The Pillow Book (1996)

As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Nagiko grows up, ... See full summary »

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writers:

Sei Shonagon (book), Peter Greenaway,

Stars:

Vivian Wu, Yoshi Oida, Ken Ogata

5 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vivian Wu	...	Nagiko
Yoshi Oida	...	The Publisher
Ken Ogata	...	The Father
Hideko Yoshida	...	The Aunt / The Maid
Ewan McGregor	...	Jerome
Judy Ongg	...	The Mother
Ken Mitsuishi	...	The Husband
Yutaka Honda	...	Hoki
Barbara Lott	...	Jerome's Mother
Miwako Kawai	...	Young Nagiko
Lynne Langdon	...	Jerome's sister (as Lynne Frances Wachendorfer)
Chizuru Ohnishi	...	Young Nagiko
Shiho Takamatsu	...	Young Nagiko
Aki Ishimaru	...	Young Nagiko
Hisashi Hidaka	...	Calligrapher

Storyline

As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Nagiko grows up, obsessed with books, papers, and writing on bodies, and her sexual odyssey (and the creation of her own Pillow Book) is a "parfait mélange" of classical Japanese, modern Chinese, and Western film images.

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Plot Keywords:

book | 10th century | writing | japan | paint | 

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Taglines:

From the creator of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover comes a sensuous tale of passion, obsession and revenge.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Netherlands UK France Luxembourg

Language:

English Cantonese Italian Japanese Mandarin French

Release Date:

6 June 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

O Livro de Cabeceira

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$105,922 (USA) (6 June 1997)

Gross:

$2,293,037 (USA) (15 August 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kasander & Wigman Productions, Woodline Films Ltd., Alpha Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby SR

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The keeping of pillow books to record poems, secrets, and encounters with lovers was a common practice of noble women in Heian Japan. Although its content is unrelated to the film, a famous example was written by Sei Shonagon at about the same time as Lady Murasaki's The Tale of Genji which has the honor of being the world's first novel. In fact, it has been said that Sei Shonogon and Lady Murasaki were rivals in the court of Heian.

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Goofs

Mike visible during wide shot when Nagiko kneels and Jerome signs his name on her back. 01:03:59 into the film on PAL DVDs.

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Quotes

Nagiko: How can I get pleasure writing on you? You have to write on me.
Jerome: Go on. Use my body like the pages of a book. Of your book.

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Connections

Referenced in Celebrity Naked Ambition (2011)

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Soundtracks

"La Chinoise"
Written by Guesch Patti and Dimitri Tikovoi
Performed by Guesch Patti
Courtesy of EMI Music Publishing France SA

User Reviews

Interesting, but too calculated to be truly erotic

Like many of Peter Greenaway's movies, Pillow Book features extensive nudity. However, while the plot development is well worked out, the cast is competent, and Greenaway shows off a dazzling array of cinematic techniques, he always seems to approach his material too intellectually to really engage the viewer's emotions. I cannot know his intentions, but my impression is that he regards his scripts as more akin to a complex mathematical puzzle to be worked out than a story about real people with human feelings, leaving the movie worth watching but curiously cool and clinical rather than passionately erotic.