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The Pillow Book | 
| Director: Peter Greenaway
Actors: Vivian Wu, Yoshi Oida, Ken Ogata, Hideko Yoshida, Ewan Mcgregor
Studio: Columbia TriStar
Category: DVD
List Price: CDN$ 30.16
Buy New: CDN$ 23.60
You Save: CDN$ 6.56 (22%)
New (13) Used (2) from CDN$ 19.99
Rating:  71 reviews
Format: Import, Widescreen, Ntsc, Subtitled
Languages: Japanese (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NC-17
Region: 1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: 28709
ISBN: 0767819772
UPC: 043396287099
EAN: 9780767819770
ASIN: 0767819772
Theatrical Release Date: 1996
Release Date: December 15, 1998
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item, factory Sealed. Buy direct from the U.S. and save! We only ship airmail to Canada (7-15 days).Caiman, les prix qu'on aime! Tous nos produits sont neufs. Envoi par avion des Etats-Unis
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| Editorial Reviews:
From Amazon.com
Peter Greenaway (IThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover/I, IDrowning by Numbers/I) continues to delight and disturb us with his talent for combining storytelling with optic artistry. IThe Pillow Book/I 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 tantalizing 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 realizes that although he is a magnificent lover, his penmanship is less than acceptable. When Nagiko dismisses the enamored 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." I--Michele Goodson/I
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| Customer Reviews: Read 66 more reviews...
 One of Greenaway's More Accessible Movies April 4, 2008
Kasey Driscoll (Raynham, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've always viewed Peter Greenaway as a bit of an outlaw of sorts. There was a time where I tried to appreciate his movies but found them pretentious, boring, and even somewhat gratuitous. As I've matured I've begun to understand that the depth in most of his pictures is real and the meaning behind the visuals worthwhile, though sometimes I wished it would come with a guide. In other words, it isn't always easy to understand Greenaway's movies. Also, so very few of them are on DVD and I can't figure out exactly why. One of his most notorious movies of all time; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, is on DVD but it's a hard one to get your hands on. Probably his most notorious movie to those who have seen it and know what it is, is the hate provoking Baby of Macon, and that one we may never see on DVD. My favorite films of his are Prospero's Books and Drowning by Numbers and they are not available either. That leaves me to review one of his movies that is on DVD, isn't always appreciated among Greenaway fans, but is probably his most accessible film yet. Accessible, probably because it stars the hugely talented mainstream actor Ewen McGregor. br / br /The Pillow Book is a loose modernized telling of the memoirs of the same title written a thousand years ago by a woman who lived to serve a Japanese Empress. It follows Nagiko (Vivian Wu), a Japanese model exploring her cultural and sexual surroundings in modern Hong Kong. Jerome (Ewen McGregor), an English translator, is her favorite of multiple lovers. The two share their common interests in calligraphy, art, poetry, and mutual attraction. The betrayal they experience and the love they share is the superficial template for the first part of the film, but there are far more interesting things that develop as the film goes on. Talking about how the film progresses would reveal too many surprises but the story changes gears and focuses more on Nagiko's passion for her writing, which is really what she is most intensely devoted to at this point in the movie. Her father (Ken Ogata) influenced this passion back to when she was a child and her writings remained unpublished after being rejected by her father's rival, who, as the story treads forward seems to know how great her writing is. Greenaway's ability to understand and play with multi-cultural symbols is a key factor to the success of Nagiko as a character and his ability to mend her passions by the film's conclusion is a success in terms of the film's resolution. br / br /Some filmmakers make confusing and cryptic movies (i.e. Jodoworsky, David Lynch) but for the most part it doesn't seem like it is as intentional as it is with Greenaway's movies. He is a very imaginative director that seems to want to challenge the viewer to understand where he is coming from, for better or worse. If you like that kind of film and the summary I've provided above sounds interesting to you then I would recommend The Pillow Book. Some would say Greenaway's movies are an acquired taste and I would agree. However, if you find yourself enjoying one of them then almost all of them are worth checking out.
 A porn movie but 'Artistic' July 14, 2004
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
Highly over-rated. It's like when an artist pisses and ejaculates over a picture and calls it 'nature', then people go 'ooooh aaaaaah!such genius!'. That pretty much summarises it.
 Beauty and obsession June 5, 2004
wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Two of the most beautiful things in the world are the written word and the human figure. Even the ones that are not special in themselves embody meaning and subtlety. When Greenaway uses the figure to carry words, he creates imagery that can not be forgotten.pThere is so much in this movie that I hardly know where to begin. It starts with a child. Her father's birthday ritual is to tell her a story, always the same one, and to paint calligraphy on her face. Maybe it's a little silly, but it's sweet and loving.pOver time, the girl loses her innocence but gains the strength of adulthood. Her memory of that charming ritual develops, too. First, it loses its childhood innocence; it becomes a passion for her, and the standard by which she measures her lovers. In the end, the ritual gains even more strength and becomes the vehicle for a deadly obsession.pI must warn the potential viewer that the movie's second half goes places far beyond where sanity stops. It is not for people with tender sensibilities.pI'll come back to this movie for it sensual beauty. I won't come back too often, though. The raw rage at the end is just too hard.
 Ridiculously overrated May 27, 2004
Seth C. Traver (World)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
A director tosses in some artful shots and full nudity for most of the movie and suddenly it's a beautiful film???brI kept expecting to see Marilyn Chambers pop up in scenes. I'm not against TA flicks, but this is trying to be something it isn't, which is sad and pathetic. It's a cheap trashy film that gets a good reputation b/c of who directed it.
A disgrace March 17, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's a disgrace. Nudity from beginning to end. Particularly from that Ewan boy and Vivian Wu. What's there to complain about?pStill, a nice idea, only spoiled by some cinetmatography that's not up to the standard we expect from Greenaway movies, particularly in the Hong Kong sequences. The Cook, the thief.... is better.
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