In my neverending search for things of sensual power, I have come across a gem of a movie: The Pillow Book. Really, this movie is complete chocolate.

First off, this movie is about literature and art. Literature in the sense of poetry. The protagonist Nagiko is the daughter of a printmaker who gives her his blessing by writing on her face and neck the same thing on her birthday. From this, she develops a fetish for writing and being written on people. Art in the sense that her desires produce stunning works of art; photographed, copied, printed, published. And all throughout the movie excerpts from the Heian period novel Makura no Soshi are performed.

Next, the cinematography is exquisite. Movie sets are at first classical Japanese with shogi screens and tranquil bonzai gardens, to the grime of Shangai Hai's crowded urban life, to posh hotel rooms and flats with highly stylized Japanese themes. And often on the walls are characters from many languages written and projected in the background. The director uses a screen-within-screen style where a picture is juxtaposed onscreen while the film goes on in the back. Sometimes this is used to convey things which would be ackward to narrate. For instance, when Nagiko walks into a publisher's workshop to see him about her writing, a smaller-sized screen appears on the bottom showing her as a child in her father's printshop. An ingenius way to convey memory.

Lastly, the movie is completely seductive while managing a near-macabre undertone. Nagiko is constantly shown with her lovers in various stages of passion and foreplay, whether it be in a tub of water caressing the dirt away, or in bed writing her own pillow book on her lovers. When she finds one of her lovers (this one being Ewan McGregor) dead, she writes on him one last time... and the publisher who was also his lover becomes jealous. He strips the body of the skin written on, cleans the flesh, and makes a book out of it (reminiscent of Judge, anyone?) which he bargains more artwork from Nagiko if she wants it.

Oh yes. I've found a second-favorite movie now. Incidently, my favorite movie also has Ewan in it: Moulin Rouge.