talking summarization





Splog Filter



newsplus summary

ping 歸納

reviewer













Internet   News   animation   retail sales   Sport   Movie   Video Game   Entertainment   Politics   Eats   Music   Drama   Hardware   Software   Health   japanese culture   Technology   automobile   Business   Fashion   Books   Manga   Broadcast   Cooking   electronics   Leisure   Science   Locality   Phrase   Beauty   Nature   Fancy   Comedy   Avocation   Education   Gamble   Art   Livelihood  

Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters




  • flat and matter-of-fact as Mr.Schrader describes . As a matter of fact , I did not recognize that it was Roy Scheider , though it was certainly his voice . This is very good for the film , since we are supposed to be listening to Mishima's inner reflection on his own life . It cannot be acted out loudly , since Mishima that we see in the film - - especially in the main narrative line of it which is Mishima's last day ending with his suicide - - is always acting himself , rather flamboyantly . So the director Paul Schrader's choice of asking the actor not to play it , but making an effort was made to keep the narrative flat and matter-of-fact was very suitable for the mystery of the film . Personally , I first did not like the narration being in English , then I started to feel that the very flat narration in a different language may be representing another dimention of Mishima's split personality that Schrader is exploring in the film . But watching the film with Ken Ogata's narration was a revelation . The film definetely looks more complete with the Japanese narration . And Ogata did not need an English speaking narrator to represent this split , complex and enigmatic personality who is Yukio Mishima . It's far stroger to see the same actor incarnating those many personalities , and it also make far more sense . The DVD is also on 1 : 1.85 aspect ratio , which is a huge improvement to 4 : 3 VHS , since now we can really appreciate John Bailey's extremely pricise framings and compositions . I have never been crazy about Eiko Ishioka's production design . Even for this film , when I first saw it I was interesting but not great , but Bailey's 1 : 1.85 framing really brings out the essence of the stories from her sets ( though I still don't like them ) . Of course a DVD has better image clarity than a VHS , plus the correct framing , plus Ken Ogata's own voice . . . the DVD edition is the best way to see the film . And Mr . Schrader's commentary is very interesting and enjoyable ( as he always is ; one of the best director to do commentaries ) , including the horrifying story of the true reason why the film was banned in Japan . Very scary but very realistic for us Japanese . Nevertheless , MISHIMA is a very interesting film but not the best among Schrader's works as director . My favorite one is AFFLICTION , and though Schrader himself dislikes the film saying the experience was a nightmare , BLUE COLLAR .
    • 004 4  I'm rather confused about all these discussions about the voice over narration being changed , and apparently , so is Paul Schrader himself . I have not seen the film at the original release , but as for the difference between the fromer VHS editions of the film and this new DVD . . . the only difference about the voice over is . . . that Ken Ogata's narration in Japanese can now be heard , which is great . The English-narrated sound track is . . . the SAME . I first saw the film in an old VHS in a university class , and THE ENGLISH VOICE OVERS WERE ALREADY THE SAME AS IT CAN BE HEARD ON TRACK ONE OF THIS DVD : flat and matter-of-fact as Mr.Schrader describes . As a matter of fact , I did not recognize that it was Roy Scheider , though it was certainly his voice . This is very good for the film , since we are supposed to be listening to Mishima's inner reflection on his own life . It cannot be acted out loudly , since Mishima that we see in the film - - especially in the main narrative line of it which is Mishima's last day ending with his suicide - - is always acting himself , rather flamboyantly . So the director Paul Schrader's choice of asking the actor not to play it , but making an effort was made to keep the narrative flat and matter-of-fact was very suitable for the mystery of the film . Personally , I first did not like the narration being in English , then I started to feel that the very flat narration in a different language may be representing another dimention of Mishima's split personality that Schrader is exploring in the film . But watching the film with Ken Ogata's narration was a revelation . The film definetely looks more complete with the Japanese narration . And Ogata did not need an English speaking narrator to represent this split , complex and enigmatic personality who is Yukio Mishima . It's far stroger to see the same actor incarnating those many personalities , and it also make far more sense . The DVD is also on 1 : 1.85 aspect ratio , which is a huge improvement to 4 : 3 VHS , since now we can really appreciate John Bailey's extremely pricise framings and compositions . I have never been crazy about Eiko Ishioka's production design . Even for this film , when I first saw it I was interesting but not great , but Bailey's 1 : 1.85 framing really brings out the essence of the stories from her sets ( though I still don't like them ) . Of course a DVD has better image clarity than a VHS , plus the correct framing , plus Ken Ogata's own voice . . . the DVD edition is the best way to see the film . And Mr . Schrader's commentary is very interesting and enjoyable ( as he always is ; one of the best director to do commentaries ) , including the horrifying story of the true reason why the film was banned in Japan . Very scary but very realistic for us Japanese . Nevertheless , MISHIMA is a very interesting film but not the best among Schrader's works as director . My favorite one is AFFLICTION , and though Schrader himself dislikes the film saying the experience was a nightmare , BLUE COLLAR .
    • 009 4  In both the running commentary and in the DVD production notes , it is revealed that the participants involved with Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters felt they were producing a film no one would see . How odd that a film that felt it had no audience , turned out to be an exceptional and popular film about a writer's life and work . What sets Mishima apart from others in this genre , is that Paul Shrader focused solely on the themes that appear in both Mishima's personal life and within his writings . This is not a tell-all exploration of a known celebrity , rather it is an in-depth analysis of a man's core beliefs that motivated both his direction in life and his writings . Broken into three distinct styles , the film covers Mishima's past ( black and white ) , present ( documentary color ) and novels ( stylized color ) , resulting in a concise , deep , and through exploration that neither hails or condemns its subject . All aspects of the film production are exceptional . From the spot on performances of Ken Ogata ( it is eerie how he physically captures the essence of Mishima ) and the supporting cast , to the incredible luxurious sets of Eiko Ishioka , and the atmospheric music of Philip Glass . There is much to admire within this film and if you haven't seen it , you should . Warner has previously released this film on VHS and Laserdisc and now presents it on DVD . Surprisingly , this film with no audience , has a lot of amenities to make it a worthwhile purchase . Paul Schrader , the film's director , provides a thorough and insightful running commentary , further illuminating Yukio Mishima's life as well as chronicling the production . Additionally , the Japanese audio track features the original narration that was done by Ken Ogata . ( When first released in Japan , his narration was replaced . ) As for the picture , the transfer leaves a lot to be desired , appearing to be a rehash of the original laserdisc transfer . It's a shame that such a visually potent film lacks a proper transfer to DVD . [ On a odd note , in the original release Roy Scheider provided the narration to this film . However , despite a listing on the end credits , it appears that the narrator on this DVD is NOT Roy Scheider . I did an A / B comparison with the laserdisc and there is a distinct difference from the Laserdisc to the DVD . If anyone has any information on this oddity , I would be interested to hear from you . ]
    • 019 4  While it's always good for an author - or in this case a director - to respond directly on amazon ( OK one might make an exception for Anne Rice's bizarre outbursts and for the various authors and publishers who submitted pseudonymous reviews to puff up their star ratings ) , Paul Schrader's comment a few posts below left me no wiser about what happened to the narration . In the original film and VHS video release this was read by Roy Scheider in a wonderful smoky voice that perfectly fitted the material . Judging by the reviews below ( I don't have this version myself ) , this has been mysteriously replaced by a much inferior voiceover for the DVD . Paul's comment seems to indicate that Lucasfilm re-recorded the narration for this DVD so that it included Ken Ogata's version in Japanese ( a good thing as the film was not properly released in Japan first time round because of the Mishima estate's opposition and presumably the difficult political subject matter ) . So did they get Roy to do it again in English ( and apparently so badly - or at least differently - that most reviewers who mention it don't think it's him ) ? After all the great advantage of DVD technology over video is that you can have multiple soundtracks and subtitles . So Paul - please clarify further ? I love this film ( thus the 5 - stars ) but I am probably not the only fan who is having second thoughts about buying this edition based on the reviews below . Even if you didn't like the original narration - which puts it into ' director's cut ' territory - it would still help if you explained this more clearly , so we know what we are buying and why it differs from the movie we saw in the cinema back in the 1980s .

  • Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters ( DVD ) This visually strong DVD on the life of Mishima was divided into three interwoven chapters ; there is a black and white retelling of Mishima's life ; a color version of the last day of his life ; and then a super-saturated color version of three abbreviations of his novels . I think these three sections actually allow a good armature on which to review the film and to comment on the artist's life and gifts to literature . The life of Mishima , filmed in black and white , reveals many of the themes that continue to haunt both his fiction and his personal interactions . As a child , Mishima is told by his grandmother that he is special , a fragile hot-house plant , and that his family is better than common people . As a pre-adolescent he finds a picture of St . Sebastian pierced with arrows , and says that ' this painting had laid in wait for me for 300 years ' and that his ' hand began a spontaneous motion that it had never been taught ' . Thus Mishima himself gives us the key to understanding much of his work and life ; he becomes obsessed with idealized male beauty and martyrdom . He begins the creative process early and is very prolific . He begins writing every night at midnight for a specified period of time , and maintained this routine throughout his life . He marries and has two children but he also has affairs with men . As he ages he becomes more obsessed with his body and becomes a body builder . He is humiliated beyond description by the Japanese loss of World War II . Eventually he develops a circle of beautiful male followers and forms his own private army . I have read two of his novels ; The Golden Pavillion and Forbidden Colors . I must say his style is different in both . Golden Pavillion is written in a straight-forward style , much like Hemingway . Forbidden Colors is an odd retelling of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations but with a gay Estella seeking revenge against the female sex . The novel has a style much like Balzac in his novel Cousin Bette . Mishima is cognitively original , much like Emily Dickinson , because of his fluid imagination , odd associations of thoughts and images , and the deep desire to hide the repressed and the nasty inner-self from the viewer . You can't ready Mishima or Emily Dickinson without asking : What deep dark secrets are they hiding ? Integrated into the film are three very stylized shortened versions of three of his novels that reflection on his consciousness . The first segment , the Golden Pavillion , deals with a young monk who stutters , finds he can't make love to women because visions of the Golden Pavillion Temple continue to appear in his mind . He eventually burns the 600 year old national landmark temple to the ground . But what is this really about ? It is about the repressed homosexual who can not make love to women because the image of the idealized beautiful male continues to haunt his inner desires and visions . To try to destroy those visions is to destroy the self , something precious as an ancient temple . The second segment deals with a young beautiful male actor who becomes the lover of a female mobster slum lord ( lady ) to save his mother's coffee shop . Yet when they meet for love-making she slowly slices his beautiful body with razors as she admires his beauty . His first young mistress finds he responds to a mirrow when making love , obsessed with his own beauty . And how would a repressed homosexual deal with a beautiful male character in his novel ? By violating that beauty , aiming the act of aggression outward instead of inward . The female mobster is Mishima , worshiping male beauty and wishing to destroy it at the same time . The last vision we see of the young actor is of his bound corpse , sliced and bleeding , yet with the restful face of St . Sebastian in a Renaissance painting . In the third segment , Running Horses , a group of beautiful young nationalistic young Japanese men plot the death of the democratically elected officials of Japan so the country can return to the ancient religion , culture , and government of Japan . This segment certainly reveals that Japanese Nationalism did not disappear after the Japanese surrender . In fact , these Japanese Nationalists would consider the loss of the war shameful and in the Japanese Sumari tradition , should commit suicide rather than live in shame . In the third Chapter of the film , we see Mishima on the last day of his life , surrounded by beautiful male soldiers from his private army . In 1970 , at the age of 45 , he commits ritual suicide as the act of an honorable samarai in response to the loss of the war by his nation . In a wild and almost unbelievable climax , Mishima and his officers kidnap the Minister of the Japanese Army and try to bring about a revolution against the current government , which is very much adjusted to Western influence . The soldiers that are addressed by Mishima are amazed at the destructive and unrealistic pleas of Mishima as were the Japanese college students in an earlier scene . The musical score by Phillip Glass is complimentary without being competitive . Mishima remains a puzzle inside an enigma but repressed homosexulity combined with self hatred certainly help explains why he surrounded himself with beautiful pure young men to whom he can impose his obsessed hyper-masculinity and ancient , tragically outdated code of life .
    • 001 4  Someone pointed out to me confusion about the change in the narration . Here's the story . I originally intended to have Mishima's narration in English outside Japan to cut down on the surfeit of subtitles . ( The US version of Diary of a Country Priest has French dialogue and English narration . ) I asked Roy Scheider to read a transdlation of the Ogata / Mishima narration and we mixed this into the film at Lucasfilm . The Japanese distributor was to be responsible for mixing Ken Ogata's narration into the Japanese version . However , there never was a Japanese version since the film was de facto banned in Japan . Consequently , it was never possible for non-English speaking Japanese viewers to see the film entirely in Japanese . When the DVD was issued we went back to Lucasfilm to fix this , allowing either a Japanese-speaking viewer to hear the Ogata narration or a non-Japanese-speaking viewer to hear the Scneider narration . In recording both Ogata and Scneider an equal effort was made to keep the narrative flat and matter-of-fact . Paul S .
    • 002 4  This was a film financed by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola , distributed by a major Hollywood studio , that but for some narration by Roy Scheider is entirely in Japanese , and is told in a fragmentary narrative style which oscillates between wildly contrasting stylistic modes ; the widow of the film's subject was basically tricked into signing away life rights to her husband's story ( partially conditioned on the film's not dealing with his none-too-secret homosexuality , which the film does deal with , albeit obliquely ) , and proceded to fight production in Japan tooth and nail . Mishima himself , Japan's most famous post-war novelist , attempted a paramilitary coup d'etat in 1970 , in which his private army took over the Ministry of Defense , and committed a highly public hari-kiri . He was and is a subject of vast controversy in Japan , a consensus society , who since his death have preferred not to be reminded he existed . Given the artiness of the film , the foreigness of it's subject matter , and the Japanese blackout / ban , it is amazing Mishima got made at all . Even without the sheer strangeness of the work and improbability of its existence , this is an awesome film . Mishima is one of the best movies about an artist ever made . Mishima sought to make his life into a work of art , and his bid for violent political action and self-martyrdom was his terminal masterpiece . Mishima intercuts documentary-style scenes of his final 12 hours with black and white flashbacks telling of his life up to that day , aping the style of classical Japanese cinema of Ozu and Naruse ; but the third layer of narrative are scenes from three of his novels , shot on elaborate soundstages on blatantly artificial sets in garish 40 ' s MGM-style color . All three narrative modes , and the violent climaxes of the three novels , coalace in rapid montage as the film builds to its endpoint , as life and art meld . The film shows us the life that fueled the artist's fictions , the fictions themselves and how they transformed the raw material of Mishima's life , and then how Mishima's disatisfaction with mere art-making lead to a flamboyant attempt at transcendant , suicidal direct action . In the end , Mishima becomes one with his creations , and life becomes art . This film is the most successful representation of a writer's life I've ever seen , all thanks to Mishima the man's insane extremism . Philip Glass ' operatic score is extrarordinary ( and I am a non-fan ) , as essential as Morricone's music is to Leone's films . I have not yet mentioned the name of the man behind this masterpiece . Paul Schrader , author of a one of the best critical film essays ever ( Transcendental Style in Film : Ozu , Bresson , Dreyer ) , writer of Taxi Driver , Raging Bull and Last Temptation of Christ , director of American Gigolo , Light Sleeper , Affliction , Patty Hearst and Cat People . While much of his work is fascinating , this is an out-and-out masterpiece . A truly brave film , as impossible as a Tarkovsky or a Bresson . And if any film deserves the Criterion treatment , this is it ; in addition to commentary from the director , composer Glass and cinematographer John Bailey , it will be full of documentary material about the actual Mishima ( who was a significant media star in both Japan and the West , he even acted in samurai films ! ) to provide needed context , and the beautiful sounds and images will surely benefit from the company's usual lush transfers . Check it out , you'll thank me .
