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. Shot in Japan with a Japanese cast and crew, the film consists of a series of flashbacks and stylized renderings of scenes from Yukio 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 communicates Mishima’s literary and existential quest to transcend ordinary life through devotion to ideals of physical and intellectual beauty and purity, transforming the author’s words into unforgettable images.