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Actors: Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Pillow Book |
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Nagiko (Wu) is a young Japanese girl whose formative years were shaped by two things: her father's calligraphy and her aunt's routine reading of "The Pillow Book," a diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting. Every birthday, her family ritual involves her father doing a loving calligraphy on her face. Nagiko grows up obsessed with books and writing on the paper that is skin; she eventually wants to carry on her father's tradition. She is also seeking revenge for her father, who was blackmailed by his publisher. In Jerome, a young European translator, she may have found her perfect lover and tool for exacting revenge.
Created by Peter Greenaway; based on the book by Sei Shonagon, a Japanese lady-in-waiting. If you've seen any of Greenaway's other films, you know to expect the unexpected. Here he gives viewers a mixture of amazing images with varying erotic images and themes. The full nudity, especially lots of male nudity, may be too frequent for some viewers.
In various languages, written and spoken, including Japanese, Chinese, French, and English.
--ldpaulson, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Pillow Book |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
elements, all of which are searchable (click here). |
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Crime & Scandal
Yes
Blackmail & Seduction?
Yes
Job/Profession/Poverty Story?
Yes
Job:
- artist
Vigilante/Revenge?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Profession/status:
- artist
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- obsessed
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) skinny
Unclothed?
- Full Frontal
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Japanese
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard wavey
Body type
- (man) average build
Unclothed?
- full frontal
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- General European
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 60's-90's
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- obsessed
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
Hair color
- another color
Hair type
- (man) very short/crewcut
Body type
- (man) average
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Other Asian
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Setting
Asia/Pacific/Middle East
Yes
Asian country:
- Japan
- China
City?
Yes
Misc setting
- bar
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- very explicit references to deaths and torture
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- touching of personal anatomy
- licking
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
- seeing nude male butt
- seeing full frontal--women
- seeing full frontal--men
Non-American film?
Yes
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 ldpaulson
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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