Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters is, according to director Paul Schrader, not a biographical portrait of famed Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, but "an interpretation" of his life and work. The drama's four chapters are Beauty, focusing on Mishima's youthful aesthetic interest; Art, centred around his vocation as an artist; Action, in which the accent is politics; and The Harmony Of The Pen And The Sword, which concludes with Mishima's attempt to create meaning through his own death. The film covers the last day of Mishima's life, flashbacks to his childhood and youth, and vignettes from three of his novels - The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. The film concludes with Mishima committing seppuku (suicide by disembowelment). It's fetishistic, narcissistic and, at key moments, borderline nuts. In other words, the movie captures its subject to a tee. Hands down, one of the most unconventional "biopics" that you're likely to see.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
