- Actors: Yukio Mishima, Yoshiko Tsuruoka
- Directors: Yukio Mishima, Masaki Dômoto
- Writers: Yukio Mishima
- Producers: Yukio Mishima, Hiroaki Fujii
- Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
- Language Japanese
- Subtitles: English
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Criterion
- DVD Release Date: 1 July 2008
- Run Time: 30 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0016AKSOQ
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 54,735 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details |
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The main feature is only half an hour long and is sublime. A decent new 50 minute documentary is included along with Mishima audio recordings and interviews. Theres also a packed 74 page book(let) included which contains Mishimas original short story on he subject.
I've not gone into detail on the contents of the release as its good to come to the title without any forewarning if you don't know the history of this project!
Well worth investigating!
I've not gone into detail on the contents of the release as its good to come to the title without any forewarning if you don't know the history of this project!
Well worth investigating!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mishima constantly rehearsed his final moments as memory fragments relating back to his early life script surfaced. All was revealed in his "Confessions". Saint Sebastian pierced by arrows, the act of being penetrated ultimately revealing his inner life force.
Myriads of afficianados have scratched and puzzled their bald palates over why? Attachment theory, Bowlby and Spitz provide the clear answers. Those never deemed to have a body, revealed in Sun and Steel are forever trying to chase its contours. Bodies form though the touch and care of significant others. Mishima appears to have been left alone, his mother feeding him on demand every hours. Left to lie in the cradle, Mishima reveals words came first before he became aware of his musculature. Eaten away by white ants throughout his life he forever chased his corporeality. Pumping himself through weights and steroids to create his garden around his citadel, he finally wished to penetrate and behold himself as a human being.
Patriotism became a vehicle for the Elvis flecked bisexual rockabilly who lived in a Roccoco house to adope the uniform of the Japanese army officer and re-enact in R D Laing-speak the classic double bind, dammed if you, crucified if you don't. The No stage is the re-enactment stripped of the nuances of the story. This is a straight re-enactment of the final curtain.
Orientalists may admire the curve of the sword, the nature of the cuts, the whiteness of the palor, the minimalism of the theatre. Those in the psychological health field can gaze on a man who never knew himself and deludedly took his life to affirm being alive. The trauma cascading onto his wife, children and family.
In between his birth and the death exquisite moments of beauty unfold. This marks the end, shuttering to a close, a man so bereft of hope, the fear of growing old and lacking in the comforts of the people around him, he chose self penetrations and denigration.
Watch with horror.
Myriads of afficianados have scratched and puzzled their bald palates over why? Attachment theory, Bowlby and Spitz provide the clear answers. Those never deemed to have a body, revealed in Sun and Steel are forever trying to chase its contours. Bodies form though the touch and care of significant others. Mishima appears to have been left alone, his mother feeding him on demand every hours. Left to lie in the cradle, Mishima reveals words came first before he became aware of his musculature. Eaten away by white ants throughout his life he forever chased his corporeality. Pumping himself through weights and steroids to create his garden around his citadel, he finally wished to penetrate and behold himself as a human being.
Patriotism became a vehicle for the Elvis flecked bisexual rockabilly who lived in a Roccoco house to adope the uniform of the Japanese army officer and re-enact in R D Laing-speak the classic double bind, dammed if you, crucified if you don't. The No stage is the re-enactment stripped of the nuances of the story. This is a straight re-enactment of the final curtain.
Orientalists may admire the curve of the sword, the nature of the cuts, the whiteness of the palor, the minimalism of the theatre. Those in the psychological health field can gaze on a man who never knew himself and deludedly took his life to affirm being alive. The trauma cascading onto his wife, children and family.
In between his birth and the death exquisite moments of beauty unfold. This marks the end, shuttering to a close, a man so bereft of hope, the fear of growing old and lacking in the comforts of the people around him, he chose self penetrations and denigration.
Watch with horror.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
for your entertainment and consideration, hara-kiri
19 Jun 2010
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Patriotism is an amateur short art film. It was shot on a single set in black and white. Without dialogue, the sound track is a complete and unbroken excerpt from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." The subject matter is the ritual suicide of a Japanese army officer and his wife.
I will admit to having a weak stomach. Between the nihilism that passes for entertainment in America today and film buffs who refuse to look away in disgust, we have an entire cinematic culture of violence, epitomized by films I won't even watch like Hostel. Yes, I have a weak stomach, but that doesn't mean I can't tell the difference between a shoot-em-up action flick, a horror film, etc, and it doesn't change the fact that death, pain, and murder are parts of life. Therefore, I find writer/director Mishima confusing and both fascinating and revolting. This has been true ever since I saw "A Life in Four Chapters" in high school and started reading Mishima's work. What do you make of someone who actually conflates sexuality, death, youth, not as a poseur but in his own mind? Aside from Mishima's own suicide, Patriotism is his clearest expression of this tendency. It is appropriately difficult to know what to make of it. The film consists almost entirely of a scene of lovemaking followed by a scene of disembowelment. The actors are attractive and youthful, and the camera lingers over their bodies, as it does eventually over their bloodstains. The film is technically good and affecting, but not enjoyable. It is difficult to watch. Has it expanded my understanding or my artistic appreciation? I'm not sure. I can't recommend it or pan it. It exists out there, and you can choose to look or not. I for one place no value on choosing to look, although I had to myself.