    • 003 4  Most biographical films of artists ( Immortal Beloved , Amadeus , etc . ) , even if they are well made , hardly live up to the greatness of the people they describe . This film is a notable exception , one which outdoes its subject . Mishima was an accomplished writer , one whose works deserve to be read , but no single work of his stands out as an unquestionable masterpiece of world literature . This film , on the other hand , is without doubt one of the masterpieces of world cinema . The film is broken down into interlocking modules : those which depict Mishima's life and those which recreate episodes from his books . The literary recreations are done in a highly stylized manner which captures ( and at times , outdoes ) the mystery and poetry of the original texts . The biographical segments feature a fine sense of both drama and poetry . They capture the essence of Mishima's passion in a way that even he himself was unable to do . The score by Philip Glass is one of the finest film scores ever written , and it turns the film almost into a kind of opera . It is far superior to any of his other compositions . I was born a few years after Mishima committed suicide , but I am friends with two people who knew him personally , both of whom have excellent taste in both film and literature : they both recommend this film highly . The film may take some factual liberties , but it represents the fundamental nature of the man with infallible accuracy . Whether your interest is great cinema , great literature , Japan , or Mishima himself , do yourself a favor : see this film .
    • 005 4  Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters . Directed by Paul Schrader . Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas . Made in 1985 . Cost $4.5million to make , filmed entirely in Japanese with all Japanese actors , never released in Japan . Grossed $500,000 . Beautiful film that tells three separate stories . One is a black and white re-telling of Mishima's life . Another is a color re-telling of Mishima's last day . And the third consists of three re-tellings of Mishima's novels . The novel re-tellings are shot like very elaborate stage plays in lavish colors and designed by Eiko Ishioka , who designed costumes for Dracula , The Cell , and the new Houston Rockets jersey . Long story short , I bought this film sight unseen and I cannot stop thinking about it . The music haunts me ( in a pleasant way ) , and the images and the ideas of Mishima have been playing in my mind . I had read two novels of Mishima's , so I was familiar with him and his work . Here is a man , arguably the greatest postwar author Japan has had , who wrote 35 novels , over a dozen plays , several operas , a ballet , over 400 short stories and essays , directed and starred in a movie he wrote , and starred in a few more . And in 1970 , at the age of 45 , after creating his own army , committed suicide after a vein attempt to incite revolution in the Army . Oh , he was also a body builder . Just like the deafness in Beethoven , it is the army building and suicide that everybody obsesses about when they study Mishima . It is true for the last decade of his life he tipped to the right in political views to the point of fervent fanaticism , but he still managed to balance his passion with his desire for beauty and existence . In the end he hoped to unify it all in one swift moment that is death . Known to go out on the town or host cocktail parties with the who's who of Tokyo and the literary world of the 50 ' s and 60 ' s , Mishima never drank and rarely took to debauchery that personifies the tragic novelist . Instead he possessed a phenomenal work ethic . At 11 : 00pm , whether on the town , or the host of a party , people knew it was time for Mishima to head home , or for the party end . He had work to do . Even while cramming for exams as a teenager , Mishima would stay up until dawn writing . His one passion at that age . And for the last twenty years of his life , at midnight , he would go to his study and write . No distractions , silence would guide his thoughts . Most of this I got from reading a biography I just read of him , but the film touches upon it very nicely . And it is the quotes about his personal development that make some of the best lines from the film ( in an optional English narration on the DVD . ) Every night at precisely midnight I would return to my desk and write . I would analyze why I was attracted to a particular theme . I would boil it into abstraction until I was ready to put it down on the page . I think I just miss quoted ( as I will again later ) , but I got it close enough . Even on the last night of his life he followed this work ethic . In his entire writing career , he never missed a deadline . He was a weak kid . Pale , young looking for his age . Sheltered by his grandmother . His one release was writing . In a scene that was objected to by his widow , the film shows him at a gay bar . He is criticized by a man for being flabby . This scene and the implied homosexuality resulted in his widow preventing the release if the film in Japan . The following scene concludes with Mishima thinking : All my life I had suffered under a monstrous sensitivity . And that , What I lacked was a healthy body ; a sense of self . I saw that beauty and ethics are one in the same . Creating a beautiful work of art and being beautiful oneself are inseparable Mishima took up body building in the mid 1950 ' s and kept it up until the end of his life . Unlike the average tale of the forlorn , drunk , self-hating author , Mishima was obsessed with health and the prevention of the decay of the body . The reputation of famous authors of Japan are that of chain smokers who drink and write . It is this lifestyle that gives them their writing will . I have found two Japanese authors who buck this trend . One is Mishima and the other is Murakami Haruki , who is in his fifties right now and is possibly the most popular author in contemporary Japan . He too follows a strict ethic of exercise and writing . I will point out some other aspects of the film I find interesting . Apparently Lucas and Coppola were miffed that Yoko , Mishima's widow , would only allow scenes that were documented as happening . Seems fair to me when making a biopic . All quotes in the movie spoken by Mishima are actual words Mishima wrote . Though one issue I do have is that Ogata Ken , the actor who plays Mishima , doesn't really look like him . Mishima was just more handsome . His face was tough , but the eyes were the eyes of a poet . And he was more muscular for the last 15 years of his life . But considering the controversial nature of Mishima and his reputation , it was hard to find an actor as willing as Ogata , so I should not be so upset . Plus Paul Schrader made a comentary track for the DVD release that is full of good tidbits .
