THE PILLOW BOOK (1995) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Peter Greenaway Starring: Vivian Wu, Yoishi Oida, Ken Ogata, Ewan McGregor, Hideko Yoshida, Judy Ongg, Ken Mitsuishi, Yutaka Honda, Barbara Lot
They say that a film reflects the man who made them. Or at least I do. That's why I'd like to find out what kind of a person director Peter Greenaway really is, especially after seeing two of his films, "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" and "The Pillow Book." The first features tons of sex, full nudity of both sexes, people eating escrement, and cannibalism. The latter, his latest film, features some more sex, some more graphic nudity, and, for a little cherry on top, calligraphy being written on naked human flesh. Something tells me this guy was a bit of an outcast in pre-school.
Compared with "The Cook," one of the best films to be released in the 80s, "The Pillow Book" seems rather shallow. Instead of being against gluttony and being a thinly veiled attack on politics ("The Cook" attacked Margaret Thatcher...somehow), "The Pillow Book" has a smaller and more general vision. It's a film about gaining life experiences. That's all. It also dabbles in vengeance, sensuality, the connection between literature and sex, as well as love, but these are mere ingredients in the big picture, which is a very simple work complexly and originally told by one of the most interesting directors working today. I'm not sure if he's one of the best, but he's definitely intriguing.
"The Pillow Book" centers around the early life of a Japanese woman named Nagiko (Vivian Wu), who shares a deep affection for her calligrapher father (Ken Ogata), since when she was young, he would write on her on each of her birthdays, telling the same story about how God would write in every feature on his clay creations, and wrote their names on them so he would not forget them. Unfortunately, she discovers at an early age that he's not a very successful writer and must therefore satisfy the sexual urges of a homosexual and tyrranical publisher (Yoishi Oida), who becomes the object of Nagiko's anger because of this.
After a pathetic arranged marriage goes bunk, she high tails it to China to become a writer like her father, and to try to get vengeance on the Publisher, all the while trying to find a lover who can satisfy her sexually and shares the same fetish she does, which becomes writing calligraphy on naked flesh. Eventually, she runs into a Scottish linguist, Jerome (Ewan McGregor - yes, that Ewan McGregor), who not only shares her fetish to almost equality, but also just happens to be the Publisher's young lover. Soon she begins to come up with a bizarre vengeance on him...
Though it takes awhile to really get into the film, "The Pillow Book" is a endlessly fascinating film, told in a surreal and sensual fashion. The direction by Peter Greenaway is definitely original, as he develops his framing bizarrely, cropping shots so that they fill only a fraction of the allotted screen space, and features images to pop up in the screen, and sub-titles to sometimes appear...and sometimes not. The film is filmed in about four different languages, and only sometimes does what the actors are saying become dictated for American audiences. And sometimes French song lyrics from the soundtrack quickly roll across the screen, giving the entire film a kind of documentary/music video feel. Something tells me Greenaway should dabble outside of narrative film. I don't know why...
The story's not extraordinary, as it sometimes contains cliches and allusions to past Greenaway efforts (most notably "The Cook"). The whole idea of a delicious kind of vengeance was used in "The Cook," while another scene is almost an exact retread of a late scene in "The Cook," with one small exception (as small as it is). But once looking past this, it's easy to realize how complex this film is. Scenes and moments don't make sense when you first see them, but later on they're made totally clear. Characters show up for maybe a scene and then show up later on to become one of the major characters (most notably Jerome). And the focus of the film seems to be straying but once the finale comes, it appears that it hasn't lost its focus at all.
The most amazing film about this film is the way it feels. Greenaway is one of the most sensual directors, a man who can make a film just FEEL great by using bizarre cinematic techniques. He makes the story of Nagiko's life seem more amazing than it really is, just like the life of a regular person. But what is The Pillow Book? It's a book by an ancient courtesean recounting her experiences, which is something which Nagiko reads and tries to duplicate in a bizarre fashion. This is what Greenaway is doing with Nagiko's life, retelling it in a bizarre fashion. And it's one of the more amazing experiences I've had watching a movie lately.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews