Think
of it as a Lady Snowblood style payback
drama set within the delicate serenity of a rock garden. Born to a Japanese
father and a Chinese mother, Nagiko is a fashion model who enjoys the grace of
fine literature and calligraphy just as much as the pleasures of the flesh. She
also appreciates the satisfaction of revenge served stone-cold. As sensual, transgressive,
and erudite as it was when it was initially released nineteen years ago (nearly
to the day), Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (trailer
here)
has now been freshly restored and reissued on DVD and BluRay by Film Movement
Classics.
As
a cherubic young girl, Nagiko always delighted in her father’s birthday face-writing
ritual. Since she idolized her novelist father, literature will always play a
critical role in her life. However, it is her aunt who first introduces her to the
most significant book in her life, Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book. Throughout the film, Greenaway incorporates scenes of
the Heian-era lady-in-waiting reading her timeless meditations, usually in
compartmentalized windows that become part of Greenaway’s wider visual
composition.
While
Nagiko was still too young to fully understand, she witnesses her father’s
publisher sexually exploiting him, as a clear quid pro quo for publishing his
work. As she becomes older and more experienced, her father’s humiliation
haunts her. Years later, Nagiko will also be published by the same lecher, but
he is not the least bit interested in her. To sell the first of her
unconventional pillow books, Nagiko paints it on the body of their mutual
lover, Jerome, a bisexual British translator. For a while, this method of
delivery is quite effective, but love triangles always engender jealousy. In
this case, it also leads to tragedy, desecration, and retribution.
Greenaway
has always been a distinctive stylist, but Pillow
is an especially rich feast for the eyes. He engages in plenty of his
characteristic boxing and tiling, but he also channels the look and vibe of
Kabuki and Noh theater. It is a gorgeous film, made even more so by Vivian Wu
in her breakout, career-defining role. Yet, there is substance underneath
Greenaway’s lush surface beauty. Arguably, Pillow
Book represents a milestone in experimental storytelling in that it tells a
distinct, compelling, and easily followed narrative, within a boldly
avant-garde framework.
Quiet
but fierce as a lion, Wu commands the screen while steaming it up. A young Ewan
McGregor also gives viewers the Full Monty as the immature but passionate Jerome
(Obi-Wan, oh behave). Their scenes together explain why the film was never
rated. Still, it is important to remember Pillow
is not all about sex. In fact, Chizuru Ohnishi and Ken Ogata are quite
memorable and engaging as young Nagiko and her father, thereby setting up
everything that follows.
With
Pillow, Greenaway taps into some deep
archetypes, while celebrating Japanese and Chinese culture with the obsessive
devotion of a western expatriate. It might just be the greatest Gaijin film
ever. Exquisitely crafted, Pillow could
still be too scandalous for the timid (arguably, the Lord’s Prayer body painting scene might be needlessly vexing some, since
it is not really intended as a provocation), but it is an eerily beautiful film.
Highly recommended for fans of challenging auterist cinema, The Pillow Book releases today (6/9) on
DVD and BluRay, from Film Movement Classics.
