Peter Greenaway has based his movie of 1994 on the story of Sei Shonagon a lady in waiting at the Japanese Heian Dynasty Imperial Court. He adapted this ancient story to a contemporary setting. It is a story of a contemporary Japanese woman who obsessively has her many lovers write texts on her body and she on theirs. "Our attention is drawn to view the film as an ironic demonstration that cinema, even now after hundred years of pretending to be an autonomous activity, is invariably text-driven, and almost wholly supported by literature." This book documents the script of the film and reproduces representative stills from it. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.