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Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

The film begins on November 25, 1970, the last day of Mishima's life. He finishes a manuscript and then puts on a uniform he designed for himself and meets with four of his most loyal followers from his private army, the Tatenokai.

In flashbacks highlighting episodes from his past life, the viewer sees Mishima's progression from a sickly young boy to one of Japan's most acclaimed writers of the post-war era. In adulthood, Mishima trains himself into the acme of muscular discipline, owing to a morbid and militaristic obsession with masculinity and physical culture. His loathing for the materialism of modern Japan has him turn towards an extremist traditionalism. He establishes the Tatenokai and advocates for reinstating the emperor as head of government.

The biographical sections are interwoven with short dramatizations of three of Mishima's novels: In The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a stuttering aspirant sets fire to the famous Zen Buddhist temple because he feels inferior at the sight of its beauty. Kyoko's House depicts the ultimately fatal sadomasochistic relationship between a middle-aged woman and her young lover, who is in her financial debt. In Runaway Horses, a group of young fanatic nationalists plots to overthrow the government and zaibatsu, with its leader subsequently committing suicide. Dramatizations, frame story, and flashbacks are segmented into the four chapters of the film's title, named Beauty, Art, Action, and Harmony of Pen and Sword.

The film culminates in Mishima and his followers taking hostage a General of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. He addresses the garrison's soldiers, asking them to join him in his struggle to reinstate the Emperor as the nation's sovereign. His speech is largely ignored and ridiculed. Mishima then returns to the General's office and commits seppuku.