Arte: Mishima - Ein Leben In vier Kapiteln (1985)

[Hans1906]

Documentary on Arte:

Mishima - Ein Leben In vier Kapiteln (Mishima - A Life In Four Chapters)

The Link to the docu: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/009163-00 ... -kapiteln/

Translation from the Arte website:

"On November 25, 1970, the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima commits the ritual suicide known as seppuku. The events of the last day in the author's life serve director Paul Schrader as the framework for his film (1985), which is divided into four chapters: Beauty, Art, Struggle, The Harmony of Pen and Sword.

Mishima - behind this name hides one of the most important Japanese writers of the 20th century and at the same time one of the most enigmatic figures of the Japanese public. On November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima and four cadets of his private army invaded the Ichigaya military base and committed ritual suicide, called seppuku. The author, who is as famous as he is controversial, has prepared the action in minute detail and stages it, in front of the shocked Japanese public, as if it were a theater play. The events of the last day in the life of Yukio Mishima serve American director Paul Schrader as the framework for his film, which is divided into four chapters: Beauty, Art, Struggle, Harmony of Pen and Sword. In each of the four parts, Schrader uses stagings of Mishima's literary works and flashbacks to reconstruct the unusual life of an extraordinary man and artist, beginning with his first sexual experiences and traumatic experiences from his school days. We accompany Mishima on his journey to Greece, experience him as an obsessed leader of his private army, as director and main actor of a film whose protagonist commits suicide. Motifs, episodes and scenes from three selected autobiographical novels by Mishima connect life with art. With the help of this multifaceted narrative structure, Schrader succeeds in creating a multifaceted portrait of an eccentric, his overpowering power of imagination and his obsessive passions."

What to say, strange stuff, only the Wikipedia Link:
Mishima Yukio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima

I have seen the film already in the late 1980s in a program cinema in the city of Oldenburg, only one time, no comment.
Just so much, maybe it's very important to engage in completely foreign thought processes.



Hans1906