    • 006 4  This review is from : Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters ( DVD ) This visually strong DVD on the life of Mishima was divided into three interwoven chapters ; there is a black and white retelling of Mishima's life ; a color version of the last day of his life ; and then a super-saturated color version of three abbreviations of his novels . I think these three sections actually allow a good armature on which to review the film and to comment on the artist's life and gifts to literature . The life of Mishima , filmed in black and white , reveals many of the themes that continue to haunt both his fiction and his personal interactions . As a child , Mishima is told by his grandmother that he is special , a fragile hot-house plant , and that his family is better than common people . As a pre-adolescent he finds a picture of St . Sebastian pierced with arrows , and says that ' this painting had laid in wait for me for 300 years ' and that his ' hand began a spontaneous motion that it had never been taught ' . Thus Mishima himself gives us the key to understanding much of his work and life ; he becomes obsessed with idealized male beauty and martyrdom . He begins the creative process early and is very prolific . He begins writing every night at midnight for a specified period of time , and maintained this routine throughout his life . He marries and has two children but he also has affairs with men . As he ages he becomes more obsessed with his body and becomes a body builder . He is humiliated beyond description by the Japanese loss of World War II . Eventually he develops a circle of beautiful male followers and forms his own private army . I have read two of his novels ; The Golden Pavillion and Forbidden Colors . I must say his style is different in both . Golden Pavillion is written in a straight-forward style , much like Hemingway . Forbidden Colors is an odd retelling of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations but with a gay Estella seeking revenge against the female sex . The novel has a style much like Balzac in his novel Cousin Bette . Mishima is cognitively original , much like Emily Dickinson , because of his fluid imagination , odd associations of thoughts and images , and the deep desire to hide the repressed and the nasty inner-self from the viewer . You can't ready Mishima or Emily Dickinson without asking : What deep dark secrets are they hiding ? Integrated into the film are three very stylized shortened versions of three of his novels that reflection on his consciousness . The first segment , the Golden Pavillion , deals with a young monk who stutters , finds he can't make love to women because visions of the Golden Pavillion Temple continue to appear in his mind . He eventually burns the 600 year old national landmark temple to the ground . But what is this really about ? It is about the repressed homosexual who can not make love to women because the image of the idealized beautiful male continues to haunt his inner desires and visions . To try to destroy those visions is to destroy the self , something precious as an ancient temple . The second segment deals with a young beautiful male actor who becomes the lover of a female mobster slum lord ( lady ) to save his mother's coffee shop . Yet when they meet for love-making she slowly slices his beautiful body with razors as she admires his beauty . His first young mistress finds he responds to a mirrow when making love , obsessed with his own beauty . And how would a repressed homosexual deal with a beautiful male character in his novel ? By violating that beauty , aiming the act of aggression outward instead of inward . The female mobster is Mishima , worshiping male beauty and wishing to destroy it at the same time . The last vision we see of the young actor is of his bound corpse , sliced and bleeding , yet with the restful face of St . Sebastian in a Renaissance painting . In the third segment , Running Horses , a group of beautiful young nationalistic young Japanese men plot the death of the democratically elected officials of Japan so the country can return to the ancient religion , culture , and government of Japan . This segment certainly reveals that Japanese Nationalism did not disappear after the Japanese surrender . In fact , these Japanese Nationalists would consider the loss of the war shameful and in the Japanese Sumari tradition , should commit suicide rather than live in shame . In the third Chapter of the film , we see Mishima on the last day of his life , surrounded by beautiful male soldiers from his private army . In 1970 , at the age of 45 , he commits ritual suicide as the act of an honorable samarai in response to the loss of the war by his nation . In a wild and almost unbelievable climax , Mishima and his officers kidnap the Minister of the Japanese Army and try to bring about a revolution against the current government , which is very much adjusted to Western influence . The soldiers that are addressed by Mishima are amazed at the destructive and unrealistic pleas of Mishima as were the Japanese college students in an earlier scene . The musical score by Phillip Glass is complimentary without being competitive . Mishima remains a puzzle inside an enigma but repressed homosexulity combined with self hatred certainly help explains why he surrounded himself with beautiful pure young men to whom he can impose his obsessed hyper-masculinity and ancient , tragically outdated code of life .
    • 007 4  This visually strong DVD on the life of Mishima was divided into three interwoven chapters ; there is a black and white retelling of Mishima's life ; a color version of the last day of his life ; and then a super-saturated color version of three abbreviations of his novels . I think these three sections actually allow a good armature on which to review the film and to comment on the artist's life and gifts to literature . The life of Mishima , filmed in black and white , reveals many of the themes that continue to haunt both his fiction and his personal interactions . As a child , Mishima is told by his grandmother that he is special , a fragile hot-house plant , and that his family is better than common people . As a pre-adolescent he finds a picture of St . Sebastian pierced with arrows , and says that ' this painting had laid in wait for me for 300 years ' and that his ' hand began a spontaneous motion that it had never been taught ' . Thus Mishima himself gives us the key to understanding much of his work and life ; he becomes obsessed with idealized male beauty and martyrdom . He begins the creative process early and is very prolific . He begins writing every night at midnight for a specified period of time , and maintained this routine throughout his life . He marries and has two children but he also has affairs with men . As he ages he becomes more obsessed with his body and becomes a body builder . He is humiliated beyond description by the Japanese loss of World War II . Eventually he develops a circle of beautiful male followers and forms his own private army . I have read two of his novels ; The Golden Pavillion and Forbidden Colors . I must say his style is different in both . Golden Pavillion is written in a straight-forward style , much like Hemingway . Forbidden Colors is an odd retelling of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations but with a gay Estella seeking revenge against the female sex . The novel has a style much like Balzac in his novel Cousin Bette . Mishima is cognitively original , much like Emily Dickinson , because of his fluid imagination , odd associations of thoughts and images , and the deep desire to hide the repressed and the nasty inner-self from the viewer . You can't ready Mishima or Emily Dickinson without asking : What deep dark secrets are they hiding ? Integrated into the film are three very stylized shortened versions of three of his novels that reflection on his consciousness . The first segment , the Golden Pavillion , deals with a young monk who stutters , finds he can't make love to women because visions of the Golden Pavillion Temple continue to appear in his mind . He eventually burns the 600 year old national landmark temple to the ground . But what is this really about ? It is about the repressed homosexual who can not make love to women because the image of the idealized beautiful male continues to haunt his inner desires and visions . To try to destroy those visions is to destroy the self , something precious as an ancient temple . The second segment deals with a young beautiful male actor who becomes the lover of a female mobster slum lord ( lady ) to save his mother's coffee shop . Yet when they meet for love-making she slowly slices his beautiful body with razors as she admires his beauty . His first young mistress finds he responds to a mirrow when making love , obsessed with his own beauty . And how would a repressed homosexual deal with a beautiful male character in his novel ? By violating that beauty , aiming the act of aggression outward instead of inward . The female mobster is Mishima , worshiping male beauty and wishing to destroy it at the same time . The last vision we see of the young actor is of his bound corpse , sliced and bleeding , yet with the restful face of St . Sebastian in a Renaissance painting . In the third segment , Running Horses , a group of beautiful young nationalistic young Japanese men plot the death of the democratically elected officials of Japan so the country can return to the ancient religion , culture , and government of Japan . This segment certainly reveals that Japanese Nationalism did not disappear after the Japanese surrender . In fact , these Japanese Nationalists would consider the loss of the war shameful and in the Japanese Sumari tradition , should commit suicide rather than live in shame . In the third Chapter of the film , we see Mishima on the last day of his life , surrounded by beautiful male soldiers from his private army . In 1970 , at the age of 45 , he commits ritual suicide as the act of an honorable samarai in response to the loss of the war by his nation . In a wild and almost unbelievable climax , Mishima and his officers kidnap the Minister of the Japanese Army and try to bring about a revolution against the current government , which is very much adjusted to Western influence . The soldiers that are addressed by Mishima are amazed at the destructive and unrealistic pleas of Mishima as were the Japanese college students in an earlier scene . The musical score by Phillip Glass is complimentary without being competitive . Mishima remains a puzzle inside an enigma but repressed homosexulity combined with self hatred certainly help explains why he surrounded himself with beautiful pure young men to whom he can impose his obsessed hyper-masculinity and ancient , tragically outdated code of life .
    • 010 4  This is one of , if not the cleverest film that I've ever seen . Despite highly selective use of them , it remains substantially faithful to the four books from which it tells his story . ( The fourth is the autobiographical Sun and Steel , from which the voiceovers are drawn ) . The sets are the epitome of elegance and economy ; the striking imagery in Runaway Horses is my personal favorite . It definitely repays familiarity with Mishima's work and politics ; although it's a magnificent achievement for the cinematography alone , there's a lot in it that's not readily accessible unless you already know a certain amount about him . This being said , for sheer ingenuity I struggle to think of any film that matches this .
