Sightlines · reception
How Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters was received
1985 · Paul Schrader · Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters on Sightlines
The arc
A box-office flop in 1985 that couldn't even open in Japan — right-wing threats and objections from Mishima's widow kept it off Japanese screens — it's since been canonized as Schrader's masterpiece, with the Criterion treatment and a standing reputation as the biopic done right.
What’s debated
The perennial film-fan claim that this is 'the greatest biopic ever made' — and the counter-debate over whether an American outsider could, or should, be the one to tell Mishima's story.
Its footprint
Philip Glass's score escaped the film entirely — a concert-hall staple (his String Quartet No. 3 is literally titled 'Mishima') — while Eiko Ishioka's candy-coloured stage-set sequences are endlessly screenshotted as some of the most striking production design of the 1980s.
Where it stands
A cinephile touchstone and Letterboxd darling — the consensus 'Schrader's best film' pick and a rite-of-passage watch for anyone who claims to care about biopics.
Did you know? The film was executive-produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, won Best Artistic Contribution at Cannes 1985 — and has still never had an official theatrical release in Japan.