Mishima: A life in four chapters

[pro-bassoonist]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters Blu-ray



Paul Schrader's Mishima: A life in four chapters (1985) is now out through local distributors Karma Films. With optional Spanish and Catalan subtitles. (The disc is sold under: Mishima, Una Vida en Cuatro Capítulos).
Nominated for Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985.

Roger Ebert:

The Japanese author Yukio Mishima seems to have thought of his life as a work of art, and more than anyone since Ernest Hemingway he got other people to think of it that way, too. He was a brilliant self-promoter who not only wrote important novels and plays, but also cultivated the press, posed for beefcake photographs and founded his own private army. He was an advocate of a return to medieval Japanese values, considered himself a samurai, and died on schedule and according to his own plan: After occupying an army garrison with some of his soldiers, he disembowled himself while being beheaded by a follower.

Mishima's life obviously supplies the materials for a sensationalistic film. Paul Schrader has not made one. Instead, his "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters" takes this most flamboyant of writers and translates his life into a carefully structured examination of three different Mishimas: public, private and literary.

The film begins with the public Mishima, a literary superstar who begins the last day of his life by ritualistically donning the uniform of his private army. From time to time during the tilm, we return to moments from that final day, as Mishima is jammed somewhat inelegantly into a tiny car and driven by his followers to an appointment with a Japanese general. The film ends with Mishima holding the general hostage, and winning the right to address the troops of the garrison (who must have been just as astonished as if Norman Mailer turned up at West Point). Although the film ends with Mishima's ritual suicide, it is not shown in the graphic detail that's popular in recent films; Schrader wisely realizes that too much blood would destroy the mood of his film, and distract attention from the idea behind Mishima's death.

Mishima's last day is counterpointed with black-and-white sequences showing his childhood and adolescence, and with gloriously stylized color dramatizations of scenes from his novels, Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House and Runaway Horses. The scenes from the novels were visualized by designer Eiko Ishioka, who seems to have been inspired by fantasy scenes from early Technicolor musicals. They don't summarize Mishima's novels so much as give us an idea about them; as we see the ritualistic aspects of his fantasies, we are seeing Japan through Mishima's eyes, as he wished it to be.

The black-and-white biographical sequences show a little boy growing up into a complicated man. Young Yukio, raised by his mother and his grandmother, was lonely outcast with a painful stammer, and we can see in the insecurities of his youth the impulses that led him to build his muscles, to leap for literary glory and to wrap himself in the samurai ethic.

"Mishima" is a rather glorious project, in these days of pragmatic commercialism and rank cynicism in the movie industry. Although a sensationalized version of his life might have had potential at the box office (and although Schrader, author of "Taxi Driver" and director of "American Gigolo," would have been quite capable of directing it), this is much more ambitious and intellectual film. It challenges us to think about Mishima instead of simply observing the strange channels of his life. What did he prove, on the day when his life ended according to plan? That he was willing to pay the ultimate price to transform his life into an artistic statement - and also, perhaps, that some of his genius was madness. Was it worth it? Who can say who is not Mishima?

Pro-B

[Exy]

I bought this Blu-ray and whilst it includes Roy Scheider's English language spoken narration, which is great, it does not include any English subtitles for any of the spoken Japanese. Unless you are very familiar with the film and like me can get by reading the optional Spanish subtitles then the majoirty of this film will make little sense, although it is a visual feast and an excellent 1080p transfer, just a shame they couldn't go that extra mile to include English subtitles seeing as they have the English narration.

[breesonfan]

Is the english throughout the whole film. I would really like to know.

[bluhorizons]

Originally Posted by breesonfan

Is the english throughout the whole film. I would really like to know.

I too am in love with this film. I currently have the beautifully released version on Criterion on DVD, and I hope they come around to a blu release of Mishima with a similarly elegant and beautiful packaging as the DVD has.

As for your question breesonfan...

Exy's comments make it seem like the Roy Scheider version is the only 'English' available on the film. The problem is that Roy Scheider only speaks as Mishima's "inner thoughts" in segments throughout the film when actors are not speaking dialogue aloud. When the actors on screen do speak, it IS in Japanese.

For the U.S. DVD release, you will hear Roy Scheider's 'silent' dialogue and then you will get English subtitles when the actors on-screen are actually speaking.

However, if I understand Exy's comments correctly, it sounds like there are NO English subtitles on the blu-ray. What you would end up with is Roy Scheider's off-screen dialogue in English, but all of the actual spoken parts would be in Japanese with no English subtitles. This means that only a very small portion of the film would be in English, and that all of the spoken dialogue is in Japanese with no English subtitles.

Hope this helps and hopefully we'll soon get a U.S. release of the film with the subtitles.