How sad is this?

As Good As It Gets

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

This film, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, and written and directed by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo), is one I never would have heard of, if not listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I hoped it would be good. Basically it is a fictionalised biopic, in four chapters of, about the life and work of celebrated Japanese writer Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata). Set on 25th November 1970, the last day of his life, he is seen finishing a manuscript, then he puts on a uniform to meet with his most loyal followers from his private army. In flashbacks, we see Mishima's progression, from sickly young boy to one of Japan's most acclaimed writers of the post-war era. He is loathsome of materialism of modern Japan, and sets up his own private army, proclaiming to reinstate the emperor as the head of state. The biographical sections are interwoven with short dramatizations of three of his novels: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Kyoko's House, and Runaway Horses. The film culminates in Mishima and his followers taking hostage a General of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, he makes an address to the garrison's soldiers, asking them to join his struggle to reinstate the Emperor as the nation's sovereign, his speech is largely ignored and ridiculed. It ends with Mishima returning to the General's office and committing seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Also starring Naoko Ôtani as Mother, Haruko Katô as Grandmother, Yuki Nagahara as Mishima, age 5, Masato Aizawa as Mishima, age 9-14, Gô Rijû as Mishima, age 18-19 and Junkichi Orimoto as General Mashita, and narrated by Roy Scheider. It is an interesting story, there are some memorable moments, both fictional and non-fictional, the use of scenery and colour is terrific, and the score composed by Philip Glass is great, including music I recognised that was used in the ending of The Truman Show, not a bad biographical drama. Worth watching!

Mishima seemed to be a person constantly trying to grasp (or become) his vision of ultimate beauty. Early in life, he saw beauty in women (Beauty chapter, weaved in with "The Temple of the Golden Pavilon"). Then he had sex, which made him realize true beauty didn't lie in women. Then he began to think that dying for a cause ("exploding like a firework") would be the only way he could reach this beauty. He was too cowardly, however, and didn't truly want to die. He then began to think that achieving a perfect body is the true form of beauty. Then finally, by training his army which he tried to make as pure as his art (by practicing samurai beliefs) and devising a plan to unite art and action, so that he could finally achieve "harmony of pen and sword", something he had always striven for.The way the film is structured is utterly genius. It is a wholly unique film. It is obviously cut into four chapters (all of which I've just described), Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword. The film delves into each of Mishima's attempts to find true beauty, showing his real life past in black and white, and dramatizations of his novels in vibrant color with extravagant stage-like sets and lighting, cutting both his life and segments from his novel together to show how his life mirrored his art and vice versa, and finally, cuts between the very end of his life in color, leading up to his final "harmony of pen and sword" through his impassioned speech after kidnapping a military general, before finally freeing himself through death. The structure of the film in four chapters also represents how Mishima himself viewed his life: as a constant struggle to transcend mere superficial and materialistic forms of art and to free himself from his constant search to find beauty (which included his own body and novels, which were both ways to attempt to find true beauty). The style of the film is perfect for the subject, and this is one of the only films I've seen which could truly tell the complete tale of the life of an eccentric genius, and show us how he thought. The urgency of the constant score of the film also fits perfectly with the urgency of Mishima's search for beauty and the urgency at which he wrote.

The film, original and hypnotizing depicting of the fascinating Artist's life through his writings, works, especially in the first two chapters, "Beauty" and "Art". They are nothing short of perfection if you ask me. Amazing blend of three different styles - quasi documentary of the last day in his life, black-and-white flashbacks of his earlier days and exiting and stylish color sequences of his novels "The Temple of Golden Pavilion" and "Kyoko's House" helps to understand the constant and tragic search of Mishima's protagonists for beauty and for meaning of art. Two last chapters, "Action" and "Harmony of Pen and Sword" seem weaker than the first two. Two hours are not enough to explore the figure of such complexity but the attempt is very interesting and adds to my interest in Mishima - a great writer, actor, director, a military man, a man who felt that he knew where the future of his country lied and who did not hesitate a second to die for his ideas.7.5/10

Spoilers herein.Paul Schrader isn't an accomplished man in terms of creating novel visions. But he is an alert and active thinker of things cinematic. Whatever he does is worth pondering, even when the picture itself is flawed in some ways. (And even when one of his Italian director friends changes his ideas.)In this case, we have what I consider his most complex notion: a film about a man who lived his life as if it were a film, moreover a film that he could and did write. Even that idea could have been handled in a pedestrian manner, by showing the man and his life. But except for the final suicide episode, Schrader doesn't show the `real' life -- instead he stages episodes from the writings, mostly in a Kabukified dream manner.Schrader's commentary on this DVD is one of the best I know. It remarks that though this life was based on fabrication, the movie was mandated to be based on truth. But the original fiction the subject created is preferred by the Japanese authorities (and apparently the public, still) so the thing has never been released in Japan and the Japanese financiers have denied being so.Adds another level of fabrication to an already rich project.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.