The Pillow Book
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Movie Reviews of The Pillow Book
Movie Review: Strange, and Memorable
Summary: 5 Stars
I came across this film last year on the Independent Film Channel and was transfixed by it. Odd? Yes. Bizarre? Sometimes. AndI could not get it out of my mind.
Director Greenaway seems to make movies that stick in the mind of the beholder. I also loved "Nora." -- Both films were directed by him and star Ewan McGregor.
Movie Review: beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably the most beautiful movie you will ever see. If you are open minded, it may even change your life.Movie Review: Extremely fine cinema
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is truly able to stand on its own in the cinematic world. It is filmed so that it mimics the reading of a personal journal (the pillow book) and the story is SO erotically charged and titillating that watching it is to experience Greenaway's vision of *sex and literature* - highly HIGHLY recommended. It's like really good sex and a really good book packed into a really great film... very thoughtful and indulgent.Movie Review: well made film.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of these films that is hard to put to words. The film was made with a odd kind of video camera were the viewer can see 2 to 4 things at once along with Subtitles to the Japanese and Chinese (it is set in Japan and Hong Kong) language of the film making it like a book you read then a film to watch. The story is mote about the live of a woman (Vivian Wu) who is obsessed with recreating two childhood rituals one of them being to use her body to write words on and to write her own "Pillow book" (diary). One of the longest films I have seen this year. 1997. RCA. 126 MINS.
Movie Review: Film seems to focus more on artful cuts than plot
Summary: 3 Stars
Somehow, this movie gets bogged down by artful cuts, cinematography and just thin excuses to see Vivian Wu and Ewan McGregor naked, despite its ambitious attempts to make a provacative, erotic and disturbing piece of cinema.The plot, which is about a young Japanese model (Wu) who takes on a young bisexual Englishman (McGregor) as a lover who lets her draw calligraphy on him while putting forth a long-dormant plan to get revenge on the Publisher who sexually used her father to have her father's work published when she was a young child.
The plot has a lot to be desired to be fashioned into a sumptuous, erotic piece of cinema, but it only effectively works in the first half, where various lingering shots of Wu's body decorated with calligraphy work in sync with the plot. Sadly, in the second part, the movie seemingly degrades into a shallow exploitative flick where Greenaway wants every man to strip down, while the shots are mainly quick and frustratingly inept. The ending itself is unmoving and is especially contrived.
If you're looking for a sumptuous, erotic film, don't look here, but go for the R-rated, but much better, "Eyes Wide Shut." If you're looking for no holds-barred excuse to see Vivian Wu and/or Ewan McGregor in the nude, look no further than "The Pillow Book."
Not rated, but the equivalent of a NC-17 for graphic nudity, sexuality, violence, and drug use.