Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a 1985 American biographical drama film co-written and directed by Paul Schrader. The film is based on the life and work of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima (portrayed by Ken Ogata), interweaving episodes from his life with dramatizations of segments from his books The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas were executive producers of the film.
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Plot
The film sets in on November 25, 1970, the last day in Mishima's life. He is shown finishing a manuscript. Then, he puts on a uniform he designed for himself and meets with four of his most loyal followers from his private army.
In flashbacks highlighting episodes from his past life, the viewer sees Mishima's progression from a sickly young boy to one of Japan's most acclaimed writers of the post-war era (who in adulthood trains himself into the acme of muscular discipline, owing to a morbid and militaristic obsession with masculinity and physical culture). His loathing for the materialism of modern Japan has him turn towards an extremist traditionalism. He sets up his own private army and proclaims the reinstating of the emperor as head of government.
The biographical sections are interwoven with short dramatizations of three of Mishima's novels: In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a stuttering aspirant sets fire to the famous Zen Buddhist temple because he feels inferior at the sight of its beauty. Kyoko's House depicts the sadomasochistic (and ultimately fatal) relationship between a middle-aged woman and her young lover, who is in her financial debt. In Runaway Horses, a group of young fanatic nationalists fails to overthrow the government, with its leader subsequently committing suicide. Dramatizations, frame story, and flashbacks are segmented into the four chapters of the film's title, named Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword.
The film culminates in Mishima and his followers taking hostage a General of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. He addresses the garrison's soldiers, asking them to join him in his struggle to reinstate the Emperor as the nation's sovereign. His speech is largely ignored and ridiculed. Mishima then returns to the General's office and commits seppuku.
Cast
November 25, 1970
- Ken Ogata as Yukio Mishima
- Masayuki Shionoya as Masakatsu Morita
- Junkichi Orimoto as General Mashita
- Hiroshi Mikami as Cadet #1
- Junya Fukuda as Cadet #2
- Shigeto Tachihara as Cadet #3
Flashbacks
- Naoko Otani as Shizue Hiraoka
- Haruko Kato as Natsuko Hiraoka
- Yuki Kitazume as Dancing Friend
- Kyûzô Kobayashi as Literary Friend
- Alan Mark Poul as American Reporter
- Roy Scheider as Narrator (voice)
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
- Yasosuke Bando as Mizoguchi
- Kōichi Satō as Kashiwagi
- Hisako Manda as Mariko
- Chishū Ryū as Monk
- Naomi Oki as First Girl
- Miki Takakura as Second Girl
Kyoko's House
- Kenji Sawada as Osamu
- Reisen Lee as Kiyomi
- Setsuko Karasuma as Mitsuko
- Sachiko Hidari as Osamu's Mother
- Tadanori Yokoo as Natsuo
- Yasuaki Kurata as Takei
Runaway Horses
- Toshiyuki Nagashima as Isao
- Hiroshi Katsuno as Lieutenant Hori
- Jun Negami as Kurahara
- Hiroki Ida as Izutsu
- Naoya Makoto as Kendo Instructor
- Ryō Ikebe as Interrogater
Production
Although Mishima only visualizes three of the writer's novels by name, the film also uses segments from his autobiographical novel Confessions of a Mask. At least two scenes, one showing the young Mishima being aroused by a painting of the Christian martyr Sebastian, and another where a young Mishima purposefully exaggerates his illness at a military draft health checkup, appear in this book.
The use of one further Mishima novel, Forbidden Colors, which describes the marriage of a homosexual man to a woman, was denied by Mishima's widow.