    • 011 4  It has been said that perhaps only a non-Japanese could provide an assessment of the life of Yukio Mishima , the man modern Japan wants desperately to forget . For the majority of his life he played two roles to his own country : the brilliant , best-selling author and the clownish gadfly who exposed , inadvertently or not , some of Japan's touchiest issues . And then one November day in 1970 , he went with a group of his cronies to visit a Japanese Self-Defense Forces general in private , held the man hostage , demanded to speak to the soldiers garrisoned there , and harangued them for half an hour to rise up and retake Japan for their emperor . He was jeered at and ignored . When he went back into the building , he muttered I'm not even sure they heard me ( which was in fact quite true , since most of his words had been obscured by the press and police helicopters ) , and then proceeded to commit ritual suicide . The word on everyone's lips : why ? Paul Schrader has made a movie which does not provide us with an easy answer to that question . He could have , actually ; any number of pseudo-Freudian ruminations would have done the trick . But rather than settle for something as simple as explain , he has done something even more challenging and artistically fascinating . His movie Mishima attempts to recreate the inside of Mishima's mind , through events in his life and scenes from his fiction . Real life is in flat black and white ; the dramatic moments are in blazing Technicolor , with Expressionistic sets and daring camerawork . Mishima presents something of a problem for anyone trying to do an objective analysis , since he seemed to openly delight in frustrating people . Born to a smothering , possessive mother and a mostly absent father , he grew up certain that he was going to die at any moment . When WWII came , he was declared 4 - F and thus denied the chance to die gloriously for his country ( and it's no small secret to the audience that his suicide may have been a way of reliving that frustrated feeling ) . After college , he began writing fulltime and quickly became the most important post-WWII writer in Japan . Obsessed with death , his own homosexuality and what he saw as Japan's capitulations to the West , he challenged as many of his readers as he could with these notions . As his sentiments drifted more and more towards explicit , fanatic nationalism , his writing in turn reflected that : less literary work and more essays expounding on the glories of noble youth sacrificing themselves for the rising sun . Most people shrugged , and they were doubly perplexed when he created the Shield Society , a hand-picked crew of young paramilitaries designed to aid the Emperor if the need arose . All of this and more is dramatized in the film , which is assembled with great care and power . Rather than tell everything chronologically , the film moves back and forth through time , running excerpts from his novels parallel to each other and building them together to an emotional , rather than strictly chronological climax . The effect is far more overpowering than a straightforward front-to-back run-through of his life . Roy Scheider's surgically precise narration lends the film even more gravity . The whole thing is wrapped up in a pulsating , mirrorlike Philip Glass score . The movie isn't for everyone . Many people will no doubt be perplexed by Mishima - - but then again , so was Japan itself . For those who are interested in a real movie , one with courage and genuine artistic insight , look no further - - and it's great to have it back in print and in widescreen , no less .
    • 012 4  I come out on the stage determined to make people weep . Instead , they burst out laughing - - Yukio Mishima . Produced in Japan by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas , and based on the life and fiction of controversial Japanese author Yukio Mishima ( 1925 - 1970 ) ( who is perhaps best known in the U.S . for The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea ) , Paul Schrader's 1985 film , Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters , chronicles Mishima's public , private and literary lives in four , crisp black and white chapters captioned Beauty , Art , Action , and Fusion of Pen and Sword , intercut with stylized , theatrical performances from three different Mishima novels : The Temple of the Golden Pavilion ( 1956 ) ; Kyoko's House ( 1959 ) ; and Runaway Horses ( 1968 ) . This is a truly splendid film about the life of a truly tortured artist . Throughout his life , Mishima viewed his life as a work of art . In the final sequence , just as Mishima's protagonists are shown achieving their self-destructive objectives , Mishima ( played by Ken Ogata ) simultaneously commits public seppuku ( samurai-style suicide by disembowelment ) on the last day of his life , November 25 , 1970 , thereby merging life and art . All my life I have been acutely aware of a contradiction in the very nature of my existence , Mishima's voice-over narrator explains . For forty-five years I struggled to resolve this dilemma by writing plays and novels . The more I wrote , the more I realized mere words were not enough . So I found another form of expression . The film's superb soundtrack features original contributions by Philip Glass with performances by the Kronos Quartet . It is indeed surprising that Schrader , best known as the author of Taxi Driver and director of American Gigolo , was successful in bringing this expression of artistic genius to film . The Criterion two-disc edition of this film features a newly-restored transfer of the director's cut , supervised and approved by director Paul Schrader and cinematographer John Bailey ; optional English and Japanese voice-over narrations ( by Roy Scheider and by Ken Ogata ) ; audio commentary featuring Schrader and producer Alan Poul ; video interviews with Bailey , producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto , composer Philip Glass , production designer Eiko Ishioka , Mishima biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie ; a new audio interview with coscreenwriter Chieko Schrader ; The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima , a 55 - minute BBC documentary about the author ; the theatrical trailer ; and a booklet featuring a new essay by critic Kevin Jackson , a piece on the film's censorship in Japan , and photographs of Ishioka's sets . Highly recommended . G . Merritt
    • 013 4  Finally Criterion has gotten around to including one of my all time favorite films , Mishima . Directed by Paul Schrader and with beautiful set pieces by Ishioka Eiko , this is a truly great bio pic which Criterion has generoursly upgraded . This is the only bio pic I can think of that's based on a major modern Japanese author . It would be interesting to see other directors make films about Kawabata , Tanizaki , and Kafu . In Mishima you see his final day before committing seppuku as just another day and filmed in color . Then you switch to black and white shots of Mishima's childhood . Finally , there are the richly stylized set pieces that showcase Mishima's novels . Schrader does a great job of switching between these three separate time frames and you can see the influneces of Bresson , Dreyer , and Ozu . I won't go into the story details but once you start watching its hard to look away from Ogata Ken's intense protrayal . The real treat for me was the special features , which are by themselves worth buying this edition for . There's an excellent 55 - minute documentary by the BBC called The Strange Case of Mishima Yukio where you can see Donald Keene discuss the problems of translating Mishima's writing into English . It was great seeing Keene speaking when I'm so used to reading his books and various translated works . Also , there is a great interview with Donald Richie and John Nathan who both knew Mishima and visited him in Tokyo . John Nathan wrote the excellent biography on Mishima ( another good one is Mishima Into The Void by Marguerite Yourcenar . ) A good interview with Chieko Schrader , who helped write the script and is the wife of Paul's brother , Leonard . Also video interview with composer Philip Glass , set designer Ishioka , and the producers that show how much work and effort go into creating a film on such a grand scale . Overall , its a very entertaining and informative look at a great modern writer , Japanese or otherwise , and is highly recommened to anyone interested in writing and Japanese culture .
    • 014 4  A stunning film about the great Japanese writer whose spectacular suicide at the Japanese Defense Headquarters shocked the world . If you haven't read Mishima's novels , I suggest that to get to the heart of the man you read his The Way of the Samurai : Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life it's a working through of the ancient samurai classic , which poses the question of how to live like one - - in a modern Japan inhabited by businessman and golfers . The answer , though not fully admitted by Mishima , is that there's no way in hell . Nor is there much hope for artists , romantics , knights or anyone else who follows the dictates of his soul on this planet . Go to college , have kids and be grateful if Sony hires you . Even though Mishima is not explicit the reader will see this is a suicide waiting to happen . Why live on and be despised as a bungler or a fool ? ( Hagakure ) What this film captures brilliantly in its theme is the essence of a man who suffers through the knowledge that not only has his youth has gone and with it , the hope for better days , but more importantly , the realization that his life has been ultimately irrelevent . Why ? Because , quite simply , it is a mistake to survive the death of one's country . . . Predictably , as with Mishima's writings , this film has garnered tons of awards but has not proven a tremendous draw among the golfers and businessmen . They need to dismiss him as a crank : A repressed bisexual with an over inflated view of masculinity , a political radical , a crazy artist , someone in dire need of medication . In short , anything but a mirror to the world we live in . I find it hard to praise this film highly enough , from the use of theater sets for the ' fictional ' segments - - - taken from Mishima's novels and short stories , that are interspersed between the biographical sections of his life . To Phillip Glass's outstanding musical score . The saddest moment in the film is not his doomed and impassioned speech to the Japanese Defense Ministry soldiers - - who shout him down as he bows to the emperor , nor his subsequent ritual seppuku . Far more poignant is an earlier scene in which Mishima , on the small stage of a hotel convention floor , stands with a handfull of followers , attired in dress uniforms looking like something out of a Japanese Loyola Military Boy's Academy - - addressing a few , scattered reporters as to how they should not be dismissed as toy soldiers as his Japanese critics contend , but should be viewed instead for what they are , a spiritual army . The incongruity of the carpeted floor , the waiters clankingly removing the dishes to make way for the next convention , the bored reporters - - - I mean where does this guy think he is anyway ? Among Samurai ?
