PodBill Just what I expected

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

jvanderwalt5 This movie is one of the great arts movies Ewan Mcgreggor ever made.The story starts slow and in the beginning you are going to wonder if your watching the rite movie.Its a very unique film by Peter Greenaway and its also filmed in a very strange way.Some of the scenes are in black and white but the rest is in colour.Ita also a multi lingual film including :English, Cantonese, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, FrenchInbetween the most beautiful french love songs are sung which accompanies the "pillow book" scenes very wellAlthough this film contains a lot of nudity both male and female it should not be viewed for that reason but for the art of it.This is definitely a movie you must see if you love indie artsy movies.Like i said its filmed very strangely but once you get the drift is amazing8/10 deserved.

nickhoffman-99526 Viewers either love or hate Peter Greenaway films.If you are a hater, then just don't bother. Your planet and his are rather different and you don't need to visit. If you know Greenaway's work from other films and know that you like having to think at the same time as looking, then this is an excellent movie for you.The theme of the movie is complex, yet simple. Girl meets boy, but things aren't easy. The girl has a complex past, and the boy has become mixed-up in it, without realising it.The visuals are stunning:- Complex, difficult, and multi-threaded. The audio is beautiful, multilingual, and worth close attention - just listen to the sounds, and don't worry about the words.I saved this DVD for a rainy day, and it was well worth the wait.Warnings: if naked flesh offends you, don't watch. This is NOT exploitative or erotic, but it IS blunt and open. There is a "little" blood, but as with all of Greenaway's work it is emphasised, so a little goes a long way.Recommendations: settle down and enjoy the experience. Make sure you are awake, intelligent, and clear-headed. You WILL need to think!

Andres Salama Ewan McGregor, playing an English translator in Hong Kong, has a love affair with a Japanese woman with a very curious fetish: writing in fine Japanese calligraphy the body of her lovers. Sex and literature can be a good combination, but not if the chef is Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover). The movie is very silly, but is sort of watchable (the obvious beauty of Vivian Wu, who plays the Japanese lover and appears naked several times - as does McGregor - certainly helps). This was the last film of Greenaway to have some sort of commercial impact. After that, he made the awful 8 1/2 Women and then retreated to the art world (where he probably feels more comfortable).

act123 I really wanted to like The Pillow Book. Intriguing story, interesting character outlines, Ewan Macgregor in the utterly glorious altogether. Unfortunately, I hated every minute of it. Greenaway got so enamoured with presenting the movie uniquely, and not to the film's benefit. I won't even get into Vivian Wu's abysmal acting.You get distracted from the story with 4 billion teeny windows and calligraphy that rolls on the bottom of the screen displaying the lyrics of the music that's playing. It seems he lost sight of presenting the actual story and developing the plot, and got entangled with foo-foo embellishments that have nothing to do with anything. It's a bit like presenting a John Singer Sargeant portrait in a chintzy Hallmark frame that says "GRANDMA LOVES ME!" in big sparkly letters.This movie seems to be a casualty of the director auteur's ego instead of what it could have been - disturbingly and horrifyingly beautiful. In another director's hands (Jeunet? Coppola?), it could have been a masterpiece. In Greenaway's hands, it's best relegated to fine arts classes that also take themselves too seriously.