THE LEGACY OF EIKO ISHIOKA
long-time readers of the blog and / or column are probably well aware that i absolutely revere Paul Schrader’s MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS (here’s an essay i wrote on the film for Film School Rejects). Mishma was a man who believed that his life was the ultimate expression of his art, an idea Schrader’s film reflects and explores by animating some of Mishima’s key texts in order to illustrate the extent to which they were a purified extension of their author. Given that Mishima was also obsessed with beauty and the determination of aesthetics, it stands to reason that his biopic is as grand and spectacular a vision as the cinema has ever known. likewise, it’s no coincidence that Criterion’s DVD of the film is arguably (read; definitely) the most beautiful package that the company has ever created.
primarily responsible for the film’s pivotal look was production & costume designer Eiko Ishioka, who died on January 23rd at the age of 73. Incredibly, Mishima was the first film on which she had ever worked (she would later go on to lend her talents to a number of big productions, and even direct Björk’s video for “Cocoon”). Criterion recently posted these Mishima production photos on their site, and i just wanted to saturate them as widely across the internet as i could.
if you haven’t seen Mishima, you should probably go ahead and change that as soon as possible. if you have seen Mishima, you probably haven’t seen Mishima *today,* and you should probably go ahead and change that as soon as possible.
UPDATE: here’s the NYT obit.
