Defying description with its multi-screen imagery, multi-layered graphics, and a typical Peter Greenaway descent into the beauty of perversion, his movie Pillow Book is an amazing, beautifully erotic fable, about a woman's desire to make herself into a living work of erotic art.
At her birthday, each year, little Nagiko's father would write a sensuous sentiment in beautiful Japanese calligraphy on her face, teaching her the values of Sei Shonagon "There are only two pleasures in life, the pleasure of the flesh and the pleasure of the literature", Japanese courtesan of the last millennium that wrote the Pillow Book, a masterpiece of erotic and political intrigue.
Twenty years later Nagiko (Vivivan Wu) tries to duplicate the touch of her father's brush by choosing lovers that will write all over her body. She finds a handsome Englishman, Jerome (Ewan McGregor), who convinces her that she should also do the writing, not to just be the paper, but also a pen. But Nagiko's catches up on her when she learns that Jerome's homosexual lover and her potential publisher (Yoshi Oida), is the same man who once exploited her father. She responds by submitting a series of 13 erotic poems, all written on the flesh of men, all leading to the final act of revenge.
This movie must be seen, one cannot describe all the imagery, one can just give some direction of the story. Film did get some horrible reviews, that the director is actually not saying anything, but I found it as one of the most beautiful erotic movies of all times. Being the painter in the first place, Greenaway favours visual strategy over a story that only adds to the joy of watching it. (After the movie finished, I found myself thinking "Why isn't life so beautiful?") This movie is simply something adorable that you will remember for a long time.
Greenaway's last movie 8 ½ Women will premiere at the Toronto International film festival on 16. September 1999.
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