
Kyodo via Yahoo: Yukio Mishima film found at his home
Midnight Eye "Yukoku" ReviewA film produced by and starring Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), the best-known and most widely translated modern Japanese writer, has been found in a storeroom at his home in Tokyo, a co-producer of the film said Friday. Hiroaki Fujii, who co-produced the film in the 1960s with Mishima, said he found the negative of the film based on Mishima's 1961 novel "Yukoku " (Patriotism) at Mishima's home in Tokyo's Ota Ward in 1996...Fujii said the original negative was saved because he had asked Mishima's wife to keep it. The 30-minute black-and-white film is believed to have signaled Mishima's death as it contains a scene where a lieutenant performs harakiri over the so-called February 26th Incident...more...
Foreign prints of Yukoku have survived...The making of the film was also featured in dramatized form in Paul Schrader's 1984 biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, with Ken Ogata playing the author.