Chinmoku

This is probably the most powerful movie I have ever seen. Two Portuguese missionaries come Japan just as the authorities are stamping out Christianity in the 1500's. They seek to minister to the local Christians who are sorely persecuted.

The movie asks whether Christianity can really ever grow or thrive in Japan.

Besides just the persecution, is the Christianity in Japan the same as in Europe, or has it become its own religion? It is also an examination of the struggles in one man's faith undergoing inquisition-like sufferings.

I have read the book and seen the play, but I would say that the movie had the most emotional impact.

A couple of people compare this earliest adaptation of Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel with Scorsese's, which is rather strange because Shinoda Masahiro is one of the most important directors of the Japanese New Wave, on a par with Nagisa Oshima and Shôhei Imamura - almost as influential for Japanese cinema as Scorsese himself has been. Oshima is popular in the West because his films emulate the Nouvelle Vague, and Imamura won the Golden Palm twice because of his universal approach to class struggle. Shinoda is more difficult to relate to because he relies on cultural metaphors which are difficult to decipher for foreigners.

"Silence" is not his best film if you know the novel, for which Endo was long expected to receive the Nobel Prize. The book describes the story of two missionaries arriving in Japan after the ban on Christianity matter-of-fact from the perspective of the priest Rodrigo, who undergoes a transformation from spiritual idealization to materialistic resignation. Shinoda faithfully adapts the dialogue-heavy plot and adds color symbols and a good deal of sadistic voyeurism, but this doesn't work well. There is too much contrast between intellectual discourse and violent imagery, although the idea might be that you cannot reconcile the two.

What makes "Silence" still more interesting than Scorsese's film is the perspective. Instead of foreigners observing their Japanese surroundings, it is the Japanese class system which observes the foreigner, and his ultimate capitulation derives from realizing that he can not be a subject, only an object of his faith.

"Chinmoku" is a movie about two Portuguese missionaries that come to Japan to spread their faith at a time when, after a long period of flourishing, Christianism finds itself forbidden in Japan. The main character, padre Rodrigues, is eventually captured, imprisoned and tortured in an attempt to make him deny his faith in an act - however purely formal - of treading on a holy image.

But that is not the most important thing to the film. Although I did not find it as emotionally strong as I expected (but don't misunderstand me, it still is very moving) and rather slow-paced, maybe even a little boring in the beginning, it actually turned out very deep in the end, leaving in me a lot of questions... After starting in a tone which clearly shows the Christians as good people unjustly persecuted by the cruel Japanese government, you will slowly realize, during the first discussions between Rodrigues and his judges, that the problem is far from being that simple, and by the time Padre Ferreiro, whom the Japanese made deny his faith, enters the scene... I'm not able to tell which side you'll be on, but you'll be definitely asking yourself a lot of questions about how far should one go in defending one's faith, whether the weak that rather tread on the holy image than die really deserve nothing but contempt and, most of all, whether it is right when other people suffer because of YOUR religion...

If you liked Bergman's "The Seventh Seal", this one's definitely a must-see!!!

This historical movie tells the story of Rodrigo, a Portuguese priest who suffered from the suppression of Christianity in the early Edo period and found himself on the verge of apostasy. Word reaches Rome that Father Ferreira has apostatized after being severely tortured in Japan. Ferreira's disciple, Rodrigo, goes to Japan to find out the truth, but is captured by the magistrate after being tipped off by Kichijiro. Rodrigo begins to doubt God, wondering "Why does God remain silent while he watches me suffer?" Then he steps on the treadmill. A masterpiece depicting the anguish of apostates. The original author, Shusaku Endo, was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Graham Greene, a strong advocate of Endo, praised the novel as "In my opinion one of the finest novels of our time." Endo was baptized in junior high school. Realizing the contradiction between being Japanese and Christian, he chose to make a lifelong effort to reexamine Christianity as a Japanese. I had mixed feelings about this film because my family is Nichiren Buddhist, I myself graduated from a university with Protestant founding principles, and I have an American friend who is a Catholic woman. Director: Masahiro Shinoda Cast: David Lampson, Shima Iwashita, Mako Iwamatsu.

Because outside some dialogues and similar scenes I honestly don't see nothing identical between the two. What I saw is bad acting from the main american lead who evidently could not care less to learn some portuguese (why you talk in english if you're gonna be subbed anyway? Go straigh for portuguese), general boredom, scenes that are meant to be powerful and emotional yet they're not felt in any way like the martyrdom of the three christians from the first village and the death of Father Garrupe, cheesy scenes with prostitutes of whom the Japanese must have had some serious infatuation back in the day seeing how they were a constant presence in the movies of this era, bad acting again from the guy who portrays Father Ferreira, a lot of "Tell, don't show" that Scorsese intelligently avoided, and so on...also, the thematics could not be different since here there are no questions about the existance of god or not, it's not what the movie focuses on. The movie just wants to portray an historical event as it is, with no personal questions of faith inbetween, like Scorsese tried to do with his work. Honestly, even if I'm not a religious guy in any way, I suggest you to rewatch the excellent scorsese flick instead of watching this dreck. Avoid it, even if the snob Japanese cinema connoseurs say you otherwise.