This is the first time I've seen a film that explores religion in a true and complete sense. In less than three hours, I experienced the faith of the last priest in Japan.
The story takes place during the ban on education in the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, and it coincides with the gradual retreat of the country. Japan's ban on Catholicism, in simple terms, was due to the management needs of the shogunate rulers. Compared with the localization of Buddhism, the ruler has the right to participate in the grant and management, while Catholicism is an independent existence that is not bound by the ruler. This is enough reason to cause a crisis of domination to the shogunate.
The film takes place at a time when a series of conventional bans are used to coerce, and even after torture to death, he gradually understands the existence of the glorious tradition of martyrdom, and turns to various attacks at the ideological level.
So the experience of the protagonist in the film emerges.
The entire film leads me to constantly ask the following three questions.
First, the understanding of faith.
Those Japanese villagers and the two Portuguese Jesuit priests, both of whom believe in Catholicism, understand some doctrines, but their substantive understandings are not the same. Even the two priests were not the same.
1) After welcoming the priest, the villagers "repented" all night long. Is it because of the suffering that made them want to find a harbor to dock, complain alone, have something to say, or do they really feel remorse and want to repent? 2) The villagers' mothers hug After the child was baptized by the priest, he only cared about one question: can the child go to heaven now. She didn't know much about Catholicism, and regarded baptism as a kind of life guarantee. 3) After being arrested, the protagonist is afraid of death. Looking at the quiet and peaceful faces of the other villagers, he asked with anger, "Why are you not afraid of death?" The female villager replied, "Because we will go to heaven after we die. Heaven is better than here, there is no poverty, no hunger, and no labor. There is no tax.” 4) The two priests are also different. One faces the villagers’ ignorant dependence on Catholicism and points out coldly, while the other chooses to follow the trend on the surface. What is more important to them.
Therefore, people who actually understand different things are still called one religion. If religion enters a place, there will be a combination of localization, then religion enters a person will also be individualized, and on the whole, it will become different. In this regard, Rodriguez has such a question to himself, which is roughly like this "their representation of faith is stronger than the firmness of faith, but how can I deny them."
Second, the relationship between faith and life.
However, in the face of greater suffering, people of the same faith will choose different paths, especially in the film where they often encounter the choice of the order of personal life and faith. Whoever chooses to die will say that it must be the power of faith, not disappointment in the world and yearning for heaven; whoever chooses to live will say that it must not be the power of faith, let them stick to it and keep them silent. How to choose this kind of question, even to make a quick decision like Yoshijiro, or to make a decision with a long experience like Rodriguez.
Should we be true to our own life first, or to our faith first. How should we settle down and stand firm?
"Why is my answer so weak when they pray to me?" Rodriguez asked again.
Third, when faith faces silence, where is the Lord.
The world has gone through great suffering, but the Lord has never responded. How many times, Rodriguez asked
"How Can I Explain the Silence of the Lord to These People"
"I'm trying to find out what I can do for CHRIS"
"Waiting in your silence is desperate / But I can't do anything / Because you're not here"
"Promise me, you should never abandon me, you should never abandon me, you should never abandon me."
Later, when Rodriguez chose the same path as his mentor, the two checked to see if the foreign object was Catholic.
The teacher replied, "Only our Lord can judge us." Rodriguez asked, "You said, our Lord." The teacher replied, "I doubt it."
Later, a Japanese aide commented on Rodriguez's choice, "You were not defeated by me, you were defeated by the big swamp in Japan, welcome to Japan."
The rhythm in the back of the film is getting faster and faster, and Rodriguez rarely shows inner dialogue. There is a rare passage like "Lord, I resisted your silence / I suffered with you, but I was never silent / I Knowing / Even though the Lord has been silent / Until this day / I know that all I do is His command / In the dark, I hear your command"
In the end, Rodriguez ushered in death. At the funeral in the form of Buddhism, the camera pulled to the fiery heart under the burning body - a cross lying quietly there. At this time, the narration unfolded as follows: "He lost the Lord, but in fact, only the Lord can answer."
Facing silence with silence, waiting for silence, this is the answer given by Rodriguez. Maybe, whatever the heart is, everything that happens outside the choices is irrelevant.
This movie is good. The only thing that I personally think can be improved is the shot of the cross in the heart at the end. If it can be less straightforward, will it be more suitable for silence.
Tolstoy's repeated and contradictory views of religion made his understanding especially profound. In his later years, he said to Gorky: "A few people need a God, because they have everything except God; most people also need a God, Because they have nothing."
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