The famous Yukio Mishima story, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, adapted to film in Kon Ishikawa’s Conflagration. A triumphant retelling of the deeply troubled character story, where the preservation of beauty makes Raizo Ichikawa (Goichi Mizoguchi), fly into an enraged and violent jealousy. Ishikawa’s vision for the film better understands Goichi trauma, and how his upbringing influences his mannerisms and actions. It helps us better understand the dangerous obsession to the temple and the overwhelming feelings he harbors towards its unrequited beauty. In the absence of universal peace and aesthetic beauty, we see the self-destruction of Goichi from the inside-out. … More The best adaptation of Yukia Mishima’s “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” comes in Conflagration (1958)