The Pillow Book
Nagito harbors a body-calligraphy fetish and meets her ideal soulmate, Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, when Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.
Director(s)
Adrian Kwan
Peter Greenaway
Cast & Crew
Details
Reviews
CinemaSerf
Hmmm. The thing about films that showcase the male body quite this much is that after a while you start wondering why blokes with perfect physiques and faces always seem to have such an underwhelming payload down below! Anyway, the young "Nagiko" (Vivian Wu) recalls the memories from her childhood when her father used to paint some delicately elegant calligraphy on her face. These perfectly crafted characters - and some accompanying and wonderfully enigmatic stories, all emanated from the works of a lady-in-waiting at the 10th century Heian court in Japan. Subsequently, as an adult she is fascinated by this form of art, and with painting the bodies of those who share her rather lively sex life. "Jerome" (Ewan McGregor) has slovenly hand-writing that drives her mad, but soon they are enthralled with each other and he becomes one of the the more willing partners joining in with her games of sex and scribe-work. There's no doubt that some of the body work she creates would be the envy of many a modern day tattooist. Now there's got to be a twist - and soon she discovers that "Jerome" likes his oysters and his snails - and that he is having a dalliance with a publisher who made life difficult for her father. She sees an opportunity to not just get even, but to get her own book out there too. The presentation, like the book, is delivered in chapters. That's not always the easiest to follow, nor are they in anyway chronological - the narrative has a rather rambling mind of it's own sometimes and that does undermine the literary value of this leaving us with a story that does jar occasionally. Essentially, in the end it's a gorgeously photographed aesthetic that works well sometimes, not so well others. It's not a great story, but it's a creative and visionary look at the beauty of the male body - and personality - as seen through a woman with love, lust and revenge in her eyes. Bizarrely compelling to watch - it could have done without any dialogue at all and just been presented as a soundtrack-only piece of attractive cinema.
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The Pillow Book FAQs
The directors of The Pillow Book are Adrian Kwan and Peter Greenaway.
The cast of The Pillow Book includes Ken Mitsuishi as The Husband, Ewan McGregor as Jerome, Vivian Wu as Nagiko, Ken Ogata as The Father, Ronald Guttman as Calligrapher, Hideko Yoshida as The Aunt / The Maid, Barbara Lott as Jerome's Mother, Lynne Langdon as Jerome's sister, Yoshi Oida as The Publisher, Yutaka Honda as Hoki, and Judy Ongg as The Mother.
The duration of The Pillow Book is 2h 6 mins.
Yes. You can watch the The Pillow Book trailer on this Fanbiz page on Fanziz.
The Pillow Book was released on 01 Sep 1995.
The Pillow Book is listed under Drama and Romance on Fanbiz.
The Pillow Book has 1 review on Fanziz, with an average rating of 7.0/10. One reviewer wrote: "Hmmm. The thing about films that showcase the male body quite this much is that after a while you start wondering why blokes with perfect physiques and faces always seem to have..."
