432-433 Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters & Patriotism

[aox]

I haven't seen the bio pic, but I did sit down and watch Patriotism. It is now my favorite short film. So beautiful. I didn't think anyone could pull off a story about suicide so wonderfully and fill 20-30 minutes of my attention, but here we are.

[Balthazar493]

Does anyone else see a parallel between Mishima and John Wayne in that they both avoided the draft in WWII and then both went on to fine-tune an apparently compensating "superpatriot" image? Or am I just drinking too much this afternoon?

Well, Mishima was an intellectual, a novelist, and a homosexual. The more interesting (and plausible) comparison is with Pasolini. Born within three years of one another (b/w 1922 and 1925), both of them had established, albeit controversial, cultural reputations in their respective countries prior to becoming involved, in the sixties, with filmmaking. Both had negative responses to the student upheavals of the late 1960s (although Pasolini's "reactionary" stance could hardly be called militaristic). And both had spectacularly "public" deaths.

As for John Wayne: uh, he had a very different kind of life. Plus, he was born in 1907 (so it's hard to see how he avoided the draft in the 1940s, when he would have been about 35 years old).

[kaujot]

And both had spectacularly "public" deaths.

I think their deaths are about as different as deaths can be. Mishima's was, absolutely, spectacularly public. It was death as a ritual. But wasn't Pasolini murdered in an alleyway, and his body run over by his car multiple times?

[Balthazar493]

And both had spectacularly "public" deaths.

I think their deaths are about as different as deaths can be. Mishima's was, absolutely, spectacularly public. It was death as a ritual. But wasn't Pasolini murdered in an alleyway, and his body run over by his car multiple times?

Well, first of all their deaths – and the way they were treated in the press of their respective countries – are far more similar than the deaths of Mishima and, uh, John Wayne.

Also, you might be interested to read the comments by Pasolini's life-long friend Giuseppe Zigaina about Pasolini's death, which he sees as in some sense "staged" by the filmmaker himself. I myself find Zigaina's claims rather problematic, and would not over-stress the relation between Pasolini's death and Mishima's. But I do think their lives/work intersect in several fascinating ways. This was my main point.

BTW If you're interested in reading it, Zigaina's essay is the first article in the recent collection Pier Paolo Pasolini and Death.

[In Heaven]

John Wayne and Mishima were both, in very different ways, killed by their own works, though. Be it radioactivity or superpatriotism.

[Cronenfly]

From Criterion's main page:

Eiko Readying for Beijing Olympics
Academy Award–winning costume and set designer Eiko Ishioka, who won a special citation from the Cannes Film Festival for her stunning visual design on Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, has been chosen as one of five creative directors for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Working under supervising director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern), Ishioka will be in charge of all the costumes for the three-and-a-half-hour opening spectacular, set against the backdrop of the National Stadium. The Beijing Olympics begin on August 8.

[Cold Bishop]

Plus, he was born in 1907 (so it's hard to see how he avoided the draft in the 1940s, when he would have been about 35 years old).

It's not that he avoided the draft, so much that he didn't enlist, the way other major stars of the same age (Gable, Fonda, Stewart, etc.) did.

[TheGodfather]

I watched Mishima for the first time today and really loved it. The set design and art-direction looked gorgeous, the music was excellent and the acting was great. It did took me a little bit of time to get "into the story" though. I`ll be re-watching this many more times and I think my appreciation will only grow once I see it more often.

[Murasaki53]

Just thought I'd let people know that Ken Ogata has died (from longstanding liver cancer from what I can gather).

I'll leave this message here and on the Vengeance is Mine thread in the Masters of Cinema section of the Forum.

Of course we all know what a terrific actor he was but my wife (who is Japanese) tells me that his versatility was one of his great strengths. Apparently, he was rather adept at nailing regional accents convincingly.

[zombeaner]

Just thought I'd let people know that Ken Ogata has died (from longstanding liver cancer from what I can gather).

I'll leave this message here and on the Vengeance is Mine thread in the Masters of Cinema section of the Forum.

