Silence
1971
Adapted from the renowned novel by Shusaku Endo, Masahiro Shinoda's 1971 film Silence (Chinmoku, co-written with Endo) explores the violent cultural conflict amid the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in seventeenth-century Japan. Shinoda's excellent direction — coupled with a pensive score by the legendary Toru Takemitsu — gives .. Read more
| Starring | Shima Iwashita, Yoshi Kato, Don Kenny, David Lampson |
|---|---|
| Director | Masahiro Shinoda |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Silence
Adapted from the renowned novel by Shusaku Endo, Masahiro Shinoda's 1971 film Silence (Chinmoku, co-written with Endo) explores the violent cultural conflict amid the arrival of Jesuit missionaries in seventeenth-century Japan. Shinoda's excellent direction — coupled with a pensive score by the legendary Toru Takemitsu — gives cinematic expression to inner spiritual paradox, and imbues with religious mystery a landscape that seems already sentient with wind, rain, and light.
Two Portuguese priests disembark upon an anonymous Japanese shore. Under cover of nightfall, they seek to infiltrate those Christian sects driven underground by a ruthless magistracy, and re-establish the foothold of the Church on the isolated island-nation. Soon, however, the priests find themselves drawn into the mire of persecution, and gradually learn the truth behind the ominous disappearance of another Catholic missionary decades earlier...
| Starring | Shima Iwashita, Yoshi Kato, Don Kenny, David Lampson, Mako, Noboru Matsuhashi, Tetsuro Tamba |
|---|---|
| Director | Masahiro Shinoda |
| Studio | ARVATO |
| Run time | DVD: 2 hrs 9 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Japanese |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 24 Sep 2007 Production year: 1971 |
| Format | DVD |
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Most helpful member's review
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13 out of 13 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Hard work, but well worth it
This film is very hard-going, so be warned, but, like the other Shinoda currently available from Eureka, 'Assassination', it is well worth it for those who adjust to its glacial pace and its muscular, unsparing arguments. It dramatises the last gasps of the Jesuits' attempts to spread Christianity to Japan, in the face of official disapproval, and popular efforts to change the religion to make it more Buddhist-friendly. Shinoda takes no side in the ensuing debate, demonstrating instead the hard, unforgiving nature of religion and politics in general, and making it quite clear that, faced with the horrors of which men are capable, God is powerless. It is His silence to which the title refers.
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Most recent members' review
View all -
13 out of 13 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Hard work, but well worth it
This film is very hard-going, so be warned, but, like the other Shinoda currently available from Eureka, 'Assassination', it is well worth it for those who adjust to its glacial pace and its muscular, unsparing arguments. It dramatises the last gasps of the Jesuits' attempts to spread Christianity to Japan, in the face of official disapproval, and popular efforts to change the religion to make it more Buddhist-friendly. Shinoda takes no side in the ensuing debate, demonstrating instead the hard, unforgiving nature of religion and politics in general, and making it quite clear that, faced with the horrors of which men are capable, God is powerless. It is His silence to which the title refers.
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