Schrader’s mesmerizing vision of famed Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima is a dramatic extension of the titular American Gigolo’s transformation into an elusive object of desire, with Mishimasimilarly re-fashioning himself, embellishing his image with militaristic, reactionary politics and a group of devoted followers. Set to a driving Philip Glass score, Schrader’s unconventional biopic interweaves Mishima’s life and work, centering on the events leading to the author’s attempted coup and 1970 suicide and structured by lush adaptations of three Mishima novels, poetic interludes that mark a furthest extreme in Schrader’s use of stylized mise-en-scène.