Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami,
Junya Fukuda, Shigeto Tachihara,
Genre:
Drama
Director:
Paul Schrader
Screenplay:
Chieko Schrader, Leonard Schrader, Paul Schrader
Cinematography:
John Bailey
Composer:
Philip Glass
Runtime:
121 minutes
When thinking of this film, one wonders how it ever got made. At the
same time, one wonders why films this exceptional can't be made more often.
Well, it's pretty simply really; most people don't want to see a complex
and ambitious film and won't give a subtitled art film about a foreigner
a chance no matter how beautiful it is. In spite of it's greatness the
film, reportedly made for $10.5 million, it only grossed $450,000 domestically
so good luck to the next guy who needs a lot of money to make a great film.
Yukio Mishima was a highly acclaimed Japanese author and playwright who thought of
his life as a work of art so he created himself. He valued the body over the mind, putting him in opposition with his intellectual colleagues. In an effort to bond with the physical world, he took up a strict workout regiment, never missing a tri weekly weight lifting session and becoming a master swordsman (kendo). In many ways he was a walking contradiction.
Known for his nililism, he longed to die for his country yet exaggerated an illness to get
out of the army before it could happen.
The film is set on 11/25/70, the day Mishima holds a general hostage so he
can try to convert the troops from the capitalist ways back to the traditional
ways of imperial Japan and then commit seppuku (ritual suicide). These scenes
are shot in color, but it's up to you to decide if that's because it documents
"the present" or because his final act was glorious. It's not richly colored
like the scenes from his books, so maybe it's in between? As was the case
in The Yakuza, Paul's brother and co-author Leonard,
is able to convey his understanding of the Japanese ways, both past and present.
The reason this movie works perfectly is Paul Schrader seamlessly goes
between the final day and the various versions of Mishima. We have black
and white sequences that show his life. The private Mishima is a weak lonely
boy with a speech impediment that built himself up both mentally and physically.
The public Mishima has turned himself into just the opposite, a well spoken
muscular leader of his army, the Shield Society, who manipulates himself
to fame and notoriety far beyond what a normal writer of his stature would
have attained. The author Mishima wrote stories where he was, whether admittedly
or not, seemingly he's the main character. His character's actions seem
to be things he's in some way experienced or contemplated doing. These
scenes that give you the gist of three of his novels, and moreso define
Mishima, are brought to life in stunning, richly colored, fantasy like
fashion by designer Eiko Ishioka (Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Cell) and
veteran Schrader cinematographer John Bailey. All of this helps us decided
what this complicated man was striving for, and whether his symbolic death
was worthwhile.
Paul Schrader is the right director for this material because he knows
how to make us think. Actually, Schrader said Mishima is the kind of character
he might create if he didn't already exist. He's such a complex character
that you are never sure if he's brilliant, insane, some of both, or just
overly troubled. Does he kill himself because he wants to die beautiful
and simply use his last day to go out with as much of a bang as possible?
Has he already given up on dying beautiful (supposedly a man has to die
before the age of 40 to do so and Mishima was 45) and simply believes he's
important enough that his death will set change in motion? Will his control
of self, art, and society grow with his death or will it rot with his corpse?
Schrader is not out to manipulate us or provide us with the answers, he
lets Mishima do that the way he tried to during his life and just challenges
us to decide whether Mishima made any sense.
What makes this a better film than Paul Schrader's other classics is the overall
production. Schrader generally surrounds himself with a strong cast (he did
make the mistake of using Richard Gere once, leading to his only mediocre
film), which fits his directorial style of letting the actions play out realistically
with the writing and performers carrying the piece. This film succeeds in
the usual areas, challenging the audience and with the performances. In particular,
Ken Ogata does a standout job as Mishima, creating a larger than life and
equally conflicting Mishima. The movie also succeeds as an art film. Thus,
it's a good departure from his usual presentation, benefiting tremendously
from a great soundtrack by Phillip Glass (Koyaanisqatsi,
Kundun, The Truman Show) that perfectly supports the visuals as well as the
aforementioned work by Ishioka and Bailey. The three won the Best Artistic
Contribution award at Cannes and Schrader was nominated for the Golden Palm,
but, as usual, Schrader was dogged domestically.
Paul Schrader is well respected for the scripts he's penned for Martin Scorsese
(Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation Of Christ, Bringing
Out The Dead, and the upcoming Dino). Unfortunately, in spite of the
outstanding quality of this, Light Sleeper, Affliction, and reportedly Blue Collar, he remains one of our most underrated directors. This film, like
his others, might not be the most entertaining, but unlike most any other
film it's hard to envision how it could have been any better.
