I first heard about Yukio Mishima through a friend I deeply loved. She told me he was one of Japan’s greatest writers. Time passed, and one day, almost by impulse, I bought several Philip Glass recordings. One of them was Mishima. I fell in love with the music and listened to it obsessively for over a year.
Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I rented the film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters — which, of course, I could only find on Netflix. Watching a film when you already know the score by heart is an exhilarating experience: you feel every musical accent more intensely, as if the images were suddenly breathing in sync with the sound. The frames seem sharper, more charged, more alive.
Strangely enough, I still haven’t read any of Mishima’s books. But now I finally have a reason to. If anyone has a recommendation on where to begin, I’d love to hear it.
Later, I saw Philip Glass live in Miami with the Screens ensemble. Good stuff.