    • 015 4  Mishima A Life in Four Chapters Amos Lassen Yukio Mishima is Japan's most celebrated writer and Paul Schrader has made a remarkable biopic of his life . It is a fictionalized account , done in four segments . Three of the segments parallel Mishima's life and are named after three of his novels , The Temple of the Golden Pavilion , Kyoto's House and Runaway Horses . The fourth segment , The Last Day depicts November 25 , 1970 , the day Mishima took his own life . The life of Mishima was complex and it was obviously quite a task to put it on film . Schrader has managed to give us one of the best biopics ever made with this film . It finally comes to us on DVD some twenty years after it was originally made . Mishima is a feast for the eyes and the ears . The cinematography stuns and the musical score by Philip Glass adds yet another layer to an already excellent film . It is not a literal biography of the man as Schrader and his screenwriter brother , Leonard Schrader have taken several incidents from his life and suicide and give us incidental tableaus that are sparse visually yet beautiful . Mishima's homosexuality is almost non-existent because , I have learned , of legal threats made by his wife . Schrader succeeds in combining flashbacks and literature with the day of Mishima's suicide and he foes so artistically . One critic that I read said Mishima has already said it all , the film simply repeats . This is not only a true statement but a very high compliment to the filmmakers . The director does not comment on Mishima ; what he does is refuse to examine the uglier implications of Mishima's public suicide . Mishima was his own greatest critic and the first two chapters of the film are near perfection . They are haunting and subtle and suggestive about the differences between Mishima and the audience that he wrote for . The movie is made in four chapters and on three levels - - flashbacks of the author's life , dramatizations of his written works and the events of his final day alive . Mishima was so large that had he been a fictional character , a creation like him would never be accepted . But there was Yukio Mishima and he was real and this alone makes the film that more incredible . Even with the fictionalization of some of the events , the story is quite factual . Mishima was a man of many contrasts . He had a gay lover but was a family man . He saw his words as inadequate . He was patriotic but he dreamt of a return to Imperial Japan's past glories and he was a man who struggled to make movement and action as one but saw everything that he strove to achieve fall apart at the most critical of moments . Schrader has made this film with love . It is beautifully acted , edited with an amazing eye for detail and scored with music that pleases . It blends three styles of filmmaking together , black and white , docudrama and stylish color depictions of the author's novels . It was extremely hard to put a complex story about a complex man on film , especially if the man did not hesitate to die for his ideas . Paul Schrader has managed to accomplish that difficult task .
    • 016 4  Reading the reviews of Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters on this site got me interested enough to finally rent the movie , despite its goofy-looking cover and a general sense that it might prove to be dull . As it turns out , this is one of the most powerful films I've ever seen . Mishima was a famous Japanese writer who tried to live his beliefs . In the end , he became a character from his own novels , merging art with life . The film is told by inter-cutting scenes from his life ( filmed in black and white , like an old Japanese film ) , scenes from three of his novels ( brightly colored , very theatrically performed ) and the final day of his life . The transitions from scene to scene are thematically and cinematically chosen , so that you see how the events of his life were reflected in his stories , and how the ideas in his stories later found expression in his life . The only movie I can compare this to is Fellini's 8 1 / 2 , although it's quite different from that , of course . But both films are about the thin line separating one's art from one's actual life and both films utilize thematic transitions from the past , fantasy , and reality . When you're done watching this movie , be sure to watch it a second time with the director's commentary . His stories about the making of the film and why it was never shown in Japan are fascinating . In the end , as he says , it was a film financed by nobody , made to be seen by nobody . Damn good flick !
    • 017 4  This review is from : Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters - Criterion Collection ( DVD ) This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film . Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters is a work of art . Depicting the life of Yukio Mishima , a controversial Japanese writer , who was considered for the Nobel Prize , this film delivers . The film depicts the last hours of Mishima's life with flashbacks of his earlier days . While the film is an American production , it is in the Japanese language . The film was too controversial to be released on home video in Japan , but has aired on television there . I thought is well made and especially so because of the score by Philip Glass which I think is a masterpiece . I have been a fan of his music for many years . The film has beautiful indoor sets and cinematography also . As the film is based on the life of an actual person , I will skip the usual plot summary . This release is far better than the earlier DVD release of the film and loaded with supplements . Disc 1 contains the film with optional director's and producer's commentary , a theatrical trailer and the option of having the voice-over narration in Japanese or English Disc 2 has a BBC documentary on Mishima , video interviews with John Bailey , Tom Luddy Mata Yamamoto , Philip Glass , Eiko Ishioka , Mishima biographer John Nathan , and Donald Richie , an audio interview with Chieko Schrader , and an archival video interview of Mishima himself . This is the best edition of the film to get and I highly recommend it .
    • 018 4  This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film . Mishima : A Life in Four Chapters is a work of art . Depicting the life of Yukio Mishima , a controversial Japanese writer , who was considered for the Nobel Prize , this film delivers . The film depicts the last hours of Mishima's life with flashbacks of his earlier days . While the film is an American production , it is in the Japanese language . The film was too controversial to be released on home video in Japan , but has aired on television there . I thought is well made and especially so because of the score by Philip Glass which I think is a masterpiece . I have been a fan of his music for many years . The film has beautiful indoor sets and cinematography also . As the film is based on the life of an actual person , I will skip the usual plot summary . This release is far better than the earlier DVD release of the film and loaded with supplements . Disc 1 contains the film with optional director's and producer's commentary , a theatrical trailer and the option of having the voice-over narration in Japanese or English Disc 2 has a BBC documentary on Mishima , video interviews with John Bailey , Tom Luddy Mata Yamamoto , Philip Glass , Eiko Ishioka , Mishima biographer John Nathan , and Donald Richie , an audio interview with Chieko Schrader , and an archival video interview of Mishima himself . This is the best edition of the film to get and I highly recommend it .
    • 020 4  With the Release of Paul Schrader's 1985 Classic in my hands , I run home to find that this gem has still the power and the intrigue that I have enjoyed so many times , but amplified beautifully in this DVD edition ! With Extras that include a Behind The Scenes Short and Feature Commentary by Schrader himself , I settle in to experience this breathtaking excursion along side an haunting and engaging score by Philip Glass . Only one draw back I hear , as the film starts it's voyage is , with this release as with the re-release on Laser Disc sadly Roy Schnieder's smoky , moody dramatic narration was replaced once again with a rather non-chalant affected narrative voice ( even though his voice is credited and the end of the film ) it's a odd mystery that puzzles me . . However this film will still forever revel my joy in the esthetics of japanese design , beauty and the complex figure known as . . . . . Yukio Mishima . ( If a first viewing of this film is to behold , try and find a Original Video version , as you'll enjoy having the striking voice of Mr . Schnieder's along for your first journey , one I know will you'll find to be taken again and again . )
    • 021 4  The finest film made about Japan by a non Japanese . When I first saw this several years ago I could not sleep and had to watch it at least six times before I could come to grips with it . ' Masterpiece ' is a word to be careful with but this truly is one . The magnificent Phillip Glass sound track will make your hair stand on end.Even if you don't know or care about Mishima you should watch this , if you can find a copy that is . A spectacular , dazzling film .