As reviewer Neil Kambeaze points out, Criterion has put together a great package that includes a printed booklet with the original short story in the DVD extras. The short story goes even beyond the film as Mishima attempts to get inside the head of the dying man and explore the experience of pain and death, something more thoroughly done in prose than on screen. I agree with Neil that the short story is stomach churning, and I almost regret reading it.
If you are not a Mishima enthusiast, you might want to skip this one. Also, if you have not seen or read anything of Mishima before, I would definitely not start with Patriotism. Four stars for great packaging and technically well-made film.
I will admit to having a weak stomach. Between the nihilism that passes for entertainment in America today and film buffs who refuse to look away in disgust, we have an entire cinematic culture of violence, epitomized by films I won't even watch like Hostel. Yes, I have a weak stomach, but that doesn't mean I can't tell the difference between a shoot-em-up action flick, a horror film, etc, and it doesn't change the fact that death, pain, and murder are parts of life. Therefore, I find writer/director Mishima confusing and both fascinating and revolting. This has been true ever since I saw "A Life in Four Chapters" in high school and started reading Mishima's work. What do you make of someone who actually conflates sexuality, death, youth, not as a poseur but in his own mind? Aside from Mishima's own suicide, Patriotism is his clearest expression of this tendency. It is appropriately difficult to know what to make of it. The film consists almost entirely of a scene of lovemaking followed by a scene of disembowelment. The actors are attractive and youthful, and the camera lingers over their bodies, as it does eventually over their bloodstains. The film is technically good and affecting, but not enjoyable. It is difficult to watch. Has it expanded my understanding or my artistic appreciation? I'm not sure. I can't recommend it or pan it. It exists out there, and you can choose to look or not. I for one place no value on choosing to look, although I had to myself.
As reviewer Neil Kambeaze points out, Criterion has put together a great package that includes a printed booklet with the original short story in the DVD extras. The short story goes even beyond the film as Mishima attempts to get inside the head of the dying man and explore the experience of pain and death, something more thoroughly done in prose than on screen. I agree with Neil that the short story is stomach churning, and I almost regret reading it.
If you are not a Mishima enthusiast, you might want to skip this one. Also, if you have not seen or read anything of Mishima before, I would definitely not start with Patriotism. Four stars for great packaging and technically well-made film.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Horrifyingly Beautiful
9 Feb 2011
Format:DVD
What can I say about this short film? It's 27 minutes of some of the most amazing filming I have seen.
The Criterion version has an 'English Version' in which the scrolls are replaced with English words. It doesn't really affect the actual film... but I still viewed the Japanese version in which captions translate the wording.
The extras are amazing. There are two interviews with Mishima from around this time which are just plain eerie. He discusses Japan's defeat in the war and what that meant to him as well as his views on death. Again... just eerie. There are also several blocks of an audio only Q&A session by the Foreign press in which Mishima answers in very good English. There is one more interview with the surviving crew from the filming.
The film itself is gut wrenching (literally). Filming in black and white was the right choice. The set is arranged in a Noh theater style with sparse settings and stylized touches (such as the snow on the tree). Mishima actually provides a great performance. His Co-star Yoshiko Tsuruoka is also very good.
There is a bit of a graphic moment where Mishima actually opens his belly, but I couldn't Not watch. It's kind of gruesome, but being in black and white gives it the appearance of ink, and as it stretches on the floor like a spilled inkwell.
Even if Mishima had not committed Seppuku later in his life, this film would still be haunting and mesmerizing. The fact that Mishima visited the same fate several years later only adds to the shock of this film.
Also of note: this film was lost and all surviving copies ordered destroyed my Mishima's widow. This copy was found in a tea cellar in 2005 and luckily Criterion got the thumbs up to restore and release it. Something with this much power and magnitude deserves to be preserved and viewed by generations to come.
The Criterion version has an 'English Version' in which the scrolls are replaced with English words. It doesn't really affect the actual film... but I still viewed the Japanese version in which captions translate the wording.
The extras are amazing. There are two interviews with Mishima from around this time which are just plain eerie. He discusses Japan's defeat in the war and what that meant to him as well as his views on death. Again... just eerie. There are also several blocks of an audio only Q&A session by the Foreign press in which Mishima answers in very good English. There is one more interview with the surviving crew from the filming.
The film itself is gut wrenching (literally). Filming in black and white was the right choice. The set is arranged in a Noh theater style with sparse settings and stylized touches (such as the snow on the tree). Mishima actually provides a great performance. His Co-star Yoshiko Tsuruoka is also very good.
There is a bit of a graphic moment where Mishima actually opens his belly, but I couldn't Not watch. It's kind of gruesome, but being in black and white gives it the appearance of ink, and as it stretches on the floor like a spilled inkwell.
Even if Mishima had not committed Seppuku later in his life, this film would still be haunting and mesmerizing. The fact that Mishima visited the same fate several years later only adds to the shock of this film.
Also of note: this film was lost and all surviving copies ordered destroyed my Mishima's widow. This copy was found in a tea cellar in 2005 and luckily Criterion got the thumbs up to restore and release it. Something with this much power and magnitude deserves to be preserved and viewed by generations to come.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Stunning film
24 Feb 2010
Format:DVD
Forget all the other stuff - this is film making at its' best. Wonderfully conceived, beautifully filmed. I only wish that we had directors today that could put as much passion and story telling on the screen with such economy. Essential viewing for any student of film and any aspiring screenwriter, DP or director.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
