Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22035 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-16
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, Drowning by Numbers) continues to delight and disturb us with his talent for combining storytelling with optic artistry. The Pillow Book is divided into 10 chapters (consistent with Greenaway's love of numbers and lists) and is shot to be viewed like a book, complete with tantalising illustrations and footnotes (subtitles) and using television's "screen-in-screen" technology. As a child in Japan, Nagiko's father celebrates her birthday retelling the Japanese creation myth and writing on her flesh in beautiful calligraphy, while her aunt reads a list of "beautiful things" from a 10th-century pillow book. As she gets older, Nagiko (Vivian Wu) looks for a lover with calligraphy skills to continue the annual ritual. She is initially thrilled when she encounters Jerome (Ewan McGregor), a bisexual translator who can speak and write several languages, but soon realises that although he is a magnificent lover, his penmanship is less than acceptable. When Nagiko dismisses the enamoured Jerome, he suggests she use his flesh as the pages which to present her own pillow book. The film, complete with a musical score as international as the languages used in the narration, is visually hypnotic and truly an immense "work of art". --Michele Goodson

Special Features
4:3
DVD 9
English
Region 2
Dolby Surround English
Dolby Surround

Synopsis
An arresting Japanese model seeks to indulge her fantasy of having calligraphy inked on her body, a whim based partly on her father's habit of painting poetry on her face when she was a girl and partly on readings from the 10th-century erotica tome "The Pillow Book." But the tables are turned when she meets a bisexual English translator who wants to be her canvas instead. An assault on the senses in the best Greenaway tradition, featuring frames-within-frames, elaborate costuming and production design, painterly shot composition, and utterly frank scenes of nudity and violence.

Customer Reviews

Arty movie doesn't make a lot of sense, but is sort of watchable
Ewan McGregor, playing an English translator in Hong Kong, has a love affair with a Japanese woman with a very curious fetish: writing in fine Japanese calligraphy the body of her lovers. Sex and literature can be a good combination, but not if the chef is Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). The movie is very silly, but is sort of watchable (the obvious beauty of Vivian Wu, who plays the Japanese lover and appears naked several times - as does McGregor - certainly helps). This was the last film of Greenaway to have some sort of commercial impact. After that, he made the awful 8 1/2 Women and then retreated to the art world (where he probably feels more comfortable).

Artistic, but often too cluttered with ideas.
A lot of people have commented (not just here) about the aspect ratio of this DVD, 4:3?!

It does seem a shame, unless it was done for artistic reasons...

...The film makes use of many `picture in picture' scenes, where you'll see a scene playing within a box in another scene. Maybe the 4:3 aspect ratio is to ensure that these were viewed with good fidelity to the original.

The subject of the film isn't an easy one to follow, but if you stick with it then it stands a good chance of charming you over. The 18 certificate is mainly a reaction to the nudity and sex in the film. The sex though, isn't explicit, and the nudity is done in a beautiful way and is in no way `sexualised'. The film has many surprises, and even though you know Ewan McGregor is in it, it still takes you back when such a familiar face (and voice) appears in a film which often feels far distanced from real life.

The `surprise' of Ewan McGregor is essential for this film - he brings with him an energy which lacks, up to his arrival. The chemistry between Jerome (McGregor) and Nagiko (Viv Wu) crackles on screen and if it weren't for this then the film would be lacklustre.

The film deals with interesting themes, such as the feeling of being an outsider when surrounded by a culture different to the one you were brought up in. It looks at the love of literature combined with physical pleasure. But the clever use of visuals sometimes takes away from the essence of the film so that you're left trying to watch several scenes at once and don't get the full effect of either - they're meant to complement, but they often cloud.

In a nutshell: This is a great film dogged with two many clever ideas. It felt disjointed for me, I never felt as absorbed as I could have been. The acting was great, the internet seems to have lots of sites which sensationalise the fact that you see Ewan McGregors penis a fair old bit, but the film manages this brilliantly and it always seems natural - you don't get shocked by McGregor's ol'fella. This is worth a watch, but it won't be a prized member of my DVD collection.

a calligraphy lesson
Highly aesthetic and cryptic film, my favourite Greenaway. To be felt rather than logically analysed, it is a matter of acquired taste.