DIRECTOR: PAUL SCHRADER
STARRING: KEN OGATA, MASAYUKI SHIONOYA, HIROSHI MIKAMI
In 1985 Paul Schrader’s ‘Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters’ was released; a sensationalist character study on one of Japan’s most celebrated and controversial writers. Schrader creates a surreal picture that artfully weaves several narratives, including a recounting of Mishima’s life, his final glorious hours and expositions of several of his most famous works. The confluence of these themes paints a vivid and intimate portrait of Mishima, the artist, the man, the radical, as seen through his life, the autobiographical nature of his works, and the insatiable demons that drove him to achieve his legacy.
As the title indicates, ‘Mishima,’ is divided into four chapters, each encapsulating a different aspect of the man’s spirit, three of which include condensed adaptations of his most famous novels. The chapters are meant to convey various ideals by which Mishima lived his life, all of which are also themes relevant in the bulk of his writing. Schrader carefully captures the rigorous standards Mishima adhered to, not only as a writer and a man, but a Japanese. His hyperbolic nature is intricately explored as well as the reoccurring anachronistic thoughts that plagued him throughout his life. Read a detailed analysis of ‘Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters at Seance Of Cinema.
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