Paul Schrader is known to many as the writer of Martin Scorsese's masterpieces Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Schrader seemed to have a direct line into the nature of unchecked masculinity and the way in which this could manifest itself in uncontrollable outbursts of violence. Yet there's something poetic about his writing, too - the suggestion that there are wider forces at work, cultural and societal influences every bit as much a part of what makes a man turn to violence as any personality trait. With Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Paul Schrader went behind the camera and turned his focus onto one of the greatest - and most controversial - Japanese writers of the 20th century, Yukio Mishima. Book-ending the movie with scenes building up to and including Mishima's storming of Army headquarters and subsequent suicide, the film also dramatizes three of his novels, exploring ideas such as beauty, loyalty (whether it's interpersonal or ideological) and sadomasochism. The result is hugely ambitious, and despite its unconventional structure it captures both the essence of Mishima's writings and the complex man himself, torn between an idea of Japan and the reality around him, where ritual and modernity find themselves locked up in an inevitable conflict he struggled to reconcile.
