Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters Page #3

You've read the letters?

You three must not

follow our example.

But we're ready to -

The letters are very clear.

No matter what happens,

make sure the general

does not commit seppuku.

This is our day...

not his.

Sensei, we've talked it over.

We want to die with you.

Why must we be left behind?

This is my final day.

I've said good-bye to my parents,

my girlfriend, everyone.

You...

must stay alive.

You must defend

our actions in court.

We want to be with you

to the end.

You refuse to obey orders?

Morita and I are going to do our duty.

You must do yours.

Understand?

Don't worry.

We'll meet again.

Everyone ready?

Let's go.

At the end of the war,

I felt left behind.

I thought I was

the symbol of my times -

a kamikaze for beauty.

But I'd only been

a boy who wrote bad poetry.

I quit my job at the Ministry of Finance

to become a writer.

I wrote Confessions of a Mask

in six months.

Thirst for Love

took five months.

Forbidden Colors took nine,

Sound of Waves four,

Modern Noh Dramas three,

The Temple

of the Golden Pavilion ten.

The rehearsals look great.

Easy for you to say.

Why worry?

You're already the youngest writer...

to publish

his Collected Works.

What good is it

if I'm not translated in the West?

Sound of Waves

was translated.

One book.

Four, five languages?

Six.

It's like a dream come true.

But it feels like being confined

to a hospital bed.

A luxurious hospital bed.

Can't I just have the bed?

Every night I return to my desk

precisely at midnight.

I thoroughly analyze why I am

attracted to a particular theme.

I drag everything

into my conscious mind.

I boil it into abstraction.

I am constantly calculating

until I sit down to write.

Only then can my unconscious

dreams take over.

Kyoko's House

Published 1959

Come, night! Come, Romeo!

Come, gentle night.

Osamu?

Who were you with last night?

I don't remember.

Who'd you sleep with?

What a thing

to say to your mother.

Besides...

he was too drunk to walk.

Nothing goes right

for me anymore.

You should see

the loan on this place.

I can't even buy lipstick.

My back gets worse and worse.

I could die

and nobody would care.

What's so funny?

I love how you exaggerate

your misery,

like some

cheap movie poster.

You even look the part -

like the madam

of a French brothel.

How would you know?

You've never left Tokyo.

Besides, I'm not exaggerating.

You're never here

when the loan sharks come.

Do me a favor, please.

Go see them.

I need six months more.

It's getting

so I can't sleep anymore.

I'm busy.

Doing what? Daydreaming?

Like you.

Theater?

Wait.

Got a role?

What do you think?

Would they look good in tights?

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