Conflagration Dir: Ichikawa Kon   Scrs: Wada Natto, Hasebe Keiji Original Story: Mishima Yukio   Prod: Nagata Masaichi Prod Co: Daiei Motion Picture (later Kadokawa) Cast: Ichikawa Raizo, Nakamura Ganjiro, Nakadai Tatsuya, Kitabayashi Tanie 1958 / B&W / 35mm / Japanese / Eng Subtitles / 99min

Conflagration is based on Mishima Yukio's best-selling novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, which was inspired by the actual 1950 burning of the temple, a national treasure. The film portrays the psychological disintegration of a young temple acolyte, his descent exemplary of the post-war generation's disturbing cynicism and the temple the target of his scorn emblematic of society's ills. Ichikawa tells his story with a fragmented flashback structure, aided by the haunting compliment of Mayuzumi Toshiro's avant-garde music.