The Pillow Book

Extraordinary. Ravishing. Preposterous. The usual descriptions of director Peter Greenaway's work can all be applied here in spades. Even more overwrought and over-decorated than his previous films, this mainly Hong Kong-set tale of sex and power centres on the fetish of a Japanese woman (Vivian Wu) who enjoys having her flesh written upon. Ewan McGregor co-stars as one of Wu's lovers who gets mixed up in her plan to take revenge on the homosexual publisher who degraded her father. The split-screen motifs are a wonder to behold but, although it deals with white-hot emotions, the film is as ice-cold as winter. The Pillow Book is certainly no bedtime story.