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The Pillow Book (film)
''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. Plot The film's title, "''The Pillow Book''", refers to an ancient Japanese diary written by Sei Shōnagon, whose actual name is believed to have been Kiyohara Nagiko, from whence the protagonist's name in the film. The film is narrated by Nagiko, a Japanese-born model living in Hong Kong. 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. Nagiko's father celebrates her birthday retelling the Japanese creation myth and writing on her flesh in beautiful ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, (born 5 April 1942) is a British film director, screenwriter and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Mannerist painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death. Early life Greenaway was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, to a teacher mother and a builder's merchant father. Greenaway's family had relocated to Wales prior to his birth to escape the Blitz. They returned to the London area at the end of World War II and settled in Woodford, then part of Essex. He attended Churchfields Junior School and later Forest School in nearby Walthamstow. At an early age Greenaway decided on becoming a painter. He became interested in European cinema, focusing first on the films of Ingmar Bergman, and then on the French '' nouvelle vague'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Body Painting
Body painting is a form of body art where artwork is painted directly onto the human skin. Unlike tattoos and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, lasting several hours or sometimes up to a few weeks (in the case of mehndi or "henna tattoos" about two weeks). Body painting that is limited to the face is known as face painting. Body painting is also referred to as (a form of) "temporary tattoo". Large scale or full-body painting is more commonly referred to as body painting, while smaller or more detailed work can sometimes be referred to as temporary tattoos. Indigenous Body painting with a grey or white paint made from natural pigments including clay, chalk, ash and cattle dung is traditional in many tribal cultures. Often worn during cultural ceremonies, it is believed to assist with the moderation of body heat and the use of striped patterns may reduce the incidence of biting insects. It still survives in this ancient form among Indigenous Australians and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Age
Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological stage: the chronological age denoted as "old age" varies culturally and historically. Some disciplines and domains focus on the aging and the aged, such as the organic processes of aging (senescence), medical studies of the aging process (gerontology), diseases that afflict older adults (geriatrics), technology to support the aging society (gerontechnology), and leisure and sport activities adapted to older people (such as senior sport). Older people often have limited regenerative abilities and are more susceptible to illness and injury than younger adults. They face social problems related to retirement, loneliness, and ageism. In 2011, the United Nations proposed a human-rights convention to protect old people. History European The hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impotence
Erectile dysfunction (ED), also referred to as impotence, is a form of sexual dysfunction in males characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain a Human penis, penile erection with sufficient rigidity and duration for satisfactory sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in males and can cause psychological distress due to its impact on self-image and sexual relationships. The majority of ED cases are attributed to physical risk factors and predictive factors. These factors can be categorized as vascular, neurological, local penile, hormonal, and drug-induced. Notable predictors of ED include aging, cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, Hypertension, high blood pressure, obesity, Dyslipidemia, abnormal lipid levels in the blood, hypogonadism, smoking, Depression (mood), depression, and Adverse drug reactions, medication use. Approximately 10% of cases are linked to psychosocial factors, encompassing conditions such as depressio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiot (usage)
An idiot, in modern use, is a stupid or foolish person. "Idiot" was formerly a technical term in legal and psychiatric contexts for some kinds of profound intellectual disability where the mental age is two years or less, and the person cannot guard themself against common physical dangers. The term was gradually replaced by "profound mental retardation", which has since been replaced by other terms. Along with terms like moron, imbecile, retard and cretin, its use to describe people with mental disabilities is considered archaic and offensive. Moral idiocy refers to a moral disability. Etymology The word "idiot" ultimately comes from the Greek noun ''idiōtēs'' 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ''idios'' 'personal' (not public, not shared).Liddell-Scott-Jones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Innocent
Innocence is a lack of guilt, with respect to any kind of crime, or wrongdoing. In a legal context, innocence is prior to the sense of legal guilt and is a primal emotion connected with the sense of self. It is often confused as being the opposite of the guilt of an individual, with respect to a crime. In other contexts, it is a lack of experience. Pioneers of consciousness studies have suggested that it is prior to experience itself, and is a vibrational quality of consciousness. In relation to knowledge Innocence can imply lesser experience in either a relative view to social peers, or by an absolute comparison to a more common normative scale. In contrast to ''ignorance'', it is generally viewed as a positive term, connoting an optimistic view of the world, in particular one where the lack of wrongdoing stems from a lack of knowledge, whereas wrongdoing comes from a lack of knowledge in children. Subjects such as crime and sexuality may be especially considered. This conno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area and population, and is the List of European countries by area, fifth-largest country in Europe. Its capital and largest city is Stockholm. Sweden has a population of 10.6 million, and a low population density of ; 88% of Swedes reside in urban areas. They are mostly in the central and southern half of the country. Sweden's urban areas together cover 1.5% of its land area. Sweden has a diverse Climate of Sweden, climate owing to the length of the country, which ranges from 55th parallel north, 55°N to 69th parallel north, 69°N. Sweden has been inhabited since Prehistoric Sweden, prehistoric times around 12,000 BC. The inhabitants emerged as the Geats () and Swedes (tribe), Swedes (), who formed part of the sea-faring peopl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scrivener
A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who, before the advent of compulsory education, could literacy, read and write or who wrote letters as well as court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretary, secretarial and Administration (government), administrative duties such as Dictation (exercise), dictation and keeping business, judicial, and history, historical records for monarch, kings, nobility, nobles, temples, and municipality, cities. Scriveners later developed into notaries, court reporters, and in England and Wales, scrivener notaries. They were and are generally distinguished from scribes, who in the European Middle Ages mostly copied books; with the spread of printing this role largely disappeared, but scriveners were still required. Styles of handwriting used by scriveners included secretary hand, book hand and court hand. Current role Scriveners remain common mainly in co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anonymity
Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Anonymity may be created unintentionally through the loss of identifying information due to the passage of time or a destructive event, or intentionally if a person chooses to withhold their identity. There are various situations in which a person might choose to remain anonymous. Acts of charity have been performed anonymously when benefactors do not wish to be acknowledged. A person who feels threatened might attempt to mitigate that threat through anonymity. A witness to a crime might seek to avoid retribution, for example, by anonymously calling a crime tipline. In many other situations (like conversation between strangers, or buying some product or service in a shop), anonymity is traditionally accepted as natural. Some writers have argued that the term "namelessness", though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea here is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century. Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh, are destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage. The direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture by far. More than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typing
Typing is the process of writing or inputting text by pressing keys on a typewriter, computer keyboard, mobile phone, or calculator. It can be distinguished from other means of text input, such as handwriting recognition, handwriting and speech recognition. Text can be in the form of letters, numbers and other symbols. The world's first typist was Lillian Sholes from Wisconsin in the United States, the daughter of Christopher Latham Sholes, who invented the first practical typewriter. User interface features such as spell checker and autocomplete serve to facilitate and speed up typing and to prevent or correct errors the typist may make. Techniques Hunt and peck Hunt and peck (''two-fingered typing'') is a common form of typing in which the typist presses each key individually. In the purest form of the method, the typist finds each key by sight on the fly, and uses only one or two fingers (typically the index fingers). Although good accuracy may be achieved, the use of this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequently-derived Syllabary, syllabic scripts of and . The characters have Japanese pronunciations; most have two, with one based on the Chinese sound. A few characters were invented in Japan by constructing character components derived from other Chinese characters. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan made its own efforts to simplify the characters, now known as , by a process similar to China's simplified Chinese characters, simplification efforts, with the intention to increase literacy among the general public. Since the 1920s, the Japanese government has published character lists periodically to help direct the education of its citizenry through the myriad Chinese characters that exist. There are nearly 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
