True experiments with the form of narrative film are very rare. Even the difficult European directors whose films are avoided by most Americans usually are not really experimenting, but are working in known, but less popular, forms. Even more rare than true experiments are successful ones.
Most bold attempts are too bold.
It generally takes a few tries before the new ideas really work. Mishima is a biographical film, one of the less likely areas for experimentation, one might think. Biographical film has been more or less dominated by the Warner Brothers model from the 1930s, where Paul Muni dressed up as someone famous and acted noble. Gandhi , for instance, works from this model. So does such a film as Coal Miner's Daughter .