Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Mark H — 25 Nov 2011

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.