The Pillow Book Poster

The Pillow Book (1996)

Drama  
Rayting:   6.7/10 12.4K votes
Country: Netherlands | UK
Language: English | Cantonese
Release date: 20 October 1997

A woman with a body writing fetish seeks to find a combined lover and calligrapher.

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User Reviews

tedg 4 July 2000

I think Greenaway makes very smart films, and I'm really glad he's around. His intellect is always tuned to ideas about the visual, so we get a double measure: his images and his commentary on those same images. You should see this film if you think about communicating by image -- you won't find more beauty and recursive visual depth anywhere else.

There are a few flaws in my mind, notable only because the film is so remarkable and because Greenaway shoots so high. A central dance here is the art of the writing (its appearance) and how that relates to the art the writing points to (its semantic meaning). So much elaboration of this works so well that I wonder why Greenaway went to such trouble to make the storyline so comprehensible. It is almost as if he is pandering to critics of his less accessible work. This greatly dilutes the impact for me, takes away from the point that the immediacy and fluidity and directness of the presentation by sense at least trumps the recoil by the mind. Perhaps is wholly substitutes. So why make so much sense? So that people will watch who wouldn't otherwise get it?

I wish Greenaway played more with contrasting ritual with spontaneity, especially since the Japan/Hong Kong cultural contrast, the publishing versus modeling contrast (permanent versus faddish), and the promiscuous lovers versus the honored parents all set things up so well. In particular, the soluble temporary nature of the writing turned into permanent tattoos at the end. What of that? It looked decorative only. Her breasts her new pillowbook?

If you liked this film, you'll like the book: `Life: a User's Manual' (Perec) which works the same territory but has a better sense of how to come to an end. The hero spends a decade traveling to paint watercolors. These are turned into jigsaw puzzles which he spends a decade reassembling, rebinding the paper, and bleaching out the image. Each puzzle reflects on a story associated with a room or person in the Paris apartment building he has maintained and populated with unwitting tenants.

Moo-V-MaVen 1 September 2005

Fmovies: Seems most, if not all, movies today are so formulaic (I can only watch so much Jane Austen: Bridget Jones' Diary, Cold Comfort Farm, others?). A revenge/love story, this picture made me fall in love with Ewan McGregor! Such a skilled actor at such an early age and willing to go to such extremes! Because the acting, camera and editing were so fabulous, this movie could have easily been without words.

Ewan's character was so innocent and gullible. The female lead's character was very strong and overpowering. Imagine being in the position of having to protect your father and then seek vengeance on his destroyer. And such a small delicate woman.

While there were some awkward moments revealing the immaturity of the female lead and some disgusting circumstances propelling her toward revenge, in all, I have to rate this movie excellent for the editing, camera, story, and high impact acting. It was very moving.

igmu 8 December 2005

Visually cluttered, plot less, incredibly mind-numbing rubbish. Not even close to Greenaway's better work. Avoid at all costs!

The overlapping 'split screen' effects do nothing more than confuse, the film is very dark for a lot of the time and the 'artistic' composing of images is pretentious in the extreme.

There is absolutely nothing to recommend about this film; even the nudity is incredibly unerotic, which seeing it fills a large part of the film soon gets very boring.

Plus, how anyone can say that the acting of Ewen MacGregor is brilliant is beyond me. He showed more ability in the Star Wars series, and that's saying something.

I've not been so unimpressed with a film since I saw 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People'!

NateManD 10 August 2005

The Pillow Book fmovies. "Pillowbook" maybe one of Peter Greenaway's most amazing films next to "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover". If you want to see Ewan McGregor completely naked for extended periods of time, now's your chance. I'd probably walk around nude too, if I was as well endowed as him! The "Pillowbook" concerns the character Nagiko, played by the sexy Vivian Wu. (She made me say Woooh!) Growing up Nagiko has fond memories of her father who was an author. He would paint calligraphy on her face. She also enjoyed the pillow-book that her aunt had read to her with it's sensual stories. One memory that troubles her was her father being blackmailed for sexual favors by a gay publisher. He did this to get his stories published. All grown up Nagiko develops a fetish to be written on with ink. She goes through many men, but has no luck. She also has the desire to create her own pillow-book of lists and obsessions. Then she meets Jerome (Ewan Mcgregor) an English translator, it's a strange love at first sight. The only problem is that he has sloppy handwriting. So Jerome offer's himself to be written on like the pages of the book. Little does she know that Jerome is bisexual and having relations with the same publisher that had blackmailed her father growing up. When she realizes this she uses Jerome to seduce the publisher with his written body. She wants to get her book published. Nagiko narrates the film saying, "If I couldn't seduce the publisher, I could at least seduce the publisher's lover." Talk about twisted! As the film moves along it becomes more strange and surreal, with frame within frame of words and images. The screen breaks down into boxes and into lists at points. It's easy to get confused during your first viewing, like Greenaway's other films. "The Pillowbook" is not your typical erotic film, it's also a story of betrayal and vengeance. One things for sure, Vivian Wu and Ewan McGregor have such great sexual chemistry together. This creates a hypnotic and beautiful effect on the viewer.

mreed1 21 February 2005

Erotic, seductive, intellectual, visually stunning film. The painted calligraphy on skin was amazingly sensuous.

I couldn't force myself to watch '8 1/2 Women' which was my first Greenway film, so I hoped against my better judgment that this movie would be different -- and it was. I've read reviews that say this movie moves slow, but I didn't feel that at all. I think the character introspection is very important - I felt I knew Nagito. I understood her desire, her confusion and her pain. The ending is beautifully done - Nagito is the perfect tragic heroine. This is a must see for anyone looking for a sensual erotic film; unlike most you have seen before.

daodao 13 February 2002

This is a beautiful movie visually, but you need to keep concentrating on what is happening. Don't ask why too much with this - the effect of actions is reason enough to take them. Vivan Wu is very good, as is Ewan McGregor, in a different role for him. It reminds you also of what are some of the best things about Japan, and what are some of the worst things about men. Well worth buying the DVD and watching over and over.

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