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Summary: hm...
Review: (...)
this movie is complex, intricate, artsy, and requires you to pay attention to it. for those of you with low attention spans, this movie isnt for you unless you like seeing countless numpbers of japanese guys walk around naked. i think it did a rather good job of deroticizing the nudity in it, it was more into presenting the human flesh as paper. a few stars off because it was disjointed at times and confusing, though largely entertaining and pleasing to watch (minus all of those penises).
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Summary: Stick to Schwarzenegger trash, Shane
Review: The Pillow Book is easily one of the most beautiful, moving and thought-provoking films EVER made. I've watched it at least a dozen times - not for the male nudity as I'm a heterosexual male - but for Peter Greenaway's stunning vision of the human condition...in fact he paints a portrait of the likes of the Shanes of this world, the clueless people who wander through this world being duped by the guileless publishers of this world - it's no wonder the poor man who drinks from a colostomy bag (no wonder he obviously prefers today's Hollywood crap) doesn't know it.
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Summary: Ewan McGregor in all his glory.
Review: This film is very artistic and all nude men and nude woman are shown in good taste. With the exception of the sexual scenes, the full adult male nudity during the exploring of The Thirteen Books was not offensive to me and I considered it artistic. The art of storytelling by body painting is not new and has been done for centuries. This film is NOT for children to see. It is strickly for adults only. Bravo to Ewan McGregor and the other men for being so bold and unashamed for showing their bodies in a controlled, professional manner for the sake of this professional film.
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Summary: bring on that colostomy bag.........
Review: Watching this so called movie was as entertaining and pleasurable as getting my teeth pulled(without anesthetic).In every possible way the movie is suppose to be touching,enlightening,imaginative,spiritual and so on.....when it is actually disconnected,confusing "designer trash".At no point and time could I relate or connect with this movie or it's characters... and in my final analysis; Pillow Books'gratuitous full frontal male nudity(gathering from what i've read from other reviews)has "profoundly" compensated some women for the female nudity they've seen in other movies.If that is not corruption of one's sense of decency..what is?Me personally..I would rather slurp my next can of soup through a used colostomy bag than have to view this trash again.Easily, one of the worst movies I have ever seen.Watch it, and you'll be begging for those two hours back when you pass.
Rating: 
Summary: Any Way You Slice It...
Review: ...The Pillow Book is a fascinating movie. The pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature are bizarrely combined to help a young Japanese woman make sense of her life. This film will not be for everyone, as there is much full frontal male nudity, and some stomach-turning sequences involving a homosexual Japanese publisher's fetishistic attempt to possess Ewan McGregor's character Jerome, even after Jerome's death. This is not the movie for you if you like straight-up realism; the situations are outre, but I happily suspended my disbelief to take in the imaginative story, and a heroic performance by the truly gifted McGregor.
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Summary: a middling effort from Greenaway
Review: Watching The Pillow Book leaves me feeling unpleasant. Actually all Peter Greenaway movies do, but the best ones - such as The Cook the Thief His Wife and Her Lover - are gloriously unpleasant. They build up to magnificently appalling Grand Guignol climaxes that transmute mere human cruelty into grotesque ritual. The Pillow Book stays on a lower plane. Too much focus on human emotion prevents it from giving way fully to artifice. Instead of a sense of majestic depravity, it leaves a bitter scummy aftertaste, a petty sense of nastiness. Greenaway's talent runs to stylization, exaggeration, and excess. He's not playing to his strengths here. The visual presentation, on the other hand, is the epitome of artifice, but unfortunately the DVD's muddied picture and full-screen format prevent me from appreciating it the way it was intended. Although, poor DVD or not, I think the minimalism and muted palette of traditional Japanese design are an uneasy match for Greenaway's baroque aesthetic. None of which is to say that The Pillow Book isn't without its charms. I think the human books are a wonderful device, and I like Jerome's droll apotheosis, which adds a much-needed touch of the macabre. Two last things. Firstly, what was going on with the out-of-the-blue sentimental ending? Nagiko has pretty flowers and a new baby and a new life. Isn't that nice. Oh wait, I don't care. Greenaway's film succeed as exquisitely orchestrated comedies of excess. Empathy is irrelevant. I felt like I was watching an end tacked on from another movie. Secondly, why does everyone keep calling this an erotic film? The presence of naked people and an oblique 30-second sex scene or two does not a hot movie make. I seriously doubt whether this film was intended to be particularly sexy. (It certainly didn't do anything for me.) The depictions of sex and nudity are rather aggressively unglamorous, more sordid than sexy, reminding us that the human body is just so much meat. It's odd - Greenaway seems out to de-eroticize the body as sex object while fetishizing it as art object. At any rate, The Pillow Book is a handsomely made, gruesome little melodrama, so if that's what you're in the mood for by all means get this. Just don't expect to be frolicking with joy afterward.
Rating:
Summary: exquisite
Review: When I first saw this film, I didn't know what to think. It was, for lack of a better word, disturbing. The story seemed disjointed and aimless; the excessive nudity seemed to have no place. But even then, the beauty of the images haunted me. Greenaway films with a delicate touch and lush colors that bring heartbreakingly beautiful shots to the screen. They move languidly and gracefully even in the faster shots, as if they exist outside of time. And they do. This film is not about plot points or action-drenched climaxes, or even really about its array of strange characters; it's an aesthetic creation and more of an experience than a movie. It exists within its own frame and outside of it. The story itself is not moving or poignant or one of many things you might expect to be; it's hardly a story at all. It's an appreciation and a study. The stark shattering of realism in art and the play of ink on human flesh are details to be absorbed. It might not enchant you or endear you on first viewing, but this is an experience that grasps your attention and never lets go, even after you've turned the TV off.
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Summary: "Treat me like the page of a book."
Review: Director Peter Greenaway's complex film, "The Pillow Book," is the story of Nagiko (Vivian Wu). Her father is a writer, and each year on Nagiko's birthday, he performs a ceremony which includes writing on Nagiko's flesh to signify his approval. When Nagiko becomes a young woman, her interest in calligraphy becomes an obsession, and she attempts to recreate the approval of her father by demanding that her lovers write upon her flesh. Nagiko seeks the perfect calligrapher-lover--a man who possesses equal talents in love-making and in the art of calligraphy. Her quest leads her to many men, but it yields only mediocre results. She finds men who are good lovers but awful calligraphers, and men who are poor lovers but wonderful calligraphers. After a string of compromises and experiments, Nagiko meets Jerome (Ewan MacGregor) a translator and the master of several languages. Confronted by Nagiko's contempt and declaration that he is a "mere scribbler," Jerome offers his body to Nagiko, and tells her to treat him "like the page of a book," and so their passionate relationship begins. Nagiko is also heavily influenced by "The Pillow Book" written by Sei Shonagon--a lady-in-waiting at the Japanese court in the tenth century. The book serves as a record of court events, anecdotal observations Sei Shonagon made, and lists she kept. As a child, excerpts from "The Pillow Book" are read to Nagiko, and she identifies with Sei Shonagon. Nagiko also grows up with a strong dislike for her father's publisher, for she senses that he is an evil man. The obsession with calligraphy, the influence of Sei Shonagon, and the hatred for the publisher are the three things that dominate and shape Nagiko's life. This languorous, sensual tale has to be the most erotic film I have ever seen. Vivian Wu is superb as Nagiko--an imperious and determined woman who commands obedience and loyalty from the males who offer their bodies for her artistic purpose. Greenaway's female characters are always incredibly strong women who mate with a purpose and who are capable of handling whatever fortune sends their way, and Nagiko's character dominates the screen. Ewan MacGregor as Jerome is a perfect, pliant subject--with a much weaker character--who is willing to surrender his flesh to her designs. Apart from the highly erotic content, "The Pillow Book" is also a very beautiful film, and the sets are perfectly exquisite. Greenaway uses insets to run the past (often with scenes depicting Sei Shonagon) while simultaneously showing the present with Nagiko. This device is used to show the influence of the past on the future, and also the influence that Sei Shonagon's story has on Nagiko. The film also has a stupendous soundtrack. Be aware, though, that the film does contains both male and female nudity (especially the former), and this may offend some viewers. Greenaway films are not for everyone, and people are rarely indifferent towards his films. If you do watch this and enjoy it, I would also recommend reading "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon--displacedhuman.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful film, Worst DVD transfer I have ever seen
Review: It's very hard to review this because I don't know whether to rate the film as 5 stars or the DVD transfer as 0 stars. Since I decided to rate the movie 5 stars, I will devote my review to the transfer. Shame on Columbia/Tri-Star! They essentially butchered this movie. Not only is it full screen, but all of the film's images lie beneath a strange impermeable haze. Half the sublitles are illegible, and the sound (yes it was released in Dolby Digital) is horrendous. These comobined elements end up hurting the film when it is watched on DVD. I saw this movie in the theater, and it was beautiful-- color, cinematography, sound. All of these outstanding images contributed to the effect of the film. On DVD it is all lost. What a shame we cannot see the film the way it is meant to be seen. Anyway, Greenaway did a great job with this movie... just too bad he turned the rights over to Columbia/Tri Star.
Rating:
Summary: A difficult movie but worth it
Review: In the lines of The Cook, The Thief, etc. this movie is startlingly raw in its exploration of what lovers will do for and to one another. Also it takes a deep look at teh concept of writing, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and the ways it can be expressed and what it truly means to control the power of teh word.
There's a whoel subplot about terrorists here that has little to do with the magic of a love affair that is doomed and the sublime art of using one's dead lover as papyrus as one uses their skin to be written upon. To literally become a story, thats amazing.
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