The Pillow Book - DaaVeeDee

The Pillow Book (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Chinese ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
121 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1996 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Luxembourg ( France, Benelux )
Netherlands ( France, Benelux )
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Peter Greenaway

Written By:
Sei Shonagon
Peter Greenaway

Actors:
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 sist
Chizuru Ohnishi ..... Young Nagiko
Shiho Takamatsu ..... Young Nagiko
Aki Ishimaru ..... Young Nagiko
Hisashi Hidaka ..... Calligrapher

Synopsis:

***ATTENTION***Original language audio with English subtitles***Kyoto, Japan, in the 1970s, a calligrapher delicately writes a birthday greeting on his daughter's face. When she grows up, Nagiko (Vivian Wu) remembers the event with much affection and excitement and begins a search for an ideal calligrapher-lover who will use her whole body as his personal paper. After much unfulfilled searching, she meets Jerome (Ewan McGregor), an English translator, who convinces her that she should be the pen not the paper. She should write on his body and he will deliver her manuscripts, on his skin, to a publisher. However, the plan works too well and jealousy begins to rip through their passionate relationship with dramatic and devastating effect.

Set in modern day Japan and Hong Kong. Nagiko, now a successful model in Hong Kong, still holds a treasured memory of her calligrapher father gently painting traditional birthday greetings on her face - rituals ended by an arranged marriage. In recompense, she insists that her string of lovers write on her body - until she meets an Englishman, Jerome, who persuades her to start writing herself, using others as her paper. Her desire to have her work published leads to the death of her English lover.

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.

This product was added to our catalog on Friday 22 March, 2013.