DIRECTOR: Paul Schrader
PRODUCERS: Yamamoto Mataichirō, Tom Luddy
PRODUCTION CO: Horizon Pictures, Romulus Films
SCREENPLAY: Leonard Schrader, Paul Schrader, Chieko Schrader
PHOTOGRAPHY: John Bailey
EDITORS: Michael Chandler, Oshima Tomoyo
MUSIC: Philip Glass
WITH: Ken Ogata (Yukio Mishima), Yasosuke Bandō (Mizoguchi), Kōichi Satō (Kashiwagi), Hisako Manda (Mariko),  Kenji Sawada (Osamu), Reisen Lee (Kiyomi), Setsuko Karasuma (Mitsuko), Toshiyuki Nagashima (Isao), Hiroshi Katsuno (Lieutenant Hori)

​FESTIVALS: Cannes, Toronto

REVIEW

“Paul Schrader’s lifelong cinematic search for God’s loneliest man reached its apogee with this 1985 examination of Japanese author and eccentric Yukio Mishima. Part straight biopic, part stylised interpretation of Mishima’s headspace, the film is a breathless plunge into the creative soul that was unparalleled until Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There.

Mishima was a fairly unsavoury character: unbearably self-important, obsessed with surface beauty and eager to turn back the clock on Japan’s modernisation. But in Schrader’s hands he becomes likeable, even laudable, possessed of a dry wit, a grandiose sense of personal honour and a restless dedication to his art.

​ And it’s how Schrader depicts this art that provides the film’s most astonishing moments, recreating key scenes from Mishima’s novels on stunningly designed, luridly textured soundstages and exploring the parallels between personal and artistic development.

​Graced with a throbbing orchestral score from Philip Glass and John Bailey’s luminous photography, this is appropriately monumental filmmaking.”

– Tom Huddleston, Time Out

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Tauranga   Luxe Tauranga
Wednesday, 20 March, 6.00pm 

Auckland   
Monday, 15 April, 6.15pm 

Wellington     
Monday, 29 April, 6.15pm 

New Plymouth
Wednesday, 15 May, 6.00pm

Nelson     
Wednesday, 19 June, 6.00pm

Timaru
Tuesday, 02 July, 6.30pm

Palmerston North
Wednesday, 07 August, 6.00pm

Canterbury     
Monday, 23 September, 7.00pm

​Whanganui
Monday, 04 November, 7.00pm

Hamilton   
Monday, 25 November, 6.30pm
CULT CLASSICS selection >>