Patriotism (憂國)

PATRIOTISM or THE RITE OF LOVE AND DEATH

Based on the Short Story "PATRIOTISM" by YUKIO MISHIMA

Produced, Directed, Acted and Written by YUKIO MISHIMA

Associate Producer HIROAKI FUJII

Associate Director MASAKI DOMOTO

Director of Photography KIMIO WATANABE

Cast:

Lieutenant Takeyama YUKIO MISHIMA

Reiko, His Wife YOSHIKO TSURUOKA

In February 1936, Tokyo was placed under martial law

following a coup d'état executed by a group of young military officers.

They maintained that they were far more loyal to the emperor

than the corrupt cabinet members they murdered.

Lieutenant Takeyama was a member of this secret society,

but it was decided that he should not participate in the coup d'état.

The others did not want to implicate him,

because they knew how much he loved Reiko, his beautiful young bride.

It seemed at first that the coup had been successful,

but in a few days people began to look on it as a minor uprising

soon to be quelled by an imperial injunction.

Lieutenant Takeyama was still a member of the palace guard.

The time when he would have to fight against his comrades-in-arms,

to execute his closest friends as rebels, was drawing near.

The Rite of Love and Death takes place on the Japanese Noh stage.

CHAPTER I - REIKO

Reiko, the lieutenant's wife, has seen in her husband's face

his resolution to die as he leaves for the palace

on the snowy morning following the coup d'état.

If he should fail to return alive, she is determined to follow him in death.

As she gathers the keepsakes she will leave behind for her parents and friends,

she calls up tender memories of her husband's love...

WHOLEHEARTED SINCERITY