Rent Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
3.7 of 5 from 128 ratings
2h 0min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Paul Schrader's visually stunning, collage-like portrait of acclaimed Japanese author and playwright Yukio Mishima (played by Ken Ogata) investigates the inner turmoil and contradictions of a man who attempted an impossible harmony between self, art, and society. Taking place on Mishima's last day, when he famously committed public seppuku, the film is punctuated by extended flashbacks to the writer's life as well as by gloriously stylized evocations of his fictional works. With its rich cinematography by John Bailey, exquisite sets and costumes by Eiko Ishioka, and unforgettable, highly influential score by Philip Glass, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is a tribute to its subject and a bold, investigative work of art in its own right. - Actors:
- Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami, Junya Fukuda, Shigeto Tachihara, Junkichi Orimoto, Naoko Ôtani, Gô Rijû, Masato Aizawa, Yuki Nagahara, Kyûzô Kobayashi, Yuki Kitazume, Haruko Katô, Yasosuke Bando, Hisako Manda, Naomi Oki, Miki Takakura, Imari Tsujikoichi Sato, Kôichi Satô, Kenji Sawada
- Directors:
- Paul Schrader
- Producers:
- Tom Luddy, Mataichirô Yamamoto
- Narrated By:
- Ken Ogata, Roy Scheider
- Writers:
- Paul Schrader, Leonard Schrader, Yukio Mishima
- Others:
- John Bailey, Philip Glass, Eiko Ishioka
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Drama, Lesbian & Gay
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like Citizen Kane, A History of Gay Cinema: According to Hollywood, Drama Films & TV, Films to Watch If You Like..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Wes Anderson
- Countries:
- Japan
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 04/08/2025
- Run Time:
- 120 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour and B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Two optional English narrations, including one by actor Roy Scheider
- Audio commentary from 2008 featuring Schrader and producer Alan Poul
- Interviews from 2007 and 2008 with Bailey, producers Tom Luddy and Mata Yamamoto, composer Philip Glass, and production designer Eiko Ishioka
- Interviews from 2008 with Mishima biographer John Nathan and friend Donald Richie
- Audio interview from 2008 with co-screenwriter Chieko Schrader
- Interview excerpt from 1966 featuring Mishima talking about writing
- The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima, a 55-minute documentary from 1985 about the author
- Trailer
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 04/08/2025
- Run Time:
- 121 minutes
- Languages:
- Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
- Subtitles:
- English
- DVD Regions:
- Region 0 (All)
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour and B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
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Reviews (1) of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Four Chapters, One Dangerous Myth - Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters review by griggs
I had a brief wobble about counting this for Japanuary — Paul Schrader on the credits, with Lucas and Coppola on the packaging — but it quickly feels daft to worry about passports. It’s shot in Japan, spoken in Japanese, and it’s knee-deep in Japanese literature and self-mythology.
The killer move is the structure: it’s divided into four chapters, and threaded through them are three vividly staged sections drawn from Mishima’s novels. Eiko Ishioka’s production design is gloriously artificial — bold colours, hard edges, zero touristy “authenticity”. Philip Glass’s score keeps everything ticking, looping and tightening like you’re caught in the same thought over and over. Ken Ogata plays Mishima with a poised, unsettling intensity, like a man already halfway to becoming his own monument.
What it keeps coming back to is the tug-of-war between art and action, words and the body, performance and belief. Mishima isn’t presented as a puzzle to “solve”; he’s a contradiction you’re made to sit with, even when it’s uncomfortable.
And you can see why it was such a hot potato. The film is so raw about its subject — the politics, the self-mythologising, the sexuality, the theatre of it all — that it effectively wasn’t screened in Japan for roughly forty years. Yet internationally it went to Cannes in ’85, won Best Artistic Contribution, and snagged a Palme d’Or nomination. By the end I felt dazzled and unsettled — a biopic that refuses to explain its subject away.
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