The Pillow Book

Nagiko grows up in Kyoto with a father who marks her face with birthday greetings in calligraphy, and she carries that ritual with her into adulthood. Her interest in writing on skin becomes a way of life as she takes a series of lovers, searching for one whose body can serve as a page. An English translator, Jerome, becomes her partner in this exchange, but he is also drawn into the orbit of her father's publisher, and the arrangement turns toward deception and revenge.

Peter Greenaway directed and co-wrote the film, which draws on Sei Shonagon's classical text The Pillow Book as well as the figure of its author. It arrived in 1995, between The Baby of Mâcon two years earlier and 8 ½ Women four years later, in a run of features that also includes The Draughtsman's Contract and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Vivian Wu plays Nagiko, with Ewan McGregor as Jerome, Ken Ogata as her father, Yoshi Oida as the publisher, and Hideko Yoshida as the aunt and maid. Kees Kasander produced.

The film runs 126 minutes and was a multinational production involving British, Dutch, French and Luxembourg partners. On TMDB it holds 6.4 out of 10 from about 190 votes, while a critics' rating of 6.9 out of 10 from 55 reviews places professional assessment slightly above the audience score.