Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

While at American Zoetrope, producer Tom Luddy assembled a remarkable team to realize Paul Schrader’s riveting Mishima, based on the life and work of the celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima. Shot in Japan with a Japanese cast and crew, the film consists of a series of flashbacks and stylized renderings of scenes from Mishima’s fiction embedded in the last day of his life. Supported by the brilliant production design of Eiko Ishioka and a compelling score by Philip Glass, Schrader communicated Mishima’s literary and existential quest to transcend ordinary life through devotion to ideals of beauty and purity, transforming the author’s words into unforgettable images.