Watch Patriotism For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Undescribable Perfection

One of my all time favorites.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

make sure to watch the version with the new score by aaron embry. it's much more beautiful as the ambient music adds so much to the film where the older music made it seem dated which was unfortunate because the cinematography was so ahead of it's time..

"Yûkoku" is a 29-minute Japanese black-and-white short film and certainly among the country's most known short film, especially if we talk about live action. There is no spoken dialogue in here, so if you watch the version with English text, you will understand everything properly. The story is a double-edged sword (no pun intended). I personally did not really like it. I thought the intimacy between the 2 main characters was portrayed nicely and made this a very emotional watch for the first half. The actual suicide scenes did not do too much for me. Yukio Mishima wrote, co-directed and starred in this little movie. He died less than 5 years later from actual suicide, which gives the whole thing an awkward note. The best thing about this film is certainly the way the deep love between the 2 protagonists is displayed. No surprise Mishima's real wife wanted to ban this film and make it disappear, especially in a country like Japan, which is certainly not as open-minded when it comes to sexuality as many other countries are. Luckily for everybody who want to watch it, the movie survived. Still, I myself do not recommend it. I hoped it would be better.

(This review contains graphic spoilers) Only film directed by Yukio Mishima is a 30 minute story about honor and death.Based upon one of his short stories Patriotism tells the story of a Captain involved in the 1936 coup against the Japanese government who is ordered to kill all of the conspirators. The Captain though involved in the planing did not take part out of deference to his wife. The conspirators never betrayed his part in in the plan. Unable to turn his back on his loyal friends he chooses to commit suicide as does his wife.Brief graphic tone poem that was filmed on a Noh stage, it is felt by many as one of the numerous dress rehearsals for Mishima's own bloody end. Shot in a moody black and white with a sense of unreality that makes it very real, this is a fetishistic mediation on life, death and honor that effects the viewer in an extremely visceral way.(I will leave the viewer to get what he can from its sound and images).Its a kick in the gut even before we get to the suicides as we are forced to think about honor and what it means to alive. The suicide, though filmed silent (the soundtrack is a scratchy record of European classical music)is so intense that one can almost hear the scream from Mishima's lips when he drives the blade into himself. I won't say anymore other than its drawn out and graphic in a way I've never seen before. (clearly there is a reason why those committing Seppuku are helped along by a friend who beheads them.) I was left shaken by the experience. I can not imagine how audiences in 1966 when this was made reacted when they saw it for the first time. I knew what was going to happen and it still unnerved me. I know I will be contemplating it for days to come.I don't know what to say. It is a masterpiece that is weirdly overshadowed by its creators death and life. It is a haunting experience for those with a strong will.

This is a beautiful black and white version of Yukio Mishima's short story, titled Patriotism in English. It depicts the love suicide of a Japanese lieutenant (of the pre-WWII Imperial Army) and his wife. Artfully staged and photographed, it was filmed without sound. There is an audio track of Wagner's Liebestod, but occasional dialogue is shown only as moving lips, and the basic story is conveyed by hand-written scrolls. The silence has a cool, distancing effect that plays well against the core violence of the piece. The lieutenant's hara-kiri is shown graphically--predicting Mishima's own death some four years later. The choice of the Libestod was a bit obvious as a bridge between Mishima's romantic fantasies and those of his equally theatrical German predecessor. This, and the predictable blood spatters, lend a touch of kitsch to this otherwise powerful film. I ordered this from Play-Asia.com, and got a two disc set. Both show the entire film, one with Japanese writing, and one with English scrolls substituted.