    • 022 4  I dont throw around the word perfect very often , especially when it comes to movies . I am a fan of both Schrader and Mishima . This is by far Schrader's best film , a labor of love that was flawlessly executed . His style , direction , storytelling , excetera , captures the spirit of Mishima's soul . The film is a poem that stikes on the notes of both Mishima the storyteller and Mishima the man . Movies this well crafted from the writing , directing , the preformances , editing , music , and right down to the film stock are few and fortunate for those lucky enough to view them . This movie should be revered and acknowledged as one of the most pure examples of perfect cinema .
    • 023 4  While much of the late - 60s / early - 70s US brat-pack film-makers have either gone on to commercial sugar ( Lucas , Spielberg ) or leftfield crankiness ( Coppola and , increasingly , Scorsese ) , Paul Schrader has quietly gone on making his odd , dark , personal movies . Mishima will probably go down as his best film . A lot of people watch it and enjoy it without making the connection that this director is the guy who wrote Taxi Driver , and yet the continuity is there . The film is a two-hour , formally immaculate meditation on the life and work - and the degree to which the two things merged - of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima . Mishima himself was a contradictory character , an ebullient and dedicated family man who flaunted his homosexuality and his morbid interest in sex'n'death , and if he hadn't been born then Schrader would probably have invented him . Cinematographer John Bailey deserves some credit for the boldness of the film's three different styles : solemn black and white for the passages of Mishima's biography , lurid colour for the dramatisations of selected Mishima works , and tense natural colour for the framing device , the last hours of Mishima's life , in which he unsuccessfully attempted to incite an Army mutiny before cutting his stomach open in the garrison commander's office . Ken Ogata is powerfully present in the title role , even if he doesn't look remotely like Mishima . Schrader later ruefully admitted that Ogata's persona in Japan is more associated with genial comedy and good-guy roles than with driven artist-heroes , but it seemed that nobody else would take the role - so hats off to Ogata , then , for having the courage . Also excellent are Kenji Sawada , Yasosuke Bando and Toshiyuki Nagashima as Mishima's fictional alter-egos . The fiction bits are the most striking visually . Schrader and his production designer Eiko Ishioka go for a deliberate theatricality ; the sets are blatantly stylised , as if for theatre ( Mishima was also a successful playwright and incorrigible self-dramatist unto the end ) and some of the film's most startling moments are in the final fictional excerpt , a highly condensed version of Mishima's penultimate novel , Runaway Horses . Yet the other two styles are beautifully considered . The silvery monochrome of the bio sections - the closest it comes to being your standard biopic - recall the serene repose of classic Japanese directors like Ozu and Mizoguchi , especially in the bits about Mishima's early life . The jerky , hand-held feel of the Last Day sequences is a sort of homage to the best work of Costa-Gavras ; the quivering present-tense is the best way to convey what was basically an aborted terrorist attack . Philip Glass ' music seems for once both apt and moving . Normally minimalism annoys . . . me , but in the context of a story about a deeply obsessive man , it's dead on . Schrader's brother Leonard co-wrote the screenplay and is apparently the real expert in the family on Japan . Either way , it's hard to think of another American film-maker who would go so far to try and understand a foreign culture , and make the effort to be so faithful to it . ( Thumbs up to George Lucas and Francis Coppola , then , who co-produced it . ) If Mishima seems in the end like an American film , it's in the context of Schrader's own work as a writer and director . He has always been fascinated by driven , violent outsiders , so Mishima must have seemed the perfect subject , a highly intelligent man who was fully aware of his own capacity for violence and who , in the end , opened himself up to it as what must have seemed the fulfilment of his life . We can never , now , read Mishima's works without knowing how he died , and this , presumably , was the point . It's interesting that his most illustrious writer friend , the Nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata , committed suicide only a few years after Mishima's death , as if in abjection towards his wilder , younger colleague . It's a beautiful and disturbing film , deeply unfashionable ( I defy you to think of 6 other great films that came out in 1985 ) and truly memorable . It deserves better than to be on sale for 80 dollars . It cost me 17 quid in a Dublin video shop .
    • 024 4  Paul Schrader explains Yukio Mishima ' s bizarre death as sort of an attempt to create the ultimate performance art , merging the beauty of art and action . Mishima also eroticized death , which led him to the view that death would be the ultimate method of aesthetic expression . Schrader amasses numerous arguments in favour of this view , quotes from Mishima juxtaposed with re-enacted scenes from three Mishima novels . Often , something Mishima said at one point is reiterated in the literary scenes . Then , Mishima's suicide is shown together with a montage showing the deaths of his novels ' protagonists . Diagnosis : the books were rehearsals ( this word is frequently repeated in the film ) for the suicide . The only problem is that Mishima said lots of different things . He was adept at manipulating audiences , which is even conveyed in this film by Ken Ogata's charming grin . And if you actually start reading his novels , they take you in very peculiar , unexpected directions . One of the novels chosen by Schrader is , of course , Runaway Horses . No surprise there : it's a story about a fanatical Japanese nationalist who commits suicide . The connection should be obvious . . . but it's not . For one thing , the film doesn't mention that the young fanatic Isao is actually not the main character of Runaway Horses . He's almost a supporting actor in his own story . The main character , a middle-aged lawyer named Honda , is a very different person , not given to insane death wishes . For him , the drama unfolding around Isao is a sort of religious conundrum , for reasons that you'd have to read the book to understand . The film also doesn't mention that Runaway Horses is merely the second part in a tetralogy of novels . The tetralogy shows three young people coming to bad ends , but Isao is the only one with a death-drive . Kiyoaki , the protagonist of the first ( and best ) book Spring Snow , doesn't want to die , he's just helpless against his own uncontrollable passions . Ying Chan , the third protagonist , is completely carefree and enjoys her life , and does nothing whatsoever that might invite death . And once you get to the fourth book , all the explanations really go out the window , because that's where Mishima writes a shocking finale that subtly questions whether Isao's suicide had any meaning or value . The real kicker is that the fourth book was completed by Mishima the morning of the day he died , so it was one of the last things he thought about . . . whatever that might mean . Schrader also adapts some excerpts from The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion . What the film doesn't show is that , although Mizoguchi does originally plan to die inside the burning building , he has a change of heart after the dastardly deed . The last line of the book is , I wanted to live . Not only that , but this whole novel is very different in tone from Mishima's later work . In fact , compared to the sensual grace of Spring Snow , The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion reads a bit like a reverent Dostoevsky imitation . And what about Mishima's other novels ? What about The Sound Of Waves , a charming love story with no death-wish whatsoever ? Sure , it was written early in Mishima's career , but so was Confessions Of A Mask , which is heavily quoted here . What about After The Banquet , where the protagonist is a tenacious , materialistic old lady with a refreshing zest for life ? What about The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea , which does have a gloomy , death-obsessed youth , but subtly makes him look silly ? Alas , the novels are simplified on purpose . The scenes from the books are deliberately shown in a hyper-stylized , unrealistic manner . The sets are obviously fake , like stage decorations painted in a primitivist art style . After the assassination at the end of Runaway Horses , the trees suddenly turn a lurid , blood-red colour . The rooms in the scenes from Kyoko's House are painted in garish purple and pink , and people wear grotesquely gaudy clothes in clashing colours . The worst fate falls to the poor Golden Pavilion . The set is a room with blocky trees painted on the walls . The temple itself is a small model , looking barely taller than a person . It is surrounded by gaudy yellow walkways and green blobs on the floor that symbolize water . Admittedly , the novel itself is somewhat unrealistic ( many verbose monologues that sound nothing like actual conversation ) , so it is possible to interpret the book in this sort of Grand Guignol style . But , although it's possible , it has the side effect of destroying all the delicate , unsettlingly sensual images , such as the farewell scene between the woman and the soldier during the war . That scene is only understandable and real on the real-life grounds of Kinkakuji , where the full-size temple sits pretty among soft , quiet ponds . If the Golden Pavilion looks as obviously fake as on this ghastly set , there's just no way to believe in Mizoguchi's obsession . Even if it's not always believable in the book , at least Mishima wanted readers to believe it , so a film adaptation should try to make viewers temporarily suspend disbelief - - that is , if the goal is to understand Mishima's thinking . Schrader strives for realism when he shows scenes from Mishima's life . When Mishima gets his picture taken with his disciples , Ogata and the other actors take care to sit in exactly the same poses as in the real-life photograph . But when it comes to the books , Schrader does the opposite . Maybe he really thinks that the books were mere rehearsals , imperfect due to their reliance on words . But that seems like an awfully glib way to write off the work of a man who , after all , was primarily a writer , and a very skilled and purposeful one . Especially when his books are much more ambiguous and interesting than shown in this film .
