Yukio Mishima

A timeless story of first love set in a remote fishing village in Japan. • "A story that is both happy and a work of art.... Altogether a joyous and lovely thing." —The New York Times

A young fisherman is entranced at the sight of the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. They fall in love, but must then endure the calumny and gossip of the villagers.

"After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. But what begins as mere nihilism takes a turn for the unexpected as interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests. What follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots--even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't...

A Japanese lawyer on pilgrimage to Bangkok and India in the early 1940's meets a beautiful young Thai princess and degenerates from spiritual seeker to sexual voyeur.

A classic of modern Japanese fiction. It is the story of an adolescent who must learn to live with the painful fact that he is unlike other young men. Mishima's protagonist discovers that he is becoming a homosexual in a polite, post-war Japan. To survive, he must live behind a mask of propriety. "Confessions of a Mask tells the story of Kochan, an adolescent boy tormented by his burgeoning attraction to men: he wants to be "normal." Kochan is meek-bodied...

All eyes are upon Rikio. And he likes it, mostly. His fans cheer from a roped-off section, screaming and yelling to attract his attention--they would kill for a moment alone with him. Finally the director sets up the shot, the camera begins to roll, someone yells "action"; Rikio, for a moment, transforms into another being, a hardened young yakuza, but as soon as the shot is finished, he slumps back into his own anxieties and obsessions. Being a star,...

"A new selection of Yukio Mishima (author of Spring Snow and The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea) short stories from the 1960s--his final decade--Voices of the Fallen Heroes offers a unique glimpse into the mind of one of Japan's greatest writers. In the title story, "Voices of the Fallen Heroes," a séance brings forth the spirits of young officers in the Imperial Army and the kamikaze pilots of World War II, who reproach the Emperor and...

Depicts the ritual suicide of a naval officer in both Japanese (27 min.) and English (29 min.) versions. Bonus features include an 49-minute audio recording of Mishima at the Foreign Correspondent's Association of Japan, a 50-minute making-of documentary, interview excerpts featuring Mishima discussing World War II and death.