Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Eri K — 23 Mar 2010

Paul Schrader's Mishima is a landmark film, the story of a successful writer who built a private army, create tensions with left wing society in Japan and then finally held a garrison hostage then commited suicide, followed by a beheading in Nov 1970. Schrader recreates these events through chapters and 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 one of his best who knows Mishima's story inside out and now it is on screen 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.