Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Japanese writer Yukio Mishima is the subject of Paul Schrader’s stylised, compelling biography.

  • Director

    Paul Schrader

  • With

    Ken Ogata, Kenji Sawada, Toshiyuki Nagashima

  • USA 1984. 120min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    15

One of the highpoints in Glass’s career as a composer for narrative cinema is this collaboration with Paul Schrader. It’s a wholly original and unconventional portrait of writer Yukio Mishima. This ‘mosaic biography’ interweaves moments from Mishima’s life with scenes from his fiction. It shows an individual grappling with the growing materialism of the time, as well as his obsession with notions of masculinity and military solutions to national problems.

Joint ticket available with The Philip Glass Effect on Wednesday 14 August 18:10 NFT1 £16, concessions £13 (Members pay £2 less). Book in person at the box office or by phone on 020 7928 3232.

BFI Film Academy Recommends

BFI Film Academy Recommends highlights films and events for young people aged 16-25, picked by the BFI Film Academy Young Programmers.

The incomparable beauty of this unusual biopic stems from the filmmakers’ daring in recognising that reality and fiction are inseparable. We can only know Mishima by getting lost in his works: a labyrinthine hall of mirrors populated by motley characters. With such a tapestry of reflections, the film is less concerned with a clear portrait of Mishima than it is with exploring the ambiguity of his life. Expect a collage of radical creativity and one of the most magical scores in film history.

Young Programmer, Lucas Melián Batista