I was really curious to find out more about Yukio Mishima. I read a little about him before watching this documentary and I was very keen to see some more information on his life and impact on Japanese culture.
Sadly, this was a very dry documentary about an otherwise interesting man. Mishima was obviously a very interesting and convoluted man, but this documentary fell flat when it came to presenting snippets of his life. John Hurt, who is usually great at narrating documentaries of this irk, seemed like he was on autopilot. He almost put me to sleep.
I think a great documentary needs to leave you with a feeling of wanting to know more about the subject. The documentary achieved this, but not in a positive way. Whilst I felt I learned some things about Mishima, I was left feeling like a had to do a lot of research to truly understand him and his views. Perhaps it's because he was a complex man, but I feel that the documentary did a poor job at exposing me to him and his life.
Recommended if you want to see some archive footage of the man himself, otherwise you could probably find out more about him from your own research.