Mishima: a life in four chapters

Poetic, fragmentary biography of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), one of Japan’s most significant contemporary writers. Disturbed by the prevailing political and social conditions in the contemporary Japan he lead his own private army which upheld the ideals and virtues of ancient Japanese culture under the Imperial rule. He scandalised the world in 1970 when, accompanied by a few followers, he entered a military garrison in Tokyo, ‘captured’ a general, delivered an impassioned speech to an assembly and then committed ritual suicide (seppuku) by disembowelment. Beginning with a quasi-documentary view of Mishima’s last day, Schrader offers a carefully structured examination of his public, private and literary personas, to convey key points about his personality and philosophy. The author’s final, desperate act, intended to inspire national unity, is counterpointed with black-and-white sequences showing his childhood and adolescence, and with gloriously stylised colour dramatisations of scenes from his semi-autobiographical novels, “Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, “Kyoko’s House” and “Runaway Horses”. Together these strikingly different visual approaches convey the complex relationships between beauty, decay, art, and action which Mishima himself was preoccupied with throughout his life. Winner of three awards at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival for John Bailey’s cinematography, Eiko Ishioka’s set design and composer Philip Glass’s original music score ‘Mishima’ is a luminous vision of a man driven by sensual and intellectual passions. Cast includes Ken Ogata, Kenji Sawada and Toshiyuki Nagashima. Dubbed into English.