The nineteenth century German opera composer Richard Wagner conceived of his operas as "Gesamtkunstwerk" - a "total work of art", where music, literature, acting, set design and indeed the design of the opera house itself would all contribute to the total experience of the viewer. Yukio Mishima took this concept one step further; over time, he evolved the idea of his entire life as a work of art, with the manner of his death forming an artistically appropriate climax to his life. Those who have come to Mishima's life since his suicide in 1970 seem to have taken this idea on board in presenting their interpretations. Thus Paul Schrader's 1985 film covers Mishima's life as represented in three dramatized excerpts from his novels, carefully chosen to reflect Mishima's life in his art, and set within two framing devices: one, a series of biographical reflections on his life, and the other an account of his final day, 25th November 1970.

On that day, Mishima and four other members of his paramilitary "Shield Society", a group of young ultra-nationalists who saw their duty as restoring first the status and then the position of the Emperor in the life of the nation, but who expressed it in a strange mixture of vaguely homoerotic body fetishism and Ruritanian pomp, drove to a military base in Tokyo, took the base commander hostage, and tried to inspire the soldiers to join them in a military coup against the government, When this failed, Mishima and one of the other conspirators committed seppuku (ritual suicide). Many consider that the coup attempt was merely a pretext for the act of suicide.

Schrader's film presents Mishima's life told in flashback from the initial device of the account of the day of his suicide. The other elements of the film are presented in differing styles; the biographical segments are filmed in monochrome and mainly related in voiceover; the three extracts from "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion", "Kyoko's House" and "Runaway Horses" are all shot in highly polychromatic and colour-keyed scenes using somewhat surreal and inventive sets. These extracts are chosen to further suggest themes from Mishima's life; the perfection of art and its destruction to prevent it falling into decay; the imperfection of the body and the artistic need for masochism; and an ultimate need to put duty before all else and to express a willingness to die for an over-arching ideal. The "Runaway Horses" segment in particular is very much chosen for its foreshadowing of Mishima's own death.

Growing up in post-war Japan, in a society that absorbed influences from the USA in particular, Mishima saw what he thought of as the erosion of traditional Japanese values of duty; this was reflected in the creation of his paramilitary militia. The film suggests that the Japanese military tacitly colluded in this, affording his "Shield Society" access to military material and resources. Again, the "Runaway Horses" segment, depicting a 1930s attempt to stage a military coup to overthrow a civilian Government and re-instate the direct rule of the Emperor foreshadows this, and there were other parallel events in more recent Japanese history. The surrender of Japan in 1945 was itself the subject of plotting by the military to circumvent the surrender process and fight on to the death, even though that course of action could well have led to the complete destruction of Japan through massive civilian suicide (this had been observed during the invasion of outlying Japanese islands in the early part of 1945), invasion by massive tripartite Allied forces and possible further atomic attacks on Japanese cities. The very fact that there were those in the military hierarchy who were prepared to consider this course, little short of seppuku on a national scale, suggests that Mishima's nihilistic outlook was shared by some in positions of authority and was behind the tacit support his militaristic activities received.

Schrader's film does not keep much of this away from the viewer. The central character's wounds in "Kyoko's House", imposed on him by a female gangster in return for cancelling the character's mother's debt, are depicted in stark openness; the act of seppuku at the end of "Runaway Horses" is shown clearly, although the final act - decapitation by a second - is not shown (in part because in Mishima's case, his second was unable to complete that act). The biographical segments show Mishima's homosexuality, his body fetishism and the way that these themes combined to bring him to the conclusion that it would be better and nobler to die at a time and in a manner of one's own choosing than to suffer the indignity of the body's decline into old age, infirmity and eventual dissolution.

The film completes the "Gesamtkunstwerk" concept through the iconic score composed by Philip Glass. This has been used in a number of other situations since and will be well-known to many.

Because of the controversial life and death of Mishima, and the treatment of the film - especially its depiction of Mishima's homosexuality, which angered both his widow and much of the political right wing in Japan - it has never been released in that country, and indeed the Japanese co-production role of Toho Studios has been subsequently denied.

The biographical segments were originally narrated in English by Roy Schneider, whilst the Japanese version was narrated by Ken Ogata, who also depicts Mishima in the film. This new release from Criterion, in its Blu-Ray version, complements the production, especially in the highly chromatic novel dramatizations. The Japanese narration is included as default. It is completed with a good range of supporting documentary material, including the BBC 'Arena' documentary on Mishima created to accompany the film's release. There is a substantial booklet with essays on the film and its subsequent release history in Japan, and the packaging is exquisite though surprisingly flimsy in places.

Although this selection of material was released by Criterion in a Region 1 DVD in 2008, this Blu-Ray release is the film's first commercial release in the UK in a Region 2/B version and fills a gap in the range of available fine art films in the British market that has existed for far too long. ( )