Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Paul Schrader Paul Schrader

Overview

In Paul Schrader's unusual biopic, Ken Ogata stars as Yukio Mishima, perhaps the most celebrated Japanese novelist of the last five decades. The film begins with Mishima's youth, then moves forward in episodic fashion to his 1970 suicide, symbolically committed at a military site. Originally titled Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, the film is neatly divided into a quartet of acts, and the screenplay does not flinch in its depiction of Mishima's hyperactive sex life. Among the many neat directorial touches is the decision to offer the narrative in black-and-white, while depicting scenes from Mishima's novels in vibrant color. Written off as self-indulgent by those impatient with Schrader's fragmentary technique, Mishima was produced in Japan by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, an offshoot of Coppola's involvement with Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/22/2018
UPC:	0715515214810
Original Release:	1985
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:00:00
Sales rank:	1,545

Special Features

New, restored 4k digital transfer of the Director's Cut, supervised and approved by Director Paul Schrader and Cinematographer John Bailey, with 2.0 Surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; Two alternate English narrations, including one by actor Roy Scheider; Audio Commentary from 2006 featuring Schrader and Producer Alan Poul; Interviews from 2007 and 2008 with Bailey, Producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto, Composer Philip Glass, and Production Designer Eiko Ishioka ; Interviews from 2008 with Yukio Mishima biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Schrader; Interview excerpt from 1966 featuring Mishima, a documentary from 1985 about the author; Trailer; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kevin Jackson, a piece on the film's censorship in Japan, and photographs of Ishioka's sets

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ken Ogata	Yukio Mishima
Masayuki Shionoya	Morita
Hiroshi Mikami	Cadet #1
Junya Fukuda	Cadet #2
Shigeto Tachihara	Cadet #3
Junkichi Orimoto	General Mashita
Eimei Exumi	Actor
Minoru Hodaka	Ichigaya Colonel
Yuki Nagahara	Mishima, Age 5
Kyuzo Kobayashi	Literary Friend
Haruko Kato	Grandmother
Kimiko Ito	Actor
Hideo Fukuhara	Actor
Yosuke Mizuno	"Yukoku" Producer
Alan Mark Poul	Actor
Ren Ebata	Reporter No. 1
Yasuhiro Arai	Reporter No. 2
Fumio Mizushima	Reporter No. 3
Yuichi Saito	Student
Yasosuke Bando	Mizoguchi
Hisako Manda	Mariko
Naomi Oki	1st Girl [Temple Of The Golden Pavilion]
Miki Takakura	2nd Girl [Temple Of The Golden Pavilion]
Imari Tauji	Madame
Koichi Sato	Kashiwagi [Temple Of The Golden Pavilion]
Shinji Miura	Pavilion Acolyte
Kenji Sawada	Osamu
Reisen Lee	Kiyomi
Setsuko Karasuma	Mitsuko [Kyoko's House]
Tadanori Yokoo	Natsuo
Yasuaki Kurata	Takei [Kyoko's House]
Mitsuru Hirata	Thug [Kyoko's House]
Sachiko Akagi	Thug's Girl Friend [Kyoko's House]
Sachiko Hidari	Osamu's Mother [Kyoko's House]
Tsutomu Harada	Romeo [Kyoko's House]
Mami Okamoto	Juliet [Kyoko's House]
Toshiyuki Nagashima	Isao
Hiroshi Katsuno	Lieutenant Hori
Hiroki Ida	Izutsu [Runaway Horses]
Jun Negami	Kurahara
Ryo Ikebe	Interrogator [Runaway Horses]
Shoichiro Sakata	Actor
Naoya Makoto	Kendo Instructor [Runaway Horses]
Kojiro Oka	1st MP [Runaway Horses]
Tatsuya Hiragaki	Actor [Runaway Horses]
Shinichi Nosaka	Policeman [Runaway Horses]
Atsushi Takayama	Interrogation Policeman
Roy Scheider	Voice-over,Voices
Naoko Ôtani	Mutter
Gô Rijû	Mishima, age 18-19 (segment "Flashbacks")
Masato Aizawa	Mishima - age 9-14 (segment "Flashbacks")
Yuki Kitazume	Dancing Friend (segment "Flashbacks")
Eimei Ezumi	Ichigaya Aide-de-Camp
Toshio Hosokawa	"Rokumeikan" Producer
Kazuo Katô	Grandmother
John Nathan	Biographer
Donald Richie	Actor
Naoko Otani	Actor
Go Riju	Actor
Philip Glass	Composer

Technical Credits

Paul Schrader

Paul Schrader	Director,Screenwriter,Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Francis Ford Coppola	Executive Producer,Producer
George Lucas	Executive Producer,Producer
Tom Luddy	Producer
Mata Yamamoto	Producer,Producer
Catherine Craig	Special Effects
Tom Bellfort	Sound Effects
Gary Clayton	Sound Effects
Lizi Gelber	Sound Effects
Soichi Inoue	Sound Effects
Tom Johnson	Sound Effects
Mataichiro	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Divided into four sections titled "Beauty," "Art," "Action" and "Harmony of Pen and Sword," Mishima is based -- in a fascinating creative choice -- not only on Mishima's life and scandalous death, but also on his work. Schrader uses three of Mishima's semi-autobiographical novels as the basis for exploring the author's obsessions and ideas. Cutting back and forth between these tales and Mishima's real-life move toward a final, desperate act meant to inspire national unity, the film comes to a startling conclusion as all four tales end in bloody self-destruction. The liberal blend of fact and fact-based fiction allows Schrader to compose hauntingly symbolic, dream-like images, set against a moody score from avant-garde composer Philip Glass, although the dividing line between literary adaptation and biographical material is made clear by the use of black and white for the film's flashbacks. The end result stands as one of Schrader's best films.

All Movie Guide - Karl Williams