Iconic Film Banned in Japan Turns 39: The Artist’s Portrait That Defined a Generation!

Haunted by the impossible fusion of body and Art, yearning for a bygone nationalism, and leading his private militia known as Tatenokai (“Shield Society”), the globally recognized writer Yukio Mishima attempted a failed coup at the Japanese Ministry of Defense by taking the commanding general of the self-defense forces hostage and summoning the troops.

In front of 800 soldiers, he advocated for traditional Japan and the emperor. Facing a crowd that was scared, fascinated, and antagonistic, he withdrew after a few minutes. On that same day, November 25, 1970, he ended his life through Seppuku; a form of samurai ritual suicide by disembowelment that emerged in Japan in the 12th century. It was a horrific end, meticulously planned over months, serving as the ultimate expression of his art, his Magnum opus.

The Pen as Mighty as the Sword

“I was drawn to this story because I had previously written a script, Taxi Driver, which dealt with the pathological idea of a glorious suicide,” Paul Schrader mentioned in an interview in October 2020, as his work was showcased at a Japanese film festival in Vienna.

“I wanted to do something similar but not about one of those silly Americans. My brother, who was teaching in Japan, introduced me to Yukio Mishima, a renowned, highly cultured, homosexual writer known globally. He embodied the idea of self-sacrifice. But it was a tough journey to get this film made.”

Initially, finding adequate funding was a challenge, to the extent that Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, friends of Paul Schrader, ended up producing his Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters. As sponsors, they couldn’t be better.

Released in 1985, the film features extended flashbacks into the tumultuous past and life of the writer, interspersed with portrayals of his literary works which the four chapters mentioned in the title refer to, namely The Golden Pavilion, Kyoko’s House, and the tetralogy The Sea of Fertility, considered his literary will.

The main artistic challenge of this ambitious work was to penetrate the writer’s mind, “to trace the curves of his thought, his philosophical evolution through his novels, until managing to identify four phases that constitute the four chapters of his life,” stated Paul Schrader.

The writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull created with Mishima a unique piece in terms of visual and narrative approach. Narratively, thanks to a clever script by his brother Leonard Schrader, a great Japanologist; and visually, due to the combined talents of the stunning cinematography by John Bailey, supported by the great Japanese costume designer and set decorator Eiko Ishioka, who would win an Oscar in 1993 for her work on Coppola’s Dracula.

This is the film by which I will be remembered. As a screenwriter, it’s Taxi Driver. But as a director, it’s Mishima.

Furthermore, lifted by a stellar performance by its lead actor, Ken Ogata, who was already impressive a few years earlier in Shohei Imamura’s Vengeance Is Mine and starred in The Ballad of Narayama, the 1983 Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters is also famous for its stunning soundtrack composed by Philip Glass, whose power, resonance, and melancholy linger long in the memory of film lovers.

Revealed in cinema in 1982 by his collaboration with Godffrey Reggio on the experimental film masterpiece, Koyaanisqatsi, the prophecy; the first installment of a forthcoming trilogy, Philip Glass arguably delivered one of his most famous scores with Mishima. So famous, in fact, that it has since been widely reused, like the fabulous Runaway Horses theme, or the opening of the film, which underpins the powerful final sequence of The Truman Show by Peter Weir. An impressive effort by the composer, who initially composed the soundtrack for Schrader’s film based merely on script drafts, without having seen a single shot.

A Film Never Officially Released in Japan

Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters is undoubtedly one of Paul Schrader’s finest films, and although it doesn’t exactly meet the typical criteria of a biopic in its narrative form, it remains one of the greatest artist portraits ever made in cinema. Featured in the Tokyo International Film Festival selection in 1985, the film was however withdrawn from the lineup and has never been officially released in Japan, due to pressure from the writer’s widow and threats from right-wing extremists opposed to depicting Mishima as homosexual.

“This is the film by which I will be remembered. As a screenwriter, it’s Taxi Driver. But as a director, it’s Mishima,” said Paul Schrader. Now it’s your turn to discover this absolute gem.