1
I watched this movie because of Garfield. However, when I searched for the original novel, I found that I wanted to read it as early as 2014. (Read afterwards)
The core of the story is very simple: when believing in God is to lose your life, not only your own, but other people's, what should the believer do? This contradiction is heavy, but it is not easy to be new, and there is no transcendental answer in both novels and movies. What impressed me the most in the work was not the protagonist, the little priest, but the believer Yoshijiro, and the author's description of the Japanese belief environment. Japan is a