Of course we all know what a terrific actor he was but my wife (who is Japanese) tells me that his versatility was one of his great strengths. Apparently, he was rather adept at nailing regional accents convincingly.

Wow. He was a wonderful actor and he will be missed.

[tavernier]

It was posted a week ago in the Passages section.

[GringoTex]

I'm uneasy about dismissing this film because I know so little about Mishima, but a few thoughts:

1) I felt a distinct clang of Western treatment and Japanese subject matter. Maybe Japanese really do open their films by melodramatically waking up to a phone and aping into the mirror, but I've never seen them do it in their movies.

2) Are Mishima's novels as artifical and garish as Schrader suggests? Are his fictions a soundstage? Are they cardboard? Do his protagonists eat pink-colored noodles as Schrader has them do?

3) What differentiates Mishima's bodyworship from Riefenstahl's? Is it a coincidence that the two governments they made art for waged the greatest crime of the 20th century?

4) Ken Ogata's the only thing I can remember frame for frame in this film.

[Tommaso]

2) Are Mishima's novels as artifical and garish as Schrader suggests? Are his fictions a soundstage? Are they cardboard? Do his protagonists eat pink-colored noodles as Schrader has them do?

In a word: no. Mishima's writings, different as they are stylistically (which might also be an effect of different translators at work), are basically 'realistic' in the way things are described. Mishima's characters are normally very carefully constructed and have a clear psychology, even though a certain 'decadent' sensibility is often lurking somewhere in the background. Especially his late works (the so-called "Sea of Fertility"-cycle) also contain extended passages of philosophical considerations on religion or the clash of Western and Japanese culture, and these considerations are much more thoughtful than Mishima's real-life actions would suggest. So the sometimes quite artificial rendering in the film is due to Schrader's treatment. For me it works, though; I suppose it would be well-nigh impossible to give a really differentiated account of Mishima's positions and thoughts in a two-hour film.

3) What differentiates Mishima's bodyworship from Riefenstahl's? Is it a coincidence that the two governments they made art for waged the greatest crime of the 20th century?

A damn good question. In both cases, the bodyworship is primarily of an erotic nature, obviously. The combination with fascist politics to me is not necessarily a natural outcome of it, though Mishima obviously embraced right-wing politics, while with Riefenstahl the case is more complicated (i.e. I'm just not fully sure whether she simply ignored what was going on around her or only said so afterwards). Whereas for Riefenstahl it obviously was an erotic object she was admiring, the 'manliness' for Mishima was also something which he wanted to be a model for himself (narcissism) in addition. Nevertheless, I guess the kind of 'fascism' these two authors/directors flirted with is of a different nature; at least nothing in Mishima's writings, as far as I read them, indicates any sort of the racism or the anti-intellectual stance that Nazism has.

[Matango]

As I see it, Riefenstahl's body worship was part of a wider fitness movement in Germany that reached its height in the 1930s, while Mishima's was a personal reaction to his own very puny natural build, and the fun that was made of him because of it.

As for Japan commiting one of the greatest crimes of the century, what would that be? Nanking? You'd have to line up the USA ahead of Japan, I think, with two A bombs dropped and a decade of indiscriminate slaughter in Indochina just for starters.

[GringoTex]

As for Japan commiting one of the greatest crimes of the century, what would that be? Nanking? You'd have to line up the USA ahead of Japan, I think, with two A bombs dropped and a decade of indiscriminate slaughter in Indochina just for starters.

I was referring to the Tripartite Pact, which formally united the aggressors of a war that killed 55 million people.

[Tommaso]

As I see it, Riefenstahl's body worship was part of a wider fitness movement in Germany that reached its height in the 1930s . . .

That is certainly true, but it doesn't quite explain why she stuck to it so much longer. Her 1970s photographs of the Nuba people show, as has been variously pointed out, still the same obsession with the body; perhaps one can argue that the body worship for her was part of a more general search for 'natural' beauty, as can be seen even in her underwater photographs and the "Impressionen unter Wasser" film, not to speak of the mythic landscapes of "Das blaue Licht". Such a general obsession with beauty, then, would align her somewhat with Mishima, again, or at least with the protagonist of "The Golden Pavilion".

[colinr0380]

I felt that the Western/Japanese clash was consciously played up in the film in order to emphasise that discongruity rather than to play it down, adding another layer of interpretation onto the film and making into a sort of "Personal Journey Through Yukio Mishima With Paul Schrader".

It might be better to compare Mishima's political and militaristic ambitions as being in the vein of a military junta attempting to seize (or 'take' ) power for themselves!

I don't think Mishima was making art for a particular government as Reifenstahl did (it is surely a reduction but I generally don't consider Reifenstahl to have been one of the great movers and shakers of National Socialism, more a member of the group tasked with putting the best spin on the movement she was associated with, her fascination with and skill at eroticising the power of the body fitting neatly into ideas of bodily 'perfection') but was creating his own ideology, at the same time as moulding himself into its figurehead and advertising it to others, which was outside of the government of the time. It was as much a private ideology as a public one and as such didn't fit neatly into pre-existing governmental or military (or literary, or body building, or sexual) structures.

I don't think this is simply a culture specific thing either - here in Britain there still seem to be people who look back through rose-tinted glasses at the age where the "sun never set on the British Empire" and talk about regaining (or restoring) some indefinable quality of 'Britishness' that has in their opinion been lost. It might be related to a certain conservative mindset but is often a more extreme right ring position than even a conservative government generally espouses. Though a notable political example could be Thatcher's appeal for a return to Victorian values.

It is an a form of nostalgia that can inform an approach and attitude to the present in dangerous ways if a person with that philosophy is in a position to actively try to mould the current times in retrograde ways to recapture mythical past 'glories' without any consideration of the damage they are going to do to fabric of the modern society (or a consideration that such damage is 'worth it' in the long term). That could be considered to be another form of narcissism.

[knives]

I just finished watching Patriotism, and wow. Definitely deserving of its spine. It says so much about loyalty, love, and bravery in so little time using so little. The themes as a whole were the most exciting things for me. I was constantly thinking. oddly enough it reminded me very much of a Woody Allen, or probably more accurately Bergman, film in this respect. This went beyond my wildest expectations and I only hope Schrader was able to capture this spirit in his film.

But god does this one make me question myself. What would I do in the soldier's position, in his wife's? I don't know and am very afraid to find out. It's almost a horror story in a way. Wonder how it would work as a double feature with the Seventh Seal?

Also does anyone know the budget for this one, the special effects on the suicides were integrated very well.

[colinr0380]

A quick post noting that a theatrical run of Madame De Sade with Judi Dench, Frances Barber and Rosamund Pike is currently getting scathing reviews in the British press (it was also ripped to shreds on BBCs Newsnight Review show), with many of commentators blaming the wordy quality of the source material for the play's failure. Having not read this work myself I wondered if anyone here could shed some light on where it falls among Mishima's works?

[Tommaso]

I just finished watching Patriotism, and wow. Definitely deserving of its spine. It says so much about loyalty, love, and bravery in so little time using so little.
[...]
But god does this one make me question myself. What would I do in the soldier's position, in his wife's? I don't know and am very afraid to find out.

You sound very much like the ideal viewer Mishima would have had in mind for his film at the time. However, I find it difficult to accept the film so much at face value as you seem to do. While it is obvious that the film points very much to Mishima's own concepts in his later life and with hindsight plays like a preliminary staging of his own death, one shouldn't forget that it is indeed a staging, an almost laboratory investigation of those concepts of "loyalty, love and bravery" you mention. The film doesn't offer more than one perspective on these, but his (later) literary works do. The death-wish and enthusiasm for loyalty to the Emperor of the main character of "Runaway Horses" (1969, and dealing with the same political events as "Patriotism), is constantly countered by a distancing perspective from other characters and - while not losing the quality of 'admirability' - is ultimately shown as futile. Mishima was a far too differentiated thinker not to see the many tensions and illusions of following this 'code of honour' in the way that the lieutenant in "Patriotism" or Isao in "Runaway Horses" do. That Mishima finally opted to overcome these tensions by seppuku in the way he did is not a contradiction, though. But I think he was aware that his act was futile, unlike the lieutenant in the film.

Colin, I haven't read "Madame de Sade" either, but from what I gather from the Guardian review it seems to fit very much into the general scheme of things of Mishima's late works as an investigation of the fascinating but also very problematic coming together of eros, violence and death. I don't know whether the play indeed is as wordy as the commentator describes, but I have the feeling that although Mishima was a great writer in general, the writing of dialogue was not one of his strengths. It can appear stilted and wordy even in the novels, though of course it's very hard to say something definitive if one must rely on a translatation. However, the only thing I would say about everything I read from Mishima is that he is NEVER boring, so I would assume that the play is at least worth checking out, regardless of what the critics say.

[knives]

I agree it is rather single minded and from my understanding of the man he gave better things, but the thoughts of what the alternatives are don't bring much more promise (I think running away would have been better, but I'm not Mishima). The catch-22 of the situation is what really got to me. Mishima lays out his case well enough, but I do disagree with him a lot (just the thought of an Emperor as more then a figure head is silly to me). This may actually be why I liked it so much. He shows one path, but leaves the others open for the viewer to consider. Finally I wanted to make clear that I think the soldier took the wrong way out.

[jbeall]

As always, I love the intelligent discussion here--thanks Tommaso and knives.

Patriotism has been sitting in my kevyip pile for awhile now b/c I read Mishima's short story first and thought it was atrocious. Terribly sentimental, very pedantic, very one-sided, with archetypes rather than characters, and it made me reluctant to sit through the film even though it's only 27 mins. Now, however, I'll get to it pronto.

I can only echo Tommaso re: Runaway Horses, which is brilliant. It's been over a decade since I read The Sea of Fertility series, and excepting the final novel, they're excellent and much better fleshed-out than I found Patriotism to be.

I'll hopefully edit this post after actually watching the film.

[knives]

Drat! Now I'll have to read his other works. I too found the story to be a bit over the top and sentimental, but as images it swallows much easier. I'll probably start with Confessions of a Mask instead of Runaway Horses though.

[Tommaso]

Patriotism has been sitting in my kevyip pile for awhile now b/c I read Mishima's short story first and thought it was atrocious. Terribly sentimental, very pedantic, very one-sided, with archetypes rather than characters, and it made me reluctant to sit through the film even though it's only 27 mins. Now, however, I'll get to it pronto.

The short story, while not atrocious to me, is certainly weaker and shows an unhealthy wallowing in blood and self-indulgence. That it has a certain 'archetypal' character didn't disturb me much, as Mishima clearly wants to express a general idea or a mode of thinking/behaviour in an idealized setting. He in a way does the same in the film, but manages to get a much more 'poetical' (as opposed to 'sentimental' or 'narcisstic') tone into it. As a film, it's probably as much over the top as the story, but it's far less graphic and ultimately, in my view, far more successful in representing the ideas of honour, love and death that obsessed Mishima so much at this time.

I agree with you when you say that "The Decay of the Angel" is not quite up to the rest of the tetralogy. By all I heard, he rushed the writing of it in order to get his final 'great act' done. But the book thematically is very significant in pointing out the complete disillusion of his hopes in 'the youth' and for a renaissance of the 'old Japan' he was probably dreaming of. The difference between Isao and his 'reincarnation' Toru is more than striking and of course quite symbolical.

[roeg]

"Mishima" is one of my favourite films and I got the Criterion-dvd a few weeks ago. The only thing I can say that every dvd should be like that. Wonderful picture, beautiful design and lots of extras. When I watched the movie I just thought if only they did the same kind of biographical movies today and not the same movie again and again with different titles. Some days later I watched for example the Marilyn Monroe movie (1996) and it was shockingly unmemorable despite the presence of very good actors. The main problem is the predictibility: you can tell what happens next before the upcoming scene. "Now, he/she will be famous." Next scene: "He/she will suffer." Thirty minutes later: "He/she will die and the audience hopefully cry." When watching "Mishima" you forget all this. It's surreal, non-linear and extremely well directed: a masterpiece.