Mishima - A Life in Four Chapters (1985)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Tsubaki S

  
  Mishima's life, and all it's contradictions, is perfectly captured by Schrader in a biopic done right. The film embodies all the passions and obsessions of it's subject, with Ogata's performance and a great score this one stands apart from the rest of… More
  Mishima's life, and all it's contradictions, is perfectly captured by Schrader in a biopic done right. The film embodies all the passions and obsessions of it's subject, with Ogata's performance and a great score this one stands apart from the rest of theconventional, and empty, bios circulating on hollywood. Movies done with such ambition, and precise touch, are even more rare these days.

• Stella D

  
  a very ambitious biopic on the life of celebrated writer yukio mishima. the film weaves episodes from 3 of his works with events from his life in stylized segments. mishima subscribed to the ancient bushido code and sought to reconcile his art and life in a search for… More
  a very ambitious biopic on the life of celebrated writer yukio mishima. the film weaves episodes from 3 of his works with events from his life in stylized segments. mishima subscribed to the ancient bushido code and sought to reconcile his art and life in a search for 'purity' he felt lacking in postwar japan. the bright elaborate setpieces are so artificial as to be a little alienating but really drive home mishima's death obsession, culminating in his very public ritual suicide. a strange tale artistically told and well played by ken ogata; beautiful score by philip glass and kronos quartet.

• Gevvy S

  
  Although at times theatrical and experimental with the camera, yet the composition of the frames are always clear and concise. Whether the dialogue was taken from Mishima's books, written by the Schrader brothers, or a mix of both- it was great. There was very little, if at all… More
  Although at times theatrical and experimental with the camera, yet the composition of the frames are always clear and concise. Whether the dialogue was taken from Mishima's books, written by the Schrader brothers, or a mix of both- it was great. There was very little, if at all any, fluff in this film. It truly felt like what the title suggests "A Life in four chapters". Ken Ogata is brilliant as Mishima, as are all of the actors depicting either real life people or characters from Mishima's writing. There couldn't be a better war to film the life of such a unique, diverse, and controversial person and artist as Yukio Mishima. Paul Schrader must be given the props he truly deserves for his brilliant vision and execution. I thought writing Taxi Driver had been his greatest achievement in film, but despite Scorsese's 1976 film being my favourite, I must say that "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" is Paul Schrader's greatest gift to cinema.

• Brian R

  
  Paul Schrader's Mishima is a landmark film, the story of a successful writer who built a private army, created tensions with left wing society, held a garrison hostage, and was able to commit suicide on Nov of 1970. Schrader recreates these events based upon Mishima's famous… More
  Paul Schrader's Mishima is a landmark film, the story of a successful writer who built a private army, created tensions with left wing society, held a garrison hostage, and was able to commit suicide on Nov of 1970. Schrader recreates these events based upon Mishima's famous novels. My favourite out of the three novels is Kyoto's House(1959) the story of a young man who is unhappy with his body, decides to take up bodybuilding, and get his mother out of debt. The young man, through the help of a woman who I believe is a loan shark sets up a deal to buy him as her slave in exchange to clear all debt charges on the man's mother's store. He agrees but their companionship becomes more intimate and to some weird, since he shows up at the woman's house in bruises and cuts. The other novels in the film is "A Temple at the Golden Pavilion"(1956), and "Runaway Horses"(1969) shown with stylized sets and beautiful colors by production designer Eiko Ishioka. The cinematography by John Bailey is beautiful, filmed in b&w for Mishima's isolated childhood years, bright colors for Mishima's novel's, and present colors for the writer's last days on earth. Paul Schrader's direction is highly excelled. Schrader knows Mishima's story inside out and now it is on screen filled with great exuberrance. What made me love this picture the most was the young man and his mother, it's a strong theme that I recognized the most, a sort of nod to Alfred Hitchcock and the non-linear style of storytelling. Again little things like that is what I find always fascinating in movies.

• MJS M

  
  Here?s a rarity, a Japanese language film made on a relatively large budget by a high profile American director, and in the middle of the eighties long before people like Clint Eastwood or Mel Gibson were allowed to do things like that. I suppose it had to be an non Japanese person… More
  Here?s a rarity, a Japanese language film made on a relatively large budget by a high profile American director, and in the middle of the eighties long before people like Clint Eastwood or Mel Gibson were allowed to do things like that. I suppose it had to be an non Japanese person who made this, the man it?s about is just too controversial in his home country. This is a very creative film, an unconventional biopic which must have somewhat influenced Todd Haynes? I?m Not There. The film takes place on the last day of Mishima?s life but is mainly told through B&W flashbacks and surrealistic adaptations of three of Mishima?s writings. The idea of telling a man?s story through his own writings is fascinating, and the whole thing fits in well with the themes of Paul Schrader like masculinity and sexual frustration, the life of Schrader?s Mishima really isn?t that far removed from Schrader?s Jake LaMotta.

• Jared H

  
  This is an intriguing character study on a fascinating Japanese writer who, at the height of his popularity, tries to take over the Japanese government in the late seventies. Flashbacks to some of his writings are cleverly integrated into his own evolution as a character. When I saw… More
  This is an intriguing character study on a fascinating Japanese writer who, at the height of his popularity, tries to take over the Japanese government in the late seventies. Flashbacks to some of his writings are cleverly integrated into his own evolution as a character. When I saw the credits say "Executive Produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola" I was like....what? Crazy.

• Christopher B

  
  Beautiful movie that is perhaps as perfect as a biography can be. Leave it to Schrader, who does fictional character studies so well, to make the perfect non fiction one.

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