A visually pleasing Biographical film about the life, art, and ideals of Yukio Mishima, Japan's most celebrated author and actor, directed by Paul Schrader.
Centered around the character of Yukio Mishima, the film features the life story in four main chapters titled Beauty, Art, Action, and the Harmony of Pen and Sword. The main timeline took place on November 25, 1970, the last day of Mishima's life, when Mishima and his four cadets from his private army entered the army headquarters, forcibly detained the commander, and addressed the garrison. While it has stories of his memories and novel adaptation scenes in the progression.
What sets this film apart is the storyline segments from the adaptations of three novels throughout the personal story of Mishima and reflect his personality with similar parallels between reality and fiction. Paul Schrader chose to use those events from novels' stories parallel with the real-life events of Mishima. It reflects how similar those traits are in every three characters from when he was young to the last moment of his life.
The best part of this film is the phenomenon of cinematography work.
The Director, Paul Schrader , uses distinct cinematography choices for each timeline in the story to differentiate each one of them. In a realistic full-color frame, it represents the present timeline known as the last day of his life. In black and white frames show recollective memories of his prior moments. In vibrant-toned colors with decorated color palettes frames are events that happened in his three novels adaptation.
Moreover, almost every frame from this movie is full of aesthetics with Paul Schrader's artistic choice. Which is prominent the most in the scenes adaptations from three novels. The music score is immersing but the same main theme might get overplayed.
Mishima's character is portrayed as a confident man who holds on to his beliefs and ideals in an extreme way. He is obsessed with art and beauty. Which made him like bodybuilding as a result of wanting himself to be a work of art himself and to impress other people. He has a leadership that can convince his subordinates to be in the same boat as him, to the point of settling for death with him. He also has a way of thinking of a Samurai.
But I found the overall story to be not as enjoyable. In other words, I found the pacing to be bland and dull. Even though the novel adaptation adds depth to the story, the rest of the story doesn't make me learn anything valuable or inspiring about Mishima's accomplishments as much as his skills as a novelist. The rest of it is mostly all about the political stances of Mishima. I also find Mishima's action to be pointless in the end as how does he accomplish anything as he kills himself to stand by his point of ideal?
In conclusion, it was a fresh experience for me despite not understanding all the plot points or getting any valuable ideas from this film. This film still has stunning cinematography and production. It would be worth a try for anyone who is interested in watching this film to learn more about Yukio Mishima's life.
Centered around the character of Yukio Mishima, the film features the life story in four main chapters titled Beauty, Art, Action, and the Harmony of Pen and Sword. The main timeline took place on November 25, 1970, the last day of Mishima's life, when Mishima and his four cadets from his private army entered the army headquarters, forcibly detained the commander, and addressed the garrison. While it has stories of his memories and novel adaptation scenes in the progression.
What sets this film apart is the storyline segments from the adaptations of three novels throughout the personal story of Mishima and reflect his personality with similar parallels between reality and fiction. Paul Schrader chose to use those events from novels' stories parallel with the real-life events of Mishima. It reflects how similar those traits are in every three characters from when he was young to the last moment of his life.
The best part of this film is the phenomenon of cinematography work.
The Director, Paul Schrader , uses distinct cinematography choices for each timeline in the story to differentiate each one of them. In a realistic full-color frame, it represents the present timeline known as the last day of his life. In black and white frames show recollective memories of his prior moments. In vibrant-toned colors with decorated color palettes frames are events that happened in his three novels adaptation.
Moreover, almost every frame from this movie is full of aesthetics with Paul Schrader's artistic choice. Which is prominent the most in the scenes adaptations from three novels. The music score is immersing but the same main theme might get overplayed.
Mishima's character is portrayed as a confident man who holds on to his beliefs and ideals in an extreme way. He is obsessed with art and beauty. Which made him like bodybuilding as a result of wanting himself to be a work of art himself and to impress other people. He has a leadership that can convince his subordinates to be in the same boat as him, to the point of settling for death with him. He also has a way of thinking of a Samurai.
But I found the overall story to be not as enjoyable. In other words, I found the pacing to be bland and dull. Even though the novel adaptation adds depth to the story, the rest of the story doesn't make me learn anything valuable or inspiring about Mishima's accomplishments as much as his skills as a novelist. The rest of it is mostly all about the political stances of Mishima. I also find Mishima's action to be pointless in the end as how does he accomplish anything as he kills himself to stand by his point of ideal?
In conclusion, it was a fresh experience for me despite not understanding all the plot points or getting any valuable ideas from this film. This film still has stunning cinematography and production. It would be worth a try for anyone who is interested in watching this film to learn more about Yukio Mishima's life.