Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Jason F — 15 Aug 2008

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.