Dom Robinson reviews
The Pillow Book
Distributed by
Film Four
Cat.no: VCD 0018
Cert: 18
Running time: 120 minutes
Year: 1995
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 16 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English translations
Widescreen: various within a 4:3 frame
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Trailer
Director:
(The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, The Draughtman's Contract, Drowning By Numbers, The Falls, Prospero's Books, TV: A TV Dante )
Producer:
Screenplay:
Cast:
Nagiko: Vivian Wu (Blindness, A Bright Shining Lie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 )
The Father: Ken Ogata (Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters )
Jerome: Ewan McGregor (Blue Juice, Brassed Off, Emma, A Life Less Ordinary, Shallow Grave, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, Trainspotting, TV: E.R., Kavanagh Q.C., Lipstick On Your Collar )
The Pillow Book Vivian Wu ) is introduced to
one that's nearly a thousand years old when she is just a young child and it
inspires her to begin a 'pillow book' all of her own in which to collect
all of her loves and experiences.
At the same time her calligrapher father inscribes a birthday greeting on her
face and signs his name on her back. Once a year, on her birthday, he receives
a visit from his publisher but whereas most people use the front door, for
their private meetings the only way in is strictly through the tradesman's
entrance (!)
Later on in life, she gets a passion for having her body covered completely
in the script but her husband doesn't share this desire. Eventually, she
meets up with an English translator named Jerome (Ewan McGregor ) who
decides she should be the pen, not the paper and asks her to draw on his skin
and he shall deliver these manuscripts to the publisher.
The picture quality is fine but nothing to write home about. The back cover
states a 4:3 ratio, but it's actually several ratios, often overlapping,
within a 4:3 frame. I'm not sure how this translated in the cinema though.
It's a bizarre thing to do but then Peter Greenaway was never
conventional. The average bitrate of 7.17Mb/s is very good and regulary peaks
over 8Mb/s.
The sound is reproduced in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) and comes across
clearly but won't set your speakers on fire.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
Languages/Subtitles :
Menu :
I loved Greenaway's The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover but
not all of his films are to my taste and The Pillow Book just doesn't
gel from the word go. In fact, it's so boring it was nearly awarded zero
stars, but only gets half-a-star because no film is as bad as Fellini's
Satyricon .
FILM CONTENT : ½
PICTURE QUALITY : ***
SOUND QUALITY : ***
EXTRAS : *
-------------------------------
OVERALL : **
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999
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