Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Composite Score: 82.3

Starring: Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Naoko Ôtani, Gô Rijû, Masato Aizawa, Haruko Katô, Yasosuke Bando, Hisako Manda, Kenji Sawada, and Toshiyuki Nagashima

Director: Paul Schrader

Writers: Paul Schrader and Leonard Schrader

Genres: Biography, Drama, History

MPAA Rating: R

Box Office: $569,996 worldwide

Why should you Watch This Film?

                Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters documents the life of the prolific Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima, across four major time periods in his life, paralleling those moments to his own novels, seeking to draw an explanation about the man’s complex and ultimately tragic life. The nonlinear aspect of the film’s storytelling is beautifully done, switching from the present to flashbacks to adaptations of Mishima’s fiction with an ease that never feels overly confusing – credit to the director and cinematographer for making each setting feel distinctly different from the others throughout the film. Although his greatness among Japanese authors, particularly of the 20th century, is unparalleled, the film’s engagement with Mishima’s life invites the audience to draw their own conclusions of the man by the film’s tragic ending. The complexities of his political stances measure against the success of his literary pursuits and the beautiful tragedy of his own death to create as honest a picture as can be presented without taking a strong stance. The film is easily one of the most fascinating that I have ever watched.

Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?

                Mishima remains a controversial figure in literature, and particularly in Japan. His strongly reactionary political views and desire to return Japan to a pre-War “greatness” in particular make his success and story rather problematic. At the same time, much of his worldview was shaped World War II and its aftermath in Japan and the ways the U.S. handled that situation and also his own suppressed sexuality. Though his holdings might have been flawed, the formative events that shaped those beliefs were well outside of his own control. This dichotomy of flawed history and flawed views makes it difficult for the film – and, as a result, the audience – to take a strong stance on Mishima, despite its desire to chronicle the man’s life. Beyond its clear admiration for Mishima’s literary achievements and talents, the film only loosely condemns Mishima’s more problematic stances on society and politics – some might even interpret the film’s take as permissive of the views, only interpreting them as wrong because they weren’t as popular as Mishima himself was.

So wait, why should you Watch This Film?

                As biopics go, this is easily one of the most creative. By taking the subject’s works (novels) and including them as part of the film’s narrative, the film allows the audience to see not only the historical facts of Mishima’s life, but also how those life events shaped his work in real time. It even shows the audience how his works precluded the end of his life by showcasing his obsession with beauty and art and perfection and, ultimately, with the destruction of those beautiful things. The visuals of the storytelling only help complement the story structure. By having the “present” in color, flashbacks in black and white, and the fiction in color and on obvious sets, the film sets apart the different elements of its story, drawing the audience into the nonlinear nature of the film, rather than alienating them with it, a difficult feat to accomplish.

                Thematically, the film does a good job of crafting a biography of an author that seems to carry through the author’s own themes. For a non-autobiographical work, Mishima feels very much like a film that Mishima would have approved of (given the information included in the story). The film focuses on beauty and art (also titles of two of the chapters) and the ways that Mishima’s perceptions of those concepts shifted across his life, in conjunction with the audience’s perceptions of those ideas shifting as well as they gain more insight into Mishima as an author and artist. Overall, it feels incredibly well-crafted and intentional in everything that it does.

                Intentional theming to match its subject’s own works and some creative storytelling highlighted by artful cinematography are the pieces that, when put together, make Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters one of the Greatest Films of All Time. The film’s inability to draw a clear conclusion about the controversial author might frustrate some viewers, but it should not surprise anyone familiar with the man’s life, work, and legacy. One of the most interesting films that I have seen in quite some time, this one is available to stream on the Criterion Collection or for rental on Amazon or Apple TV.