Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Al M — 07 Feb 2013

Based on both the life and the works of Japan's great modernist writer Yukio Misihima, Paul Schrader's pseudo-biopic alternates between fact and fiction to depict the mind of artist in a truly unique fashion.

Essentially an arthouse omnibus or anthology film, Mishima divides itself between a frame narrative that focuses upon the last day of the author's life leading up to his committing seppuku and three of his stories that explore different themes important to him both in his art and his actual life.

Featuring unique visual aesthetics for each different segment that draw upon the history of Japanese cinema, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters concerns the various forces that drive us: art, beauty, and politics.

A tragic as well as uplifting film, Mishima truly taps into the history of Japanese cinema to explore the paradoxical conundrum of how words can both elevate us and drag us down--they are salvation and our destruction.

Mishima is a film about the ideals and impossibility of realizing our ideals. Beautiful, sad, and profoundly poetic, it is a film that will lead you to reflect upon the forces that determine your own life from the most mundane to most lofty aspects.