Review of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) by Matthew S — 31 Dec 2008

The film intercuts Yukio Mishima's life with dramatizations of his works. Each literary selection informs on the life of the man, sometimes in ways that are quite obtuse.

Obtuse is a good descriptor for the entire film. The insertion of stories with entirely different characters into the main story thread often leads to confusion, especially with the way Mishima's stories relate directly to the occurrances of his life.

The film uses variations in film style to alleviate the confusion. The majority of the biographical moments are in black and white while the short stories are presented in color and take place on abstract backdrops reminiscent of a stage production. This is not fool proof however, as the moments leading up to his suicide appear throughout the film in color further complicating the structure.

I complain about the confusion I felt while watching, but by the end of the film the majority of the previous hours had become organized in my mind. I finally achieved clarity once all the pieces had been laid out. It was like building a puzzle without a picture of what the final image will be and without all the pieces available from the beginning.

The film score by Philip Glass is completely fantastic and that is a sentence I never imagined I would write.