THE PILLOW BOOK (DVD Review) - 26/8/06

Ewan McGregor plays the part of a Translator in "The Pillow Book" set in Japan by Director/Writer Peter Greenaway. Another take on the bizarre as a woman struck with a Calligraphy Fetish (All across her body) seeks to replicate her childhood by painting on human canvasses of her own. Revenge and retribution are not far behind in this lushly laid out art movie with frames within frames and pictures dissolving into the past and present amidst strange going-ons at the book's publisher's where the secret of the pillow book is finally revealed. English clashes with Japanese as both English subtitles and Japanese script flows across the scenes fading in and out as other elements come to the fore and disperse like hazy mist across a cold winter's lake early in the morning. Sorry to say the Region 1 (USA) DVD version is a piss-poor vanilla edition much like the UK version with just the Theatrical Trailer and sorrily treated to a bad re-formatting to fit TV screens as well to boot. Still it hasn't been cut and is the Unrated edition. Columbia/Tristar Home Video. Japanese and Chinese with English Subtitles. Runtime: Approx 126 Mins. Colour - NTSC. Sound: Dolby Surround. Close Captioned. Because the movie was originally shot with Multi-Aspect Ratios the proportions of the screen image will change periodically throughout the film. 28709/ISBN # 0767819772.