# Pillow Book, The (1996)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

PILLOW BOOK, THE (director/writer: Peter Greenaway; cinematographer: Sacha Vierny; cast:Vivian Wu (Nagiko), Ewan McGregor (Jerome), Ken Ogata (The Father), Judy Ongg (The Mother), Hideko Yoshida (The Aunt/The Maid), Yoshi Oida (The Publisher), Ken Mitsuishi (The Husband), 1996-UK)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The Pillow Book is a Peter Greenaway (DROWNING BY NUMBERS, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER, PROSPERO'S BOOKS) mesmerizing visual experience that touches base with spiritual and erotic themes, but only wets one's appetite, as its story fails to fully enhance the seductive nature of what is seen.

Of all things made into a film, calligraphy is one subject that few movies have used as their subject, but Greenaway, true to his reputation as a filmmaker with an outrageous streak in him to live up to, continues to make outlandish films that have a certain perversity to them, as well as show an elegance in clever filmmaking. Here, he starts off filming in black and white the childhood experiences of Nagiko (Wu), who wonderously listens to the stories being read by her aunt (Yoshida) from a 1,000- year text, based on the work of Sei Shonagon, a courtesan, whose spellbinding journal of sayings on the subjects of the flesh and literature makes up "The Pillow Book." The idea of that book, that the texts of those two subjects (sex & art) should fuse together as one, with there being no difference between literature and what is beautiful in their union. Pillow Book is an individual's diary of observations and a presentment of an interesting list of things the diarist has jotted down, such as duck eggs and a silver bowl filled with shaved ice.

Nagiko's father (Ogata), whom she idolizes, is a master calligrapher, who paints her face with characters to celebrate her birthdays, and tells her: "If God approved of his creation, he will bring the clay model he created to life by signing his name to it." This seems to tickle the little girl's fancy, so much so that when we next see her as a young woman in technicolor, we realize that she has developed a fetish for having her skin written on, equating her lovers with how good a calligrapher they are.

After marrying in a traditional Japanese ceremony, to someone she knows cannot please her, but is forced on her through an arranged marriage by her father's publisher (Yoshi Oida), she will leave this husband whom she cannot relate with and move to Hong Kong. Once there she will take odd jobs, until becoming a fashion model and then a writer on flesh. She will not communicate with her father from abroad after witnessing her father's boss, the publisher, force her father to have anal sex with him, which he does in order to have his books published.

The film concentrates on Nagiko having her lovers write over her nude body, but she is becoming increasingly frustrated in finding the lover who is the perfect combination of lover and calligrapher. She will meet a young English translator she falls for even though she considers him a scribbler, Jerome (Ewan), a part he plays with appealing relish. To solve her dilemma of being with someone who is not a calligrapher, she writes on Jerome's skin after he offers her his body.

Jerome crushes her spirit by having a bisexual relationship with the same publisher who destroyed her husband financially, blackmailed her father, and now has soiled the one she loves. She thought that she could use him to get vengeance on the publisher, but when he goes naked before the publisher, who reads The Book of a Lover that she wrote on him, her jealousy and rage gets the better of her and she spurns Jerome.

The plot turns surprising simple, as revenge becomes the motive for Nagiko, and this offbeat film will remain interesting mostly through its striking visualizations.

The stunning visualizations range from ones of comedy to ones of sensuality to ones of gross cruely. An example of comedy, would be in The Third Book of Impotence, where she has the male she has written her book on running naked through the crowded streets of Hong Kong. By writing her own pillow book, that will include thirteen editions, she will tell her own story. The last one is called The Book of the Dead, and is an example of how pitiless her retribution can be. Her sensuality is seen in most of the books she writes, but seems special when she is with Jerome, as frontal nudity is there, to be examined from all different angles by a technically efficient camera, that handles these nude scenes as casually as if the actors were fully dressed.

The fun in the film is in the silliness of the story's subject matter as juxtaposed against the solemnity of the books being written on skin, with either somber religious chants or the same pop tune being played over and over in the background. The repeating of the childhood story, the constant flashbacks to Nagiko's childhood, where she is repeatedly told that the diary being read to her is by a woman who has the same name she has, give the film a stylish depth and a feeling that something overwhelming is happening.

Greenaway has the knack of telling a seductive tale by utilizing Nagiko's predilection to flesh out her character. She is really the only one in the film that we see developing and the only one whom we come to understand what she is trying to do. Her seventh book, The Book of a Seducer, was very similar to a Confucius book, where she writes on a man's bald head, "an itch to read, a scratch to understand." Her ninth, The Book of Secrets, she has her words written on a man's tongue. There seems to be a determined effort to be witty, even if the humor is not scaled to what the story is saying.

The result of this work is a film that is startling to behold, with gorgeous photogenic shots, superimpositions, amazing computer graphics, a splash of intriguing gold and red color patterns, with everything ending up so perverse and lost in an intimacy that seems so melodramatic that even the scenes that do mean something to the characters still seem to be too absurd to really mean much. But the film did have plenty of fire to it, hatred, passion, jealousy, and mystery. I just didn't find that the story was that emotionally engaging to win me over completely to what I was seeing, even if I found the film had much to show for its effort. But for those who like to see the unusual and something that is artistic, this film is both unique and unforgettable: it's pure Greenaway.

    REVIEWED ON 12/23/99     GRADE: B

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ

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