The Pillow Book (1997) Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor. Directed by Peter Greenaway Not Rated, 3 and one half stars (out of 5 stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com/film/ Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott
Usually, movies are best enjoyed if you enter the theater knowing as little as possible about what you are going to see. In this age of media overload, people receive so much advance information about films; through trailers, "insider" shows like "Access Hollywood", magazines such as "Entertainment Weekly" and ubiquitous movie reviews, that by the time they actually watch the finished product, the experience has been ruined.
In the case of "The Pillow Book", however, some advance information is probably useful. In order to appreciate a film this unusual, you need to be in the correct frame of mind. Try to go to the theater with the attitude you would have when viewing an art exhibit. Forget traditional narratives and just let the film flow over you. "The Pillow Book" isn't simply an example of style over substance. In this movie, the style IS the substance.
The Pillow Book", the ninth film from director Peter Greenaway ("The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover"), does have a story, but it is told more in images and presentation style than in dialogue. Nagiko (Vivian Wu from "The Joy Luck Club") is a Japanese-born fashion model obsessed with calligraphy and justice. As she grew up, her father (Ken Ogata), a master calligrapher and mediocre writer, had a unique birthday ritual. Each year, he would celebrate his daughter's birth by painting her face in script, while reciting an ancient blessing. Nagiko worshipped her father and cherished the annual rite. She also loved the selections her aunt would read her from "The Pillow Book Of Sei Shonagon", a 1000 year old volume of romantic reminiscence. Nagiko was so enamored with the writings that she routinely took meticulous notes on her experiences and feelings to create her own pillow book.
While still a child, Nagiko peeked through a door at just the wrong moment and caught a glimpse of her father sexually submitting to his publisher (Yoshi Oida), the "fee" for getting his work printed. Young Nagiko didn't understand what she saw, but the image would haunt her over the years. When she reaches adulthood and her father stops the annual birthday ritual, Nagiko flees Japan, and an arranged marriage with the publisher's boorish son. In Hong Kong, she becomes a successful model and spends her free time seeking sexual and emotional satisfaction, trying to get men to paint script on her body. Eventually, she meets Jerome (Ewan McGregor from "Trainspotting"), a British translator who suggests she use his body as the canvas for her work. The driven woman develops a strong erotic and literary relationship with the young man, made all the richer by the knowledge that Jerome is the lover of the same publisher who once used her father for sexual gratification.
Director Greenaway manipulates images to paint his own pillow book. Most of the film is presented in the letterbox format, with occasional subtitles (the film's sparing dialogue switches casually from English to Japanese) drifting by. The images are layered, with shots on top of other shots, and elegant script superimposed on the screen. Music is used with strong effect as well, creating a deeply textured multi-media presentation that works far more often than it does not. Ironically, some of film's most striking images are the simplest: ink-saturated water swirling down a drain, Nagiko curled in the fetal position in a round basin, and the many body canvases covered in beautiful script.
There is a great deal of full frontal nudity in "Trainspotting", particularly from the remarkably uninhibited Wu and McGregor, but overall the effect is not erotic. Greenaway's multiple-imaging echoes and amplifies Nagiko's state of mind. She is obsessed with calligraphy and a desire for justice. The nude men she paints, except for Jerome, are little more than canvases, vehicles for her attempts to satisfy her obsessions, and we view them that way as well. Nagiko's obsession and self-absorption is the center of "The Pillow Book". She is the only character of substance, which is the film's weakest point and probably central to what makes it so memorable.
"The Pillow Book" completely puts the viewer into another person's shoes, something that rarely happens in modern film. Nagiko's mind is not a pleasant place to be, but it is fascinating. "The Pillow Book" is a difficult film, and Greenaway's imaging occasionally seems more like grandstanding, but the sometimes disturbing, often beautiful images offer an experience one rarely will encounter in a multi-plex.
Copyright 1997, Ed Johnson-Ott
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