Silence (2016)
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Two 17th-century Jesuit priests travel from Portugal to Edo period Japan to find a missing mentor and spread the faith amidst intense persecution.
The story
In 1640, two Portuguese Jesuit priests, Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe, travel from Macau to Japan to locate their mentor, Cristóvão Ferreira, who has reportedly apostatized. Guided by a local fisherman who secretly harbors his own faith, the pair arrives in a Japanese village where they find local Christians practicing in secret. They must navigate a landscape of extreme danger and religious persecution as they attempt to provide spiritual guidance and find their missing mentor in a land where the faith is being violently suppressed by authorities.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1640, Jesuit priests Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garupe travel from Macau to Japan to find their mentor, Cristóvão Ferreira, who has apostatized. They encounter local Christians and a fisherman named Kichijirō who secretly maintains his faith. After various trials where they are forced to witness the persecution of others, the priests are separated. Rodrigues eventually finds Ferreira, who has integrated into Japanese society and believes Christianity has no place in Japan. Rodrigues is forced to make a profound choice regarding his faith when he hears what he believes is the voice of Jesus. He eventually takes a Japanese name and lives out his life in Japan. The film concludes with his death, where his wife places a small, hidden crucifix in his hand.
- First release year
- 2016
- Runtime (minutes)
- 161
- Production countries
- United States; United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English; Japanese
- Directors
- Martin Scorsese
- Writers
- Jay Cocks · screenplay; Martin Scorsese · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Andrew Garfield · Sebastião Rodrigues; Adam Driver · Francisco Garupe; Tadanobu Asano · The Interpreter; Ciarán Hinds · Jesuit Alessandro Valignano and the voice of Jesus; Liam Neeson · Jesuit Cristóvão Ferreira
- Genres
- historical drama
- Themes
- faith; spiritual struggle; sacrifice; persecution
- Tone and mood
- somber; spiritual; tense
- Premise and plot tags
- religious drama; historical epic; faith-based
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1966 novel by Japanese author Shūsaku Endō
- Reception
- The film received critical acclaim and was praised for its spiritual depth and performances, though it was a box office failure.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 83% · scale: percentage · review count: 286; Metacritic · score: 79 · scale: 100 · review count: 48
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Cinematography · nomination
- Production trivia
- The production was filmed in Taiwan to manage costs.; The film is the third of Scorsese's films about religious figures.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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