Silence

Rumored to have denounced faith in Christ, a beyond-continental search for Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) in Japan begins with two of his most loyal disciples, namely Sebastião (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco (Adam Driver). Were they able to find him? What's the mystery behind said allegation? What fate is lurking inside the muddy swamps of Japan, waiting for the advent of these young Padres? Trust Silence to tell you the answers.

Maestro Martin Scorsese has treated his passion project like a prayer. Along the quest, we, through the eyes and mind of Sebastião, are questioning God by holding a spiritual lantern with staunch faith and unshakable devotion. The beauty of God can be seen in the very nature. At times of crisis, we see how commoners hold on to the one religion they believe in. And the padres are the representative persona to them. But what if interruptions start to disrupt that prayer's peace? Yes, that's exactly how it strikes the audience when the believers are tortured! Brutal! Cruel! Disturbing! Being burnt alive, head chopped off, seized for capture, drowned, rushed by continuous tidal waves, pressed to step on Jesus' image, head buried upside down into the ground, hot spring poured on naked bodies, coerced to spit on a Holy Cross and forced to apostatize are the treatments we're talking about here! These attempts are not only to injure the Christians physically, but mentally and psychologically as well. Their faiths crushed. Souls twisted. The Japanese went all the way through to distort the gospel. It is terrifying to witness such sweeping persecution for spreading Christianity, where the process is canned to precision from second to second! One does not have to be a Christian in order to understand their pain and suffering.

And what do these result to? Suspense! Thriller! We have seen what the antagonists will do if Christians are caught, therefore begs the question… what will happen to our protagonist? Will he be captured too? Even though the priests are carrying noble intentions, they have to be in constant hideout, locked away from being seen by anyone. Eyes are everywhere. Who can be trusted? The argument to select the fourth scapegoat and the hearing sessions are samples of scenes we higher our guns up for. The mission is clear and simple as the script sets up. But, the screenstory becomes dreadfully slow from the point the confrontations begin upon setting foot on the shores of Japan up till the Midpoint event where Sebastião gets caught by the inquisitor, played naturally by Issey Ogata. Imagine you're in a divine meditation. Would you be able to devote full concentration with absolute calmness for two plus hours? No, there will be distractions and disturbances. The same thing can be said about this portion of the picture, which owes to Scorsese's matured, utopian and nonpareil quality of direction for being the only saving grace.

As the plot grows, you feel extremely pitiful of Sebastião that you could carve your heart out for him. What the Japanese had in mind for him is smart. Killing him is easy. But, using him as a tool nurtures a greater purpose. He could be the prime example of a fallen believer, whom could easily influence the converts to do the same as well. And Father Ferreira is there to persuade future priests like Sebastião. The first meeting between these two is one of the best sequences! Father Ferreira who is now Sawano Chūan, explains clearly how the Japanese can't see truth that transcend tangible realism. The moment when Sebastião steps on a fumi-e is the heaviest dramatic burden for us to watch and bear! The runtime should have ended a little while after this particular scene, because the story has come to a conclusion and the character's arc has reached its bottom end. Yes, his unshakable loyalty to Christ shown in the epilogue is an important piece of information, but to extend the line till his death could have been cut short or dispensed altogether as it is totally unnecessary. While being truthful to Christianity, the film also does raise queries against it subtly. Can the same sin committed over and over again be forgotten if multiple confessions are done? If so, where's the repent? What's the point of confessions and forgiveness? Should goodness be force-fed and spread, or silence is the best answer for the opposite? As a side note, it must be mentioned that the character named Kichijiro (Yōsuke Kubozuka), with his constant betrayals and falling back, is super annoying!

By far the biggest issue would be the ability of the Japanese locals to speak English and fluent English at that during the 1600s. There are selected few countries in our world that has their language pride soaring the sky, and Japan is not excluded from that list. See, priests were there for years to deliver religious teachings, not English classes. For the locals to converse in English flawlessly is extremely unconvincing. But here's the thing. In the case of this movie, it is unavoidable. You are installing two English speaking characters in a country where no one is. The story wouldn't move anywhere without communication! But it comes at the expense of believability. If it's a couple of characters doing it, it's understandable and excusable. But for most of the villagers to do the same, it no longer makes sense. Even the interpreter (Tadanobu Asano) has minimal function other than to spill poison and occasionally expositions, because most of the main characters in Japan are sharing the same tongue with the protagonist. Silence could have employed a rather smart technique used in Bryan Singer's 2008 Valkyrie, where we see the German language slowly morphing into English for the audience in the beginning, suggesting it's a transliteration and it was smooth! Or, since this is a novel adaptation, why not change the location of the premise to an English speaking country, yet retain all the elements needed to convey the same tale? This is filmmaking we are talking about, which means anything could be done. Historically speaking, Japan is not the only nation that rejected Christianity in the first place, correct? However, at the end of the day, in the vast ocean of Silence's breathtaking cinemascope, this downside is nothing but a few hundred droplets, that's all.

Rodrigo Prieto's camerawork arrests your breath! The dark and somber tone, together with the blue sea, mist, river, cliffs, mountains and ridges are to gape in awe at! The lighting is pristine, where it's just at the right level to show and make you feel it's night time, yet allow you to see things on the frames clearly. Furthermore, there's a small point in the film editing where the background narration turns into letter content, which is simply brilliant! However, the aging effect for Andrew's character could have been much better. See, getting old is not just about amassing white hair. There'll be plenty of body and facial texture changes that should be addressed too as part of the aging process. No questions about authenticity could be thought of regarding Japanese honor, setting, people and the culture shown. Not to forget, look out for the amazing visual effects showing Jesus' face reflection on water surface