The Pillow Book is a 1996 erotic drama film written and directed by Peter Greenaway, which stars Vivian Wu as Nagiko, a Japanese model in search of pleasure and new cultural experience from various lovers.

The film is a melding of dark modern drama with idealised Chinese and Japanese cultural themes and settings, and centres on body painting.

Nagiko seeks a lover who can match her desire for carnal pleasure with her admiration for poetry and calligraphy.

The roots of this obsession lie in her youth in Kyoto, when her father would write characters of good fortune on her face.

Her husband, an expert archer, resents Nagiko's love for books and her desire to read, in spite of his apprenticeship.

Outside her apartment, a group of activists regularly protest the publishing industry for the depletion of forests due to the need to make paper.

After working as a secretary in the office of a Japanese fashion designer for a while, Nagiko's employer takes a liking to her and makes her one of his models.

As a successful fashion model, Nagiko hires a maid, as she now finally has the opportunity to explore her sexual desires of being written on.

One day, at the Cafe Typo, Nagiko's favourite haunt, she meets Jerome, a British translator.

Frightened but very intrigued by Jerome's suggestion, Nagiko has several one-night stands in which she experiments writing on their bodies.

One of the activists, admirer Hoki, a Japanese photographer who adores her, begs Nagiko to take him as a lover.

Hoki, not wanting Nagiko to keep carrying on like she is, suggests she try writing a book, offering to take it to a renowned publisher he freelances for.

Nagiko soon realises that, in Jerome, she has found the perfect lover she has been searching for: the partner with whom she can share her physical and her poetic passion, using each other's bodies as tablets for their art.

Nagiko, jealous, impatient, and angry, searches for Jerome, eventually finding him making love with the publisher.

Jerome sinks into deep depression and meets with Hoki at the Cafe Typo, desperate to find a way to get Nagiko to forgive him.

As the pills take effect, Jerome can write no more and lies on the bed, naked, holding a copy of Sei Shōnagon's the book of observations.

In the book writing on the body of the messenger, which the publisher carefully reads, Nagiko finally reveals her identity, confronting the publisher with his crimes: blackmailing and disgracing her father, "corrupting" her husband, as well as Jerome, and what he's done to Jerome's corpse.

Upon recovering the book made out of Jerome's skin, Nagiko buries it under a Bonsai tree and life goes on.

As a half-Chinese and half-Japanese woman, Nagiko navigates her dual cultures through physical and psychological exploration.

[4] Andrew Johnston stated: "Most of Greenaway's signature visual devices (elaborate title cards, superimposed images) are employed here; but accompanied by U2 songs and traditional Asian music, instead of a Michael Nyman score, they seem fresher and more dynamic than before.