Mishima

Paul Schrader, USA, 1985, 120 minutes

The life story of a dead gay Japanese warrior-poet seems like an unusual subject for an American-financed film, but this is actually one of the less striking things about Mishima. Filmed in a mixture of black and white and colour, and using unusually stylised, specially-built sets, the film presents the last extraordinary day of Yukio Mishima's controversial life and tries to explain it with the help of relevant biographical flash-backs and short dramatisations of his novels.

Apart from looking great, Mishima also sounds great with a memorable score by Philip 'Koyanasqattsi' Glass which complements the film well. The acting is also very interesting with Ken Ogata's naturalistic portrayal of Mishima making what could have heen a larger-than-life character easy to relate to.

The most startling film by Paul Schrader so far, and also one of the most unlikely films to emerge from America in the past ten years.

Review by Danny Carr
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93