Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Alternate title(s):
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1985 to December 31, 1985
Dates Note: 1985
Country of Origin:
United States
Place of Origin: United States
Languages:
Japanese
,
English
Color: B&W/Color
Silent: No
Based On:
Additional Info:
Curator Notes
Film Series/Exhibition Title:
Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope Description:
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.
Film Series/Exhibition Title:
Auteur, Author: Film & LiteratureDescription:
One of Japan’s most illustrious contemporary writers, Yukio Mishima promoted a controversial aesthetic that grew out of an obsession with beauty, art, and the emperor. In 1970, he committed seppuku, achieving a fatal “harmony of pen and sword.” In Mishima, director Paul Schrader offers a rich and compelling profile of this literary giant. With his brother Leonard, Schrader scripted an intricate narrative that weaves three visually distinct strands: Mishima’s last day, biographical flashbacks, and dramatizations from three novels—Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. We present the director’s version with a previously deleted scene.
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