5/5 Misima
  by Patrick Mc Coy (Tokyo, Japan)
I recently bought and watched the Criterion Collection edition of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters directed by Paul Schrader. You may remember Schrader as the screenplay writer of Taxi Driver and director of American Gigolo and Cat People. This package has a new, restored high-definition digital transfer of the director's cut with new audio commentary from Schrader and producer Alan Poul. The second disk has video interviews with cinematographer John Bailey, producers Tom Luddy and Mataichiro Yamamoto, composer Phillip Glass, and production designer Eiko Ishioka. In addition, new video interviews with Mishima biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie. Other features include: an audio interview with Chieko Schrader, a video interview featuring Mishima talking about writing, and The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima, a 55 minute BBC documentary. There's a booklet that has a new essay by critic Kevin Jackson, a piece on the film's censorship in Japan and photographs of Ishioka's sets-which are pretty spectacular. It is a fascinating story of how the production got made and the struggles they had to make the film in Japanese with an almost all Japanese crew and American director. And the film is a triumph and the score by Glass has become a sort of classic and some of it was used in The Truman Show as well. The film is a complex intermingling of Mishima's biography, his last day where he committed seppuku, and adaptations of his fiction: The Golden Pavilion, Runaway Horses, and Kyoko's House (which has yet to be translated into English). Add to this: sublime production values, impressive cinematography, evocative acting, and a memorable musical score and you have an art house classic.

5/5 A superb portrait of a complex artist
  by William Timothy Lukeman
After waiting too many years for a DVD release of this rich & compelling film, we finally have Criterion's glorious edition, replete with extras. The additional material, from commentaries to background material to a fine BBC documentary, is a true gift. But in the end, the film alone is worth every penny by itself.

Biopics have long been a staple of film: some good, some mediocre, and a small handful exceptional. But "Mishima" is in a class of its own. Paul Schrader has created a film about an artist, his life & his soul, that is genuinely a work of art in itself. Its use of interlacing narrative strands, each filmed in a totally different style -- its eye for the exactly apt image that says so much -- its depiction of intense & paradoxical emotional forces at passionate war & equally passionate union with the intellect -- all combine to reveal the essence of this remarkable, tortured man.

As far back as Byron, we've had artists who made their own lives into works of art. But has anyone ever gone to such lengths as Mishima? That question, along with many others, isn't entirely answered here ... but that's all to the good. The viewer is meant to be left with questions about Art, about Life, about Meaning.

I don't want to make it sound ponderous, though. First of all, it's a visual feast, from the crystalline black & white of the biographical strand, to the over-the-top, voluptuous, even explosive color of the adaptations of Mishima's work, which illuminate his psyche. Add to that one of Phillip Glass's most powerful & memorable scores. And finally, there's the knowledge that this is a representation of a real life, not fiction. First & foremost, this is a mesmerizing & exhilarating experience!

As with Mishima's life & literary work, the film interweaves mind & body, thought & emotion. The homoerotic element suffusing the film is lush, violent, tender, bizarre, beautiful, feverish. I don't believe I've ever come across anything so vivid & palpable in many mainstream films. I doubt you'd see it from many other filmmakers. It truly conveys the inner turmoil & obsessive desire of Mishima, a longing not just for a fulfilling sexuality, but for beauty, purpose & harmony within his being.

Whether you're already a voracious reader of Mishima, or you've never read a single word he wrote, you won't come away from this film unmoved. It's a beautifully crafted work, an exemplar of what can be achieved with film. Most highly recommended!

4/5 An artistic biography
  by Ted M. (Pennsylvania, USA)
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a work of art. Depicting the life of Yukio Mishima, a controversial Japanese writer, who was considered for the Nobel Prize, this film delivers.

The film depicts the last hours of Mishima's life with flashbacks of his earlier days.

While the film is an American production, it is in the Japanese language. The film was too controversial to be released on home video in Japan, but has aired on television there. I thought is well made and especially so because of the score by Philip Glass which I think is a masterpiece. I have been a fan of his music for many years. The film has beautiful indoor sets and cinematography also.

As the film is based on the life of an actual person, I will skip the usual plot summary.

This release is far better than the earlier DVD release of the film and loaded with supplements.

Disc 1 contains the film with optional director's and producer's commentary, a theatrical trailer and the option of having the voice-over narration in Japanese or English

Disc 2 has a BBC documentary on Mishima, video interviews with John Bailey, Tom Luddy Mata Yamamoto, Philip Glass, Eiko Ishioka, Mishima biographer John Nathan, and Donald Richie, an audio interview with Chieko Schrader, and an archival video interview of Mishima himself.

This is the best edition of the film to get and I highly recommend it.

5/5 Elegance & Brutality
  by Jason T. Fetters (Tampa, FL The Sunshine State)
Finally Criterion has gotten around to including one of my all time favorite films, Mishima. Directed by Paul Schrader and with beautiful set pieces by Ishioka Eiko, this is a truly great bio pic which Criterion has generoursly upgraded. This is the only bio pic I can think of that's based on a major modern Japanese author. It would be interesting to see other directors make films about Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Kafu. In Mishima you see his final day before committing seppuku as just another day and filmed in color. Then you switch to black and white shots of Mishima's childhood. Finally, there are the richly stylized set pieces that showcase Mishima's novels. Schrader does a great job of switching between these three separate time frames and you can see the influneces of Bresson, Dreyer, and Ozu. I won't go into the story details but once you start watching its hard to look away from Ogata Ken's intense protrayal.
The real treat for me was the special features, which are by themselves worth buying this edition for. There's an excellent 55-minute documentary by the BBC called The Strange Case of Mishima Yukio where you can see Donald Keene discuss the problems of translating Mishima's writing into English. It was great seeing Keene speaking when I'm so used to reading his books and various translated works.
Also, there is a great interview with Donald Richie and John Nathan who both knew Mishima and visited him in Tokyo. John Nathan wrote the excellent biography on Mishima (another good one is Mishima Into The Void by Marguerite Yourcenar.) A good interview with Chieko Schrader, who helped write the script and is the wife of Paul's brother, Leonard.
Also video interview with composer Philip Glass, set designer Ishioka, and the producers that show how much work and effort go into creating a film on such a grand scale.
Overall, its a very entertaining and informative look at a great modern writer, Japanese or otherwise, and is highly recommened to anyone interested in writing and Japanese culture.


5/5 Mishima: life and fiction
  by Markus Gossas (Stockholm, Sweden)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is visually stunning and features a soundtrack by Phillip Glass. It's about the life of writer Yukio Mishima, and the film alternates between his last day - when he and his private army(!) of ultra-nationalists tried to take control of the japanese army and reinstall the emperor as ruler of Japan - earlier episodes (as a boy, teenager and so on), and filmed scenes from his novels. All in all, we get some insights of Mishimas way to self-realisation, as a writer and warrior, or something like that. The "past" is filmed in b/w, the "present" in color and the novels in very strong color shemes. Past, present and fiction is thus weaved together which actually works very well.

The transfer is remarkable as usual with Criterion, and the extras are overwhelming. Also, the case of the DVD is almost too much with metallic finish, strong colors and fold-out design. Five stars to Criterion for caring about movies and giving us films like this!