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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

1985

Paul Schrader

Ken Ogata, Kenji Sawada, Yasosuke Bando, Hiroshi Mikami ...

7.0

2,032

Drama 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 ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"The most unconventional biopic I've ever seen, and one of the best (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of four)"	POS
United States	Jake Cole Slant	"[It] marks one of Schrader’s finest efforts in documenting his characters’ impulses toward self-annihilation."	POS
United States	Michael Sragow The New Yorker	"One of the most gorgeous and sophisticated portraits of an artist ever put on film. Schrader shows art imitating life and vice versa"	POS
United States	Nathan Rabin AV Club	"Calling Schrader's masterpiece a mere biopic doesn't do it justice. It's more a dreamy, hypnotic meditation on the tragic intersection of Mishima's oeuvre and existence"	POS
United States	Vincent Canby The New York Times	"What keeps us watching the screen is not any special revelation, but the film makers' mad, nearly suicidal attempt to persuade the rest of us to share their fascination with the subject"	NEU

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