Criterion Collection: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters | Blu-ray Review
With unprecedented providence! Criterion re-releases Paul Schrader’s 1985 masterpiece Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters the same month the neglected auteur’s equally superb First Reformed (review) reaches US theaters. The screenwriting genius who penned masterworks for Scorsese (Taxi Driver; Raging Bull) has existed on the periphery of arthouse Americana as a director, despite delivering countless daring, often troubled cinematic visions across a five-decade career. A hybrid portrait of famed post WWII Japanese author Yukio Mishima based on his autobiography Confessions of a Mask while blending reenactments of three notable texts (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion; Kyoko’s House; Runaway Horses), Schrader’s film took home Best Artistic Contribution out of the 1985 Cannes Film Festival thanks to the ravishing triptych of costume/production designer Eiko Ishioka, DP John Bailey, and an unforgettable, entrancing score from Philip Glass. Criterion’s presentation (which was originally released on DVD in 2008) allowed for Schrader to assemble the title in its most definitive version, replacing Roy Scheider’s English narration with star Ken Ogata’s Japanese track, as well as the addition of some footage the director had originally been forced to cut. Co-written by Schrader’s brother Leonard, Mishima unfolds as a ravishing, near-hysterical staging of Mishima’s life and artistic output.
Never released theatrically in Japan thanks to Schrader’s insistence on including a sequence in a gay nightclub (which also brought the ire of the Mishima estate), the title still isn’t as universally recognized as it should be (as far as Schrader’s directorial output, he’s still perhaps best remembered for 1980’s American Gigolo). A towering achievement from an offbeat maverick, Mishima was Schrader’s fifth feature as director, arriving in his most prolific decade. While his only other feature to compete at Cannes would be 1988’s Patty Hearst, an equally erstwhile examination of an infamous culture icon, the Francis Ford Coppola/George Lucas executive produced project was Schrader’s follow-up to his ill-fated 1982 remake of Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People.
Playing like a more comprehensible version of the sort of stylistic biopic one would expect from Ken Russell, Mishima is a heady, visual assault, a presentation of cinema as fetishistic as its subject, a body-obsessed bisexual whose cultish notions of masculinity and physical prowess relate directly to contemporary ideals of beauty in the narcissistic inclined queer community. Revering the Patron Saint of Homosexuals, the slain St. Sebastian serves as the impetus for his first orgasmic encounter, Mishima is a fanatic traditionalist in the vein of Tennessee Williams, a potent subversive whose nationalist ideations brought him infamously to the brink of insanity in a distressing public display whereby he committed seppuku.
Even if one is not inspired by the man and his beliefs, the unflinching and artistic rendering of his life, as told through three periods all of which are made beautifully distinct in their pronounced visual palettes, Schrader’s portraits of Yukio Mishima reflects life as a continuous series of self-transformation. Transcending his literary accomplishments, Mishima became a larger than life persona, ending on a note which tends to overwhelm his significant body of work. That Schrader’s film failed to make much of an impact in Mishima’s legacy in the West and was banned altogether in the East only deepens both its subject and creator’s enigmatic possibilities. Had the Milos Forman led jury at Cannes bestowed the Palme d’Or on Schrader instead of awarding Emir Kusturica his first of two such wins, Mishima would have perhaps allowed him the distinction he deserves a director.
Disc Review:
Criterion re-releases Mishima as a newly restored 4K digital transfer in 1.85:1 with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack. Supervised by both Schrader and DP John Bailey, audio and visual elements are superb in this release (for fans of the classic Glass score, the soundtrack swells majestically). Schrader and producer Alan Poul provide optional audio commentary while two alternate English language narrations (one of them belonging to Roy Scheider) are available.
Making Mishima:
Criterion recorded this forty-four-minute documentary in 2008 for their original release, which features interviews with cinematographer John Bailey, production designer Eiko Ishioka, and composer Philip Glass.
Producing Mishima:
Criterion recorded this twenty-two-minute piece in 2007/2008 with Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto as they recall the challenges of producing Mishima.
Chieko Schrader:
Chieko Schrader, who was married to Leonard Schrader, wrote the Japanese language screenplay for Mishima, and recorded this twenty-six-minute audio interview in 2008, Los Angeles.
John Nathan and Donald Richie:
John Nathan and Donald Richie both knew Yukio Mishima personally, recounting their relationships with him in this twenty-six-minute interview recorded in 2008 by the Criterion collection.
Mishima on Mishima:
French journalist Jean Prasteau interviewed Yukio Mishima in this segment of A la vitrine du libraire, which aired in 1966.
The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima:
This fifty-five-minute documentary produced in 1985 by the BBC features extensive archival footage of Yukio Mishima as well as interviews with those who knew him.
Final Thoughts:
One of Schrader’s enduring masterpieces, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a dazzling, sensual cinematic odyssey of sexual obsession, artistic aesthetic, and political turmoil.
Fim Review: ★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