    • 025 4  After waiting too many years for a DVD release of this rich & compelling film , we finally have Criterion's glorious edition , replete with extras . The additional material , from commentaries to background material to a fine BBC documentary , is a true gift . But in the end , the film alone is worth every penny by itself . Biopics have long been a staple of film : some good , some mediocre , and a small handful exceptional . But Mishima is in a class of its own . Paul Schrader has created a film about an artist , his life & his soul , that is genuinely a work of art in itself . Its use of interlacing narrative strands , each filmed in a totally different style - - its eye for the exactly apt image that says so much - - its depiction of intense & paradoxical emotional forces at passionate war & equally passionate union with the intellect - - all combine to reveal the essence of this remarkable , tortured man . As far back as Byron , we've had artists who made their own lives into works of art . But has anyone ever gone to such lengths as Mishima ? That question , along with many others , isn't entirely answered here . . . but that's all to the good . The viewer is meant to be left with questions about Art , about Life , about Meaning . I don't want to make it sound ponderous , though . First of all , it's a visual feast , from the crystalline black & white of the biographical strand , to the over-the-top , voluptuous , even explosive color of the adaptations of Mishima's work , which illuminate his psyche . Add to that one of Phillip Glass's most powerful & memorable scores . And finally , there's the knowledge that this is a representation of a real life , not fiction . First & foremost , this is a mesmerizing & exhilarating experience ! As with Mishima's life & literary work , the film interweaves mind & body , thought & emotion . The homoerotic element suffusing the film is lush , violent , tender , bizarre , beautiful , feverish . I don't believe I've ever come across anything so vivid & palpable in many mainstream films . I doubt you'd see it from many other filmmakers . It truly conveys the inner turmoil & obsessive desire of Mishima , a longing not just for a fulfilling sexuality , but for beauty , purpose & harmony within his being . Whether you're already a voracious reader of Mishima , or you've never read a single word he wrote , you won't come away from this film unmoved . It's a beautifully crafted work , an exemplar of what can be achieved with film . Most highly recommended !
    • 026 4  i heard on imdb that this movie is being released under criterion . is this true ? this is one of my favorite movies , and i think this is more deserved of a criterion release than many criterion releases . i tried to email criterion to ask them , but , like always , i get no response whatsoever . ask them a simple question as friendly as possible and they act like you've said nothing . ah well . . does anyone know if this film is being released on criterion ?
    • 027 4  While not completely factual , the film takes the watcher on a journey of Mishima's struggles , both as a person and a writer . Without attempting to analyze him or his works , the portrayal of the man is extremely well done and tasteful . We may never know exactly what Mishima felt , but the turmoil of his life - its conflicts , idealism , confusion and passion - are put forth for the viewer no to judge , but simply to experience .
    • 028 4  I would like to see greater resistance to content alteration as we release such classics on this better medium . Was disappointed to notice a new narration track in the DVD release . What was in the original print a dignified , reflective narration , is now something morose and of a peculiar American accent - - really lacks the subtle animation Scheider was able to deliver in the cinema and vhs releases . Strangely , Roy Scheider is still credited ; Is this really him ? It sounds like he's had a stroke or two if so .
    • 031 4  Director Paul Schrader uses three interwoven films to tell the life of the eccentric Japanese writer Yukio Mishima . The film opens with the last day of his life - the day he committed seppuku after siezing Army headquarters - in color and on location . Scenes from Mishima's early life appear in black-and-white , and dramatizations of his novels are presented on luminous , eerie stage sets designed by Eiko Ishiosha . Everything is underscored by Philip Glass's portentous and driving music that makes the events of Mishima's life seem inevitable . Mishima was disgusted with modern bourgeouis Japan , and like many other writers , sought to break out of the subdued emotional mileau of democratic capitalism into something more intense via sex and politics . The sex was S M and homosexuality , and the politics were of the most rabid form of monarchism . The music and the imagery work together to produce a hint of the sense of dissociation that one experiences in such extremes . It seems almost that Mishima is being driven , albeit willingly , by a powerful force to his final end . The Schrader's ( Paul , Leonard , and Chieko ) have done as well as any biographer to provide insight into Mishima . Ken Ogata is a fine Mishima despite being considerably more heavy-set than the delicate-featured writer . Even if one knows nothing about Mishima , the film is a fascinating and hypnotic experience . ' Mishima ' is one of the best films I've seen , and I'm frustrated that it's not available on DVD yet . Incidentally , the best book of Mishima's to read first is the autobiographical ' Confessions of a Mask '
    • 032 4  If someone said I'm going to pitch a film about Yukio Mishima , a writer well known in Japan but only known to intellectuals here in America , to a Hollywood studio , get Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas to help me get it made , make it entirely in Japanese ( except for some narration ) , and make it about the inner workings of the artist , not a straighforward biography , most would say that that person should be committed . Well , that's pretty much what Paul Schrader did , and he succeeded wildly beyond all expectations . Not only is this film one of the greatest biographies ever made , it really captures the essence of Mishima brilliantly . Yukio Mishima is a man that the term complicated individual was invented for . He was a poet , playwright , essayist , short story writer , novelist ( which he is best known for ) , filmmaker ( he made one film , Patriotism , which is now on DVD ) , body builder , Japanese patriot , believer in the Bushido code , and nationalist . He also committed suicide attempting ( fruitlessly ) to convince the Japanese army to restore Japan to the emperor . Instead of doing a straightforward biography , Paul Schrader gets inside of Mishima , and shows the immense complexity and genius that was his and his alone . The only film that I really compare this film to ( just in technique and attitude ) is Sergie Paradjanov's The Color of Pomegranates , which was about the Armerian poet Sayat Nova . That film isn't a straightforward biography , but a complex , esoteric film about the inner workings of the artist , much like this one . These two films couldn't be more different aesthetically , but they are almost identical in their approaches . If Schrader made a decent film , you could say well , he got the film made . It wasn't perfect , but that's OK . He tried to make something artistic . But that isn't the case . Not only did Schrader make this film with American financing , he made what is arguably his best film . Schrader is very erratic at times , doing great work ( he wrote Taxi Driver ) , making decent films ( Auto Focus ) , and making mediocre films ( Hardcore and the lousy remake of Cat People ) . In this film , he's made his masterpiece . Everything works here , from the amazing cinematography to the brilliant score of Philip Glass ( it's one of Glass's best scores , and that's saying something ) . This really is a remarkable piece of work .

Global Market ( in english )

midi, music score     livejournal taktak0 blog