Yukio Mishima presages his own carefully staged suicide by seppuku four years earlier with this stunning silent short, his only film as director, about a young soldier who commits ritual suicide with his devoted wife when his pro militarist rebellion is squelched. The black and white images are dreamy and beautiful, especially in a poetic episode where the pair make love for the final time, starkly contrasting with the bloody, violent, and painstakingly accurate depiction of the suicide to follow. Released alongside Paul Schrader’s glorious Mishima bio-pic, Criterion’s release of this long unavailable and controversial film is a DVD milestone, presenting the 30-minute short with a documentary nearly double the length of the original, filled with survivors who remember fondly Mishima’s independent production, shot secretly on a Toho sound stage, and the shocking day in 1970 when he stormed a government building, declared his dedication to the Emperor, and like a samurai 200 years in the past, so publicly took his own life.