Spoiler warning !!!
Nude bodies are not necessarily erotic, not even in the act of having sex. May very well be, but not necessarily. Vivian Wu is exceedingly more erotic, fully clothed, in The Soong Sisters (1997), than in the numerous * scenes in Pillow Book.
I use `bizarre' here in a very neutral sense. Most interesting, if only just to myself, is that while watching Pillow Book, I was struck with its similarity with The Cook the Thief, his Wife and her Lover (1989), without realising that they were both directed by the same man, Peter Greenaway. Both are about revenging a lover (and more in the case of Pillow Book) and in both, the dead body of the lover has an important part to play. Very noire, both.
The unique thing about Pillow Book is not quite unique. Calligraphy on a human body was featured in Kaidan (1964), albeit under a set of entirely different circumstances. There, to avoid being abducted by a band of ghosts, a monk had magical calligraphy written all over his body to make himself invisible to the ghosts. But alas, through an oversight, his ears were left uncovered, and were eventually torn off and carried away by the ghosts. `The monk without ears' is the best of the four separate short stories in Kaidan, which is in turn among the best of its genre.
Without getting into all the intricate details, the main plot of the Pillow Booke surrounds Kagiko's (Vivian Wu) endeavours to get her book published, by sending separate chapters to the publisher, in the form writings on * male bodies. The book is an intimate record of her spiritual and sensual voyage. Of particular importance is the encounter with Jerome (Ewan MeGregor) whom she uses initially as a channel to reach the publisher who is also Jerome's gay lover. When a genuine love relationship develops between Kagiko and Jerome, she finds herself consumed in jealousy as his liaison with the publisher continues. Unable to obtain Kagiko's forgiveness, Jerome kills himself. Then comes the most bizarre part, when the publisher steals Jerome's body from the grave, removes the skin upon which a chapter of Kagiko's book has been written, and makes it into a volume that he keeps as a souvenir. The ensuing revenue, although markedly different in substance, is remarkably similar in spirit to the revenge in `The Cook
.'.
A lot has been said about the aesthetic quality of this film. What strikes me even more is the sound, particularly in two scenes. One is the long scene that traces the development of the relationship between Kagiko and Jerome, accompanied throughout by a jazzy, languid French song, with the lyrics wandering lazily across the bottom of the screen (not as superimposed sub-titles, but as an integral part of the frame). I thought this is very clever and goes a long way in eliciting the audience's empathy with the pair. The other is Jerome's suicide, accompanied by eccentric, truncated music in pulsating strings, which pinpoints his frustration with surgical precision.
Not everything is flawless in this movie. The picture-in-picture technique is way over-used, to the point of being an irritating distraction. As well, the jumpy style in the beginning is too flashy, e.g. the abrupt cut from the stoic black-and-white Japanese domestic scene to the kaleidoscope-like Hong Kong fashion show, accomplishing nothing more than the director saying, `Hey, look here, I can do this!' Fortunately, he has the good sense of stopping when he should.
Interesting to observe that the IMDB comments have been as polarised as ever possible. For me, Wu, and McGregor to a less extent (as he is really in a supporting role here), are worth the price of the ticket, or, to be exact, the DVD.
