The Pillow Book
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Movie Reviews of The Pillow Book
Movie Review: About the DVD release
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a great movie and i love Greenaway.
But iam very very disappointed that the viedo transfer quality is so bad.
This release has the worst transfer in my over 2000 dvd collection.
Movie Review: Sensual and Erotic
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Pillow Book"
Sensual and Erotic
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
To describe "The Pillow Book" is a very difficult task. Is it exotic or is it erotic or maybe both? It is sensual, delicate and beautiful. The music is mysterious and the cinematography is stunning.
As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face. Her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book" which was the diary of a lady-in-waiting during the tenth century. As Nagiko grows up she is obsessed with papers, books, and writings. Her sexual odyssey (and her own "Pillow Book") is a combination of modern Chinese, classical Japanese and Western film images.
At the beginning of the movie we see a little girl being written upon by her father. We then shift to see the girl as an adult who s looking for lovers who will write on her body once again. She meets a bisexual Englishman who also enjoys being written upon and she learns that he was once the former lover of a man who had once betrayed her father.
This is one of those rare films that transcend the limitations of film and text and this is probably due to its handling by Peter Greenaway. The movie is loosely based on writings from the tenth century of the imperial court observer, Sei Shonagon. Greenaway brings a visual feast to the screen that uses stunning sets and the physical beauty of actors Vivian Wu and Ewan McGregor as well as the ancient and modern writing systems that are known as the art of calligraphy.
What Greenaway does so brilliantly is to incorporate art, numbers, books and architecture into film. As a young child Nagiko celebrated her birthday by having her father write the story of creation on her face. With adulthood and marriage, her husband was neither interested nor did he want to continue this tradition. When she becomes frustrated that she cannot find a lover who is also a good calligrapher, she finally meets a bisexual translator, Jerome (McGregor). Who offers himself to her as a living canvas for her erotic creativity. Nagiko is inspired by the chance to get revenge on a publisher who had once blackmailed her father when she learns that Jerome's lover is the very same man. She creates the ultimate love poem which she illuminates in red, gold and black characters and delivers it to the publisher on Jerome's naked body.
This s pure visual eroticism and the story revels in the binaries of both the profane and the grotesque but it also is a delight for the eye in the way that Greenaway is able to translate a vision of both love and horror in a single statement of pure physical beauty and very passionate sexuality. Sometimes the beauty of the film detracts from the ability to concentrate on what is actually happening. Vivian Wu as Nagiko is very good and so is McGregor. This is quite a different role than he usually plays but he does a good job--and he also looks good naked. His character is innocent and gullible while Nagiko is very strong and overpowering.
As a film "The Pillow Book" is an erotic masterpiece. It unravels like a scroll and it teases and excites with floating images. Our attention is captured from the very start and our emotions are toyed with. Watching this film is an experience for the senses in which the ending is beautifully done. You will feel enchanted, perhaps even hypnotized by the film and if you like sensual eroticism, this is the film to see.
Movie Review: See it
Summary: 4 Stars
A different sort of story. Creative. Worth seeing. Sometimes difficult to read the captions on TV. Still worth seeing. Beautiful photography. Not for children generally, but not offensive. Rare comfortablness with male nudity without being sexual or pornographic. If "five" is reserved for the absolute "best" ever, then this is a four; otherwise I'd have given it a five.Movie Review: Not bad, but lackluster for Greenaway.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Pillow Book (Peter Greenaway, 1996)
I've long had a hypothesis that every bad actor gets one good movie; Julia Roberts has Flatliners, Kevin Costner A Perfect World, Albert Brooks Taxi Driver. I've been trying to figure out for a number of years now whether Ewan MacGregor used up his allowance with Little Voice or not, and every once in a while I check out another Ewan MacGregor flick to see if it's the good one. The Pillow Book is not it, though it's the first of his films I've seen that at least achieves the same level of competence and watchability as Little Voice.
Peter Greenaway is known for creating plotless swirls of artistic film, and The Pillow Book did little to damage this reputation. It's less of a plot-based film than an extended character study of Nagiko (The Last Emperor's Vivian Wu), a woman obsessed with Sei Shonagon's erotic masterpiece The Pillow Book and determined to create a version of her own. During the course of her exploits, she meets Jerome (MacGregor), and the two start a tumultuous relationship. Nagiko has been trying to get her writing published by a top Japanese publishing house, headed by a character we know only as The Publisher (Madame Butterfly's Yoshi Oida), and is continually frustrated; Jerome hatches the idea of submitting her work not on paper, but on the bodies of men. Hilarity ensues.
As with all Greenaway's movies, this is quite nice to look at, but it's got that empty calorie feeling to it; you enjoy it while it lasts, but it's not filling, and you feel vaguely guilty for having consumed so much of it at once without really remembering what it tastes like. ** ?
Movie Review: Beautiful and intriguing
Summary: 5 Stars
I should start by saying I'm a huge Ewan McGregor fan, so that was one aspect of this film that I enjoyed. The Pillow Book is lovely and tender as a father lovingly applies the calligraphy to his daughter, Nagiko's face each year on her birthday. With Jerome, her first choice of calligrapher in adulthood, she finds a wonderful lover, a less than acceptable writer, the perfect canvas for her book, and a link to unsavory character who brought her father so much pain. I don't want to give away too much, but this movie kept my attention throughout! If you are uncomfortable with full frontal nudity (both male and female), this movie will likely make you quite uncomfortable! But for all the rest, I highly recommend it - especially for Ewan McGregor fans.