Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Scubasteve Walter M — 06 Jun 2013
I had been waiting a long time to see this film and boy does that long wait pay off as this turns out to be director Paul Schraders masterpiece.
Ken Ogata plays Yukio Mishima playright,novelist and would be military leader whos body of work outraged Japanese society.
Schrader offers us flashbacks of Mishimas life and of course various parts of his massive body of work which are set to Phillip Glasses memorable score and DP John Baileys stuuning visuals.
The film really is a testament to its director and his focus again on the lone individual who is shocked into making a stand.
As with Travis Bickell in Taxi Driver and Juilan Kay in American Gigolo ,Mishima is a man forced to face his inner turmoil and demons in an act which will prove his final undoing when he kidnaps an army general in the vain hope that he can change the army to his methods of belief.
It takes a lot of guts to make a film like this and Paul Schrader is just the man to carry it off his script and visual eye make the film a stone cold masterpiece and a film which ligers long in the memory after you see it.
To put it bluntly "Wow".
This review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) was written by Scubasteve Walter M on 06 Jun 2013.
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters has generally received very positive reviews.
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