Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Name: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Genre: Biography, Drama
Released: September 20, 1985
Duration: 120 min
Rating: 84
Cast: Gô Rijû, Hiroshi Mikami, Junkichi Orimoto, Junya Fukuda, Ken Ogata

1985

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Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 19 Ratings

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8.3

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8.3	User Score Universal acclaim based on 19 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. | Release Date: September 20, 1985 | R

Starring: Gô Rijû, Hiroshi Mikami, Junkichi Orimoto, Junya Fukuda, Ken Ogata, Masato Aizawa, Masayuki Shionoya, Naoko Ôtani, Shigeto Tachihara, Yuki Nagahara

Summary: A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima.

Director: Paul Schrader

Genre(s): Biography, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 120 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Nathan Rabin

Calling Schrader's masterpiece a mere biopic doesn't do it justice. It's more a dreamy, hypnotic meditation on the tragic intersection of Mishima's oeuvre and existence that takes place as much in its subject's fevered imagination as the outside world. Read full review

100

Peter Debruge

Beautiful, yet flawed film. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

The most unconventional biopic I've ever seen, and one of the best. Read full review

Nick Pinkerton

A sumptuous austerity, paralleling Mishima’s disciplined decadence. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

An ambitious, respectful account of the life and work of Yukio Mishima, the prolific Japanese author who made a romantic cult of Japan's lost world of martial glory and spartan warrior-manhood. Read full review

Sheila Benson

A beautiful, deadly serious attempt by Paul and Leonard Schrader to illuminate the life--and death--of one of Japan's most highly visible and self-propelling enigmas. Read full review

Paul Attanasio

Mishima tries to make sense of both its subject's life and his work, and ends up illuminating neither. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

Apr 14, 2023

It's ironic, it was deadly ironic because it cost him his life, that Yukio Mishima, like many other right-wingers, saw and labeled the left as radical when he and his views are often extremist.
The actions that led to his death are a clear example of this.
Now, that in itself is a strongIt's ironic, it was deadly ironic because it cost him his life, that Yukio Mishima, like many other right-wingers, saw and labeled the left as radical when he and his views are often extremist.
The actions that led to his death are a clear example of this.

Now, that in itself is a strong and fundamental part of what Paul Schrader's overall film comprises, one that finely exposes his unconventional approach by providing an astonishing audiovisual experience in which he masterfully combines diverse techniques that bring each passage of his subject's life to a different form of expression.

Mishima is a symbiosis of the figure it portrays and how its director exposes him, breaking out of the mold of what could have been a biopic of a considerably predictable outcome.
In the end it is not only a symbolic but an intimate exploration of his life, work and obsessions that ultimately led him to the actions that ended with his ritual suicide, which to a certain extent can even be considered the end point of his artistic work because he wished to leave a message with his death.

This was a stunning film both thematically and visually.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Deanomite

Feb 21, 2020

With Paul Schrader directing at his peak and Phillip Glass doing music at his peak, It is a hard movie to not appreciate. Except it is boring, I quit at 25 min. The best thing i can say is that it looks like a much older movie. But, Black Rain did the same thing way better in 1989.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Broyax

Feb 27, 2021

Un film vaguement biographique inspiré du fait divers le plus marquant au Japon depuis longtemps, en l’occurrence le suicide public de Mishima, poète, écrivain, dramaturge et nostalgique du Japon Impérial et de son Empereur déifié, militariste convaincu obsédé par la voie du samouraï… etUn film vaguement biographique inspiré du fait divers le plus marquant au Japon depuis longtemps, en l’occurrence le suicide public de Mishima, poète, écrivain, dramaturge et nostalgique du Japon Impérial et de son Empereur déifié, militariste convaincu obsédé par la voie du samouraï… et j’en passe et des meilleures…

Soit pour résumer, un mégalomane irrécupérable, bouffi d’orgueil, une sorte de reliquat du Japon d’avant, celui des kamikazes et des « traditions » médiévales comme le « hara-kiri », la féodalité et tutti quanti…

Le film dresse un portrait étonnant du cinglé qui a confondu le monde de ses livres avec la réalité ; un portrait qui semble parfois surréaliste et montré de temps à autre comme de simples saynètes, un théâtre non dissimulé et étrange des morceaux de vie de Yukio Mishima, toujours en décalage avec le monde et franchement névrosé, pour ne pas dire pire…

Beaucoup de retours en arrière donc mais aussi beaucoup de confusion dans la narration, certainement bizarre et mal construite… on regrette également tout un tas de longueurs et/ou de lenteurs typiques de l’intello qui adore s’écouter parler (encore la mégalomanie galopante) et qui soliloque comme un détraqué. Bizarrement, la voix off reste en français mais les comédiens (tous japonais) ne sont jamais doublés… bizarre !

Notons que cette ambiance décidément très… étrange (ou bizarre !) est fort bien épaulée par la musique obsédante de Philip Glass, des ritournelles de violons quasi-hypnotiques, très caractéristiques de son style, assurément. L’impression finale reste elle aussi très étrange, entre perplexité, fascination pour l’homme fou (presque à lier) au jusque-boutisme sidérant et la torpeur certaine, teintée de prétention suspecte, véhiculée par ce film trop long et trop flagorneur…… Expand

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