Essential Arthouse: Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)
A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. (R, 120 min.)
Showtimes
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
7:00 PM
Essential Arthouse: This monthly series showcases “essential arthouse” films everyone should see on the big screen. Arthouse is a film genre which encompasses films where the content and style – often artistic or experimental – adhere with as little compromise as possible to the filmmakers’ personal artistic vision. This series is Free for Members.
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Paul Schrader's visually stunning, collagelike 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. [Janus]
Starring: Ken Ogata, Masayuki Shionoya, Hiroshi Mikami
Director: Paul Schrader
Language: Japanese
Genre: Biography, Drama
"Philip Glass's score still takes the breath away."
— David Gritten, Daily Telegraph (UK)
"Might be Schrader’s most visually bold work..."
— Josh Larsen, LarsenOnFilm
"The most unconventional biopic I've ever seen, and one of the best."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"Stylistically and visually, the movie is sumptuous, innovative, and rich."
— Siong-huat Chua, Gay Community News (Boston)
"One of the most gorgeous and sophisticated portraits of an artist ever put on film."
— Michael Sragow, The New Yorker
"[Mishima] marks one of Schrader’s finest efforts in documenting his characters’ impulses toward self-annihilation."
— Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
"From Philip Glass's glorious score to John Bailey's rich cinematography, Schrader's movie is never less than ravishing."
— Richard Luck, Film4
"This handsomely shot movie, with its throbbing Philip Glass score, has a kind of perverse integrity; its mixture of the art house and the hothouse is pure Schrader."
— David Ansen, Newsweek
"Paul Schrader’s film Mishima is a boldly conceived, intelligent and consistently absorbing study of the Japanese writer and political iconoclast’s life, work and death."
— Variety Staff, Variety
"Mishima, in a way, is just a teaser of a film biography, a haunting, artistically daring movie that mainly succeeds in arousing the audience's curiosity about this eloquent man of many faces."
— Kathleen Carroll, New York Daily News
"Schrader, with a wonderful mixture of non-linear structure and surreal production design, transcends the generic boundaries of the biopic towards something approaching psychological portraiture."
— Christopher Machell, CineVue
"Schrader has taken the four blank walls of that musty old form -- the Epic Movie Biography -- and knocked them out to add rooms full of light and fresh air... I can't think of a movie that has better embodied a human being, much less an artist."
— F.X. Feeney, L.A. Weekly
"Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is an unorthodox movie about an unorthodox man. The biography of controversial Japanese author Yukio Mishima, it is also a very appealing film, in large part because of its unconventional approach."
— Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is exemplary for its elegance, taste and restraint. Mishima's life might all too easily have been sensationalized -- indeed it positively invites it -- but Ken Ogata's distinguished performance wholly averts the danger."
— David Robinson, David Robinson
"The astonishing thing is that the film is so gripping. Films about essentially intellectual processes are always difficult, because movies are more comfortable with action than thought. The fact that Mishima's life was a journey toward action is the key."
— Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald
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