Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Year:
Duration:
121 min
Genres:
Biography | Drama
IMDB rate:
7.9
Director:
Paul Schrader
Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination
Details
Country: USA
Release Date: 1985-09-20
Filming Locations: Tokyo, Japan
Earnings
Budget: $5,000,000
Opening Weekend: $10,378 (USA) (15 September 1985)
Gross: $437,547 (USA) (27 October 1985)
Cast
Actor
Character
Ken Ogata
Yukio Mishima (segment "November 25, 1970")
Masayuki Shionoya
Morita (segment "November 25, 1970")
Hiroshi Mikami
Cadet #1 (segment "November 25, 1970")
Junya Fukuda
Cadet #2 (segment "November 25, 1970")
Shigeto Tachihara
Cadet #3 (segment "November 25, 1970")
Junkichi Orimoto
General Mashita (segment "November 25, 1970")
Naoko Ôtani
Mother (segment "Flashbacks")
Gô Rijû
Mishima, age 18-19 (segment "Flashbacks")
Masato Aizawa
Mishima - age 9-14 (segment "Flashbacks")
Yuki Nagahara
Mishima, age 5 (segment "Flashbacks")
Kyûzô Kobayashi
Literary Friend (segment "Flashbacks")
Yuuki Kitazume
Dancing Friend (segment "Flashbacks")
Haruko Kato
Grandmother (segment "Flashbacks")
Yasosuke Bando
Mizoguchi (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")
Hisako Manda
Mariko (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")
Naomi Oki
First Girl (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")
Miki Takakura
Second Girl (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")
Imari Tsujikoichi Sato
Madame (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion") (as Imari Tsuji)
Kôichi Satô
Kashiwagi (segment "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion")
Kenji Sawada
Osamu (segment "Kyoko's House")
Reisen Ri
Kiyomi (segment "Kyoko's House")
Setsuko Karasuma
Mitsuko (segment "Kyoko's House")
Tadanori Yokoo
Natsuo (segment "Kyoko's House")
Mitsuru Hirata
Thug (segment "Kyoko's House")
Toshiyuki Nagashima
Isao (segment "Runaway Horses")
Hiroshi Katsuno
Lieutenant Hori (segment "Runaway Horses")
Naoya Makoto
Kendo Instructor (segment "Runaway Horses")
Hiroki Ida
Izutsu (segment "Runaway Horses")
Jun Negami
Kurahara (segment "Runaway Horses")
Ryô Ikebe
Interrogator (segment "Runaway Horses")
Toshio Hosokawa
'Rokumeikan' Producer
Hideo Fukuhara
Military Doctor
Yosuke Mizuno
'Yukoku' Producer
Eimei Esumi
Ichigaya Aide-de-Camp
Minoru Hodaka
Ichigaya Colonel
Shôichirô Sakata
Isao's Classmate
Alan Poul
American Reporter (as Alan Mark Poul)
Ren Ebata
Reporter #1
Yasuhiro Arai
Reporter #2
Fumio Mizushima
Reporter #3
Shinji Miura
Pavilion Acolyte
Yuichi Sato
Student
Sachiko Akagi
Thug's Girl Friend
Tsutomu Harada
Romeo
Mami Okamoto
Juliet
Atsushi Takayama
Interrogation Policeman
Kimiko Ito
Grandmother's Nurse
Kojiro Oka
First MP
Tatsuya Hiragaki
Actor #1
Shinichi Nosaka
Policeman
Sachiko Hidari
Osamu's Mother
Roy Scheider
Narrator (voice)
Chishû Ryû
A monk (uncredited)
Did you know?
Trivia
The unusual visual distortion as Mishima commits Seppuku was accomplished by simultaneously pulling the camera backwards and zooming the camera lens forward.
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Mishima's actual words are used as narration, in Japanese by Ken Ogata in the restored version, and in English by Roy Scheider in the original theatrical release.
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There are two versions of the film, one with English narration by Roy Scheider, the other with Japanese narration by Ken Ogata. The Ogata version also has scenes added by Paul Schrader that were cut out from the original 1985 release. These scenes were added by Schrader to the Criterion DVD release. Paul Schrader : "We did quite a bit of work on it--John Bailey and I worked a week redoing the D.I. and balancing the color. We did great work to the soundtrack. We added a short little scene that I had cut out featuring Chishu Ryu, the Ozu actor, that I always regretted cutting out--we found the original negative and I put that back in. I did some sky replacement at the end of "Runaway Horses" because I wasn't really happy with the shots at the end. We were able to go back and replace the natural sky with an artificial sky. Then we went back to the original digital on Philip Glass' soundtrack and so the sound is much better on the Criterion version. We also put Ken Ogata's narration in, so now it finally has Japanese narration."
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Goofs
In the road scene, when Mishima and his crew are going to the Ministery of Defence, many models of cars can be seen which existed when the movie was filmed, but did not exist in the year the events happened (1970).
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Chiba Koga did not try to strangle Mashita with the polishing cloth. He had given the polishing cloth to Mishima to wipe the sword and used his hands to throttle the General from behind.
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It was Morita, not Mishima, who locked the doors. When he saw that some doors couldn't be locked, Mishima ordered them barricaded.
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Quotes
Reporter No. 2: Who would you like to be?
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Mariko: Only knowledge can turn life's unbearableness into a weapon.
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Yukio Mishima (Narrator): Creating something beautiful and becoming beautiful oneself are indistinguishable.
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Photos from cast
Yasuaki Kurata
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