Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Joseph S — 09 Aug 2008

Criterion really stepped up their game in the past year. I didn't think I was going to care for this movie all that much. Frankly, I thought it was a documentary. Really, it ended up being hte best biopic that I have ever seen. But Criterion really has impressed me with this release and Blast of Silence as some of the greatest movies that the distributor has released in a long time.

In some ways, this biopic is traditional. In other ways, it is in no ways traditional. I was saying in my review of I'm Not There that biopics needed to learn not to be traditional. The other biopics are almost formulaic. (It is scary that life can be considered formulaic, but I guess film proves it true.) This is a movie that really does a solid balance between traditional biopics and really revolutionary filmmaking. The issue I had with I'm Not There was that I had no idea who Bob Dylan was by the end of the movie. I'm Not There was about the feeling lof Dylan. Mishima lets me know about who the man was along with what really happened. I got a heck of an insight into the psychology of the person and saw his strengths and phobias.

There's this really cool way of filming this movie. I didn't completely get it in the first chapter, but when I saw chapter two, I really saw how it worked. We saw the final day first. I'm really glad there was an explanation of what happened at the beginning. I had only a small idea of what he was about. My jaw actually dropped when I read the introduction. We see the inner moments of that life. The psychology that goes into that moment. Those heartbeats and missteps. That is all there.

...and then we're somewhere else. This is where the story gets a little confusing because Schrader does this really artful and masterful transition between the past and how Mishima got to this point and how that moment has affect his writing. Schrader uses the play and adds a filmmaking background to it. He uses a very practical stage, only sealing the fourth wall in a lot of cases. He always focuses on the autobiographical nature of Mishima's writing and has the play finish the story that he was telling earlier in the flashback. Those plays are absolutely stunning in their color. But some people treat flashy and colorful in a uniform way. These stories all have a different look to them. I really see six different movies that Schrader made and he very craftily put these movies together into a beautiful gesamkunstwerk.

There's a strange duality (I keep writing that!) to Mishima as a character and a person. Yes, this movie is about politics, but the politics are secondary to Mishima's struggle. He is a confident man who, many times, does not know basic things about the life around him. There's an almost insanity and mania about the character. He is desperate to be the man of his own vision. He almost know that his life is meant to be the stuff of history and legends. There's a scene in the movie where he lies to the draft board about his asthma or fever. He has always been a patriot. In many ways, the entire movie is an attempt to vindicate himself from this decision, be it subconscious or intentional. That is poetry.

Each of the chapters in his life is about half an hour long. They are all equally interesting, but the last chapter is the one that that movie hinges on. You want him to take over this place with a confdence. The actor who plays the titular character is extremely nuanced. He plays confidence and he plays fear. While other actors may see these as different moments, he plays them as a new, amalgamated emotion. He is confident, but his eyes scream. He feels failure and success in a very real and fantastic way. I have to completely applaud this film for getting that kind of emotional turmoil from an actor and an audience.

This is absolutely a fantastic movie and I want to tell everybody about it. This is one of those movies that should have dominated the box office and should be a movie that everyone can see. I dont' know if that would ever happen. I can see why a movie like this would be buried. After all, one of the plays is about insurgents taking down capitalism. Mishima is a terrorist. He's a state traitor and a terrorist and that is a scary thing. But this movie was made in 1985 and it looks like it was made last year. It is an almost perfect movie and I applaud Criterion for releasing such a stellar copy of the film. Please, watch this movie and tell your friends. Hopefully, you dug it as much as I did.