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Peter Greenaway

The pillow book

Director Peter Greenaway Composer Brian Eno Cast Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor, Yoshi Oida
Edition 1996
126' - 1996 - Drama - Dialogue: Italian, Mandarin, French, English, Cantonese, Japanese
In Kyoto in the 1970s, a calligrapher delicately writes a greeting on his daughter's face on her birthday. When she becomes a woman, the daughter Nagiko remembers the event with excitement and searches hard to find an ideal calligrapher-lover to use her whole body as his paper. In Hong Kong she meets Jérôme, an English translator who convinces her that she should be the pen and not the paper - she should write on his body and he will carry her writing on his skin to a publisher. Nagiko turns out to be a talented writer and writes thirty erotic poems on various men's bodies. Jérôme dies accidentally in a suicide attempt. Nagiko then writes a beautiful love poem on his body which soon becomes the object of desire...

Image gallery

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Credits

Directors

Peter Greenaway

Composers

Brian Eno

Cast

Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor, Yoshi Oida

Scenario

Peter Greenaway

Director of Photography

Sacha Vierny

Editors

Peter Greenaway, Chris Wyatt

Producers

Kees Kasander

More info

Dialogue

Italian, Mandarin, French, English, Cantonese, Japanese

Countries of production

United Kingdom, France

Screenplay based on

"The pillow book" (Sei Shonagon)

Year

1996