Patriotism (Japan, 1966)

Two characters on a Noh stage dramatize the rite of love and death of Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his wife Reiko. Takeyama was one of a cadre of young officers who staged a coup d'état in February, 1936. He was not arrested when the coup failed, but as an officer of the palace guard, he knew he would be given the order to execute his friends. The night before the execution, he and his wife prepare for hara-kiri, first with passion without shyness, then in uniform and kimono with sword and dagger. Calligraphy figures in the preparation, as Reiko gathers her keepsakes to give to survivors.

I've written about Yukio Mishima before and how the movie Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) tells the story of his bitter end. In short, he committed suicide by seppuku following an unsuccessful coup. Four years before he directs the short film Patriotism which deals mainly with the act of seppuku (a.k.a. harakiri), and treats it all like a Noh play (classical Japanese musical drama) with static shots and long close-ups.  The act itself is portrayed with seemingly no censorship at all and for 1966 this must have been extremely graphic. Mishima himself plays the Lieutenant and one can't help but think of the irony of fate. After Mishima's own suicide the film was ordered to be destroyed and all copies burned, but many years later the original negatives were found and received a restored release, and I'm very glad that happened because it's a huge puzzle piece in the enigma of Yukio Mishima and offers a stunning and fascinating insight into his mind. The lighting and the beautiful black and white photography comes together perfectly, and you would never guess this was Mishima's directorial debut.

Patriotism is a short yet fantastic insight into Japanese culture, and erupts in one of the most gory and realistic depictions of one of Japans most mythical and ancient traditions, seppuku.

Genre: Drama/Short. 25min.

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (US/Japan, 1985)

A fictionalized account in four chapters of the life of celebrated Japanese author Yukio Mishima. Three of the segments parallel events in Mishima's life with his novels (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses), while the fourth depicts the actual events of the 25th Nov. 1970, "The Last Day".

Mishima is actually directed by an American film-maker, Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) but a film about Yukio Mishima seems too good to pass up. Mishima was a nationalist and founded his own right-wing militia. In 1970, he and three other members of his militia staged an attempted coup d'état when they seized control of a Japanese military base and took the commander hostage, then tried and failed to inspire a coup to restore the Emperor's pre-war powers. Mishima then committed ritual suicide by seppuku. 

It's a fascinating history and it feels like it easily could have been very melodramatic and unnecessarily violent in the hands of the wrong director, but Schrader portrays the events with the greatest of respects. Not only does he carefully tell the story and all of its context, but at the same time bringing it to life with fantastic, dreamlike cinematography and all sorts of playful ways of using his camera. The films production designer, Eiko Ishioka, was tracked down by Schrader after the team had seen her work on the Japanese poster for Apocalypse Now (1979), and had this to say about the work on Mishima:

"It would be like the sets themselves were characters, as though they were actors, and they would challenge the real actors. So that when the sets and the actors came together, they’d set off a spark and a new kind of energy."

I just really adore how this movie looks, and Eiko's idea of making each of the films segment's be filmed in what looks like theatrical sets gives the film rich, numerous personalities. I could post screenshots from it all day long, but I'll try to refrain from that. Superb film about a maybe somewhat less-known piece of Japanese history. 

Mishima could be called a samurai film set in modern days, with how Yukio tried his best to honor the traditions and ways of the bushido, so in the end when his crushing defeat was unavoidable he also chose to die like a samurai. 

Genre: Biography/Drama