Hacker Cinema
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
1985 · Film · 121 min
Directed by Paul Schrader
A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, combining dramatizations of three of his novels and a depiction of the events of November 25th, 1970.
4 positivefrom 4 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
4 comments on Hacker News
The soundtrack from Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is absolutely incredible, just like the movie as a whole. I've been looking for a way to get prints of some parts of the movie, the last blu ray from Criterion has a small booklet with a few pictures from the sets, but they're very small.
I'd highly recommend the film you mention, Paul Schrader's Mishima[1] to anyone, not just those interested in the author, though of course especially them. It's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen, and Philip Glass' music (which I agree is some of his best work) just makes it that much better.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishima:_A_Life_in_Four_Chapters
Mishima is unfortunately pretty popular in the alt-rightish kinds of circles too (one of the few articles I could find about him in English were published on Quilette, for instance), but don't let that colour your impression too much. There's worlds of difference between the kind of nationalism and militarist creed that Mishima was espousing, and whatever people latch onto his work. (Which is not to say that the appropriation is not at least in part understandable.)
Nevertheless, I think Mishima is best interpreted completely on his own terms, as he essentially gave a blueprint for his life in his work - and vice versa. His personal life story and the themes he engages are both equally as fascinating and deeply intertwined, and I personally feel there's lots of beautiful and unique insights about the sorts of questions that are timeless.
I can only recommend Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (curiously not mentioned in this article.) It's obviously a rather poetic/movie-style retelling of Mishima's work and story, and I did go into it rather sceptical, seeing as its context is rather removed from Mishima's, but it actually holds together really well, and I never felt that at any point the movie did not give the material the time and depth it deserved. Check it out if the article piqued your interest.
Mishima: a life in four chapters is a film by Paul Shrader (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, among others) chronicles Mishima's last day alive interspersed with memories from his youth and three of his most famous stage plays presented in stylized format. It was a complete failure commercially but a film of rare artistic quality, and is fortunately available on YouTube in full. If you found this article absorbing, I can't think of a better way to invest 2 hours of your time.