grateful to Rob Marshall for giving us this incredible chance to show the whole world Asian actors’ ability,” she said on Monday. “We can do so much more than people think.”