_The Pillow Book_ isn't for everyone. In visual terms, the adjective that comes to mind is "busy". For a significant proportion of the film, there is more than one "screen" to pay attention to, with almost constant use of various overlays, inserts and other optical effects, as well as black and white flashback sequences. These effects add up to a rather dreamlike sensation as the film drifts from one image to the next. However, over time they do become somewhat distracting.
In terms of narrative, _The Pillow Book_ raises and explores many questions regarding the interrelations between sexuality and textuality; the pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature, which are described at one point as the two great pleasures, here become one. Calligraphy becomes a means of intimacy, love and sexual pleasure, and the human body becomes the parchment for a literary work of art. Intriguing material that will keep an engaged viewer thinking for hours.
In terms of narrative, _The Pillow Book_ raises and explores many questions regarding the interrelations between sexuality and textuality; the pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature, which are described at one point as the two great pleasures, here become one. Calligraphy becomes a means of intimacy, love and sexual pleasure, and the human body becomes the parchment for a literary work of art. Intriguing material that will keep an engaged viewer thinking for hours.