The Pillow Book (film)
- Ewan McGregor: Jerome
- Vivian Wu: Nagiko
- Yoshi Oida: The Publisher
- Hideko Yoshida: The Aunt / Sei Shonagon
- Judy Ongg: The mother
- Ken Ogata: The Father
The Pillow Book is a film directed by Peter Greenaway in 1996 with Vivian Wu and Ewan McGregor in the lead roles. The film is based on the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon.
Action
Nagiko is the daughter of a calligrapher. When she was six years old, his father graduated with his publisher an agreement to marry Nagikos with a then ten- year-olds. Some years later it comes to the wedding, but the husband turns out to be despisers of literature and calligraphy. Nagiko leaves him and moves to Hong Kong.
More and more matured in her the idea to write her own Pillow Book: a collection of poetic sentences about most everyday scenes. A book written by her book is rejected by the same publisher who had then agreed to trade with the Father, with rugged words. So ties Nagiko contact with the young translator Jerome, who also physically hires himself next to his translation services to the Publisher. After initial difficulties in the relationship with Jerome, who falls in love with Nagiko, " describes " Nagiko Jerome's body with calligraphic characters and sends it to the publisher. This accepts the " book" and calls twelve more.
As Nagiko Jerome but caught too passionate with the publisher, she feels betrayed by him, at that. With the man she hates because of the marriage trade most They ignored him from then on. In desperation, Jerome can be persuaded to swallow tablets to simulate based on Romeo and Juliet a death. But he is actually doing to death. The publisher can dig up the body and skin. From the skin described with calligraphic characters he can create a book. As Nagiko learns of this, she strikes a bargain with the publisher. She sends him more human "books". The thirteenth book, the "Book of Death", resulting in the death of the publisher. Nagiko receives the book created from Jerome's skin.
Criticism
" A stimulating, aesthetically sophisticated intellectual level flight, but in his predictable intellectual mystification always also involves the tendency to monotony in itself. "