Ted Mills, All Music Guide

Philip Glass' soundtrack to Paul Schrader's retelling of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima is one of his strongest early scores, one that retains his essential "Glass-ness," but begins to bring in elements of narrative, creating distinct sounds for each of the sections of Schrader's non-linear storytelling structure. So for Mishima's final day — when he tried to stage a military coup and ended up committing suicide — Glass creates tense, suspenseful music with dashes of military drumming. For the sections retelling Mishima's short story Kyoko's House, he recasts his main theme into a composition for '50s-style surf-rock ensemble — bizarre stuff, indeed. This is stirring, potent music that never once condescends to throw in some sort of Japanese instrument. As a side note, the ever-adept Kronos Quartet handle much of the string sections of this album.

Marc Weidenbaum, Amazon.com

Writer-director Paul Schrader's films are always as memorable for their music as they are for their visuals--sometimes more so. Think of Giorgio Moroder's synthesizers pulsing through Cat People; think of Blondie's anthem for American Gigolo; think of Scott Johnson's remarkable score for Patty Hearst--and think of the full suite of music composed by Philip Glass for Schrader's ode to the deeply conflicted Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima. With its gilded, impressionistic set and its plot-eschewing cinematic vision, Mishima depended upon Glass's compositions for grounding. Despite the Japanese setting, the music is pan-global, typical of Glass's genre-absorbing minimalist style. A standout track is "Osamu's Theme," which features a catchy rock & roll guitar part against a string setting. And the album's quartets feature none other than the Kronos Quartet.

© Frank Steven Groen