Pillow Book (1997)

Nagiko (Vivian Wu), a Japanese born model living in Hong Kong, narrates this film. She wants a lover who can match her desire for sex with her love for poetry and calligraphy. The roots of this lie in her youth in Kyoto, when her father (Ken Ogata) would write characters of good fortune on her face. Nagiko's father celebrates her birthday retelling the Japanese creation myth and writing on her flesh in beautiful calligraphy, while her aunt (Hideko Yoshida) reads a list of "beautiful things" from Sei Shōnagon's "The Book of Observations". The aunt tells her that when she is 28 years old, the official book of observations will be 1000 years old, and that Nagiko will be the same age as Sei Shōnagon when she had written the book. Nagiko also learns around this time that her father is in love with his publisher Yaji-san (Yoshi Oida), who demands sexual favors from her father in exchange for publishing his work.

Frustrated by her inability to find a lover who is a good calligrapher, Nagiko finally meets a bi-sexual translator, Jerome (Ewan McGregor) who offers himself to her as a living surface for her erotic creativity. Inspired by the opportunity to obtain revenge on the publisher who blackmailed her father and is Jerome's lover, Nagiko creates the ultimate love poem illuminated in red, gold and black characters and delivered to the publisher on the naked body of Jerome. Eventually Jerome overdoses on pills and dies. After his funeral, the publisher exhumes Jerome's body and has Jerome's skin flayed and made into a grotesque pillow book of his own. Nagiko, now back in Japan, learns of the publisher's actions and becomes outraged. The publisher is confronted, hands the pillow book made of Jerome's skin to the messenger, then has the messenger slit his throat. Nagiko buries the book under a Bonsai tree and life goes on. She gives birth to Jerome's child (Hikari Abe), and is shown in the epilogue writing on her child's face, like her father used to do when she was young, and quoting from her own pillow book. It is Nagiko's 28th birthday.

This film, complete with a musical score as international as the languages used in the narration, is visually hypnotic and basically "art". There is nudity in the film, but it is very tastefully done and relevant to the plot. It's an exotic, difficult film but worth watching for lovers of unique movies. Peter Greenaway directed and wrote the script based on Sei Shōnagon's "The Pillow Book", the diary of a 10th-century lady-in-waiting.

Mannequin (1987)

Set in Wanamaker's department store in Philadelphia, Jonathan Switcher (Andrew McCarthy) is a struggling young artist who goes from one dead-end job to another. He just doesn't seem to last in any job he does. But when he builds a mannequin, he makes it so perfect it is the first thing he has made that makes him feel like a real artist. The mannequin ends up in the window of a big department store. When he saves the life of the old lady who owns the store, he is rewarded by getting a job as stock boy. Then he sees the mannequin (Kim Cattrall) he had created before. He goes to work at the store displaying her and meets a gay friend there named Hollywood Montrose (Meshach Taylor), while still managing a girlfriend, Roxie Shield (Carole Davis) from the competing department store, Ellustra. While having to dodge the store's vice president, who is working with Ellustra, and his stupid security guard, the mannequin comes to life. The mannequin, "Emmy," was actually once Emahasure, a real-life woman from ancient Egypt who lived in the year 2514 B.C. Her beauty and love inspire Switcher to become the best window dresser in town. Emmy and Jonathan have to cope with problems, including the fact that only Jonathan can see her when she is alive. Furthermore, in order to regain full status as a real life person, the mannequin must find true love.

However, when the other competing department store gets fewer customers due to the display windows done by Jonathan everything starts to change. First they try to persuade him through Roxie to work there, and when that fails the vice president and security guard decide to steal all the mannequins from the store, including Emmy. When Jonathan finds out she is gone he rescues her, and they both discover that because of their true love anything is possible, including a real live Emmy and a happy life together. The gay content comes from Montrose's caricature of a screaming gay black stereotype, a lisping, limp-wristed flamboyant window dresser.

"Mannequin" is a romantic comedy that is not very funny. But it was a surprise box-office hit, earning nearly 25 million dollars in just under a month of its release--amazing considering its tiny budget and lack of appeal to any particular demographic. It's an attempt to revive the style of fantasy romantic comedies of the 1930s and '40s. It has a poor script and there is actually a worse sequel "Mannequin 2" (1991). The film is an unacknowledged remake of the obscure 1948 film "One Touch of Venus", starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner. Sylvester Levay composed the music score, and the script was written by Edward Rugoff and Michael Gottlieb, who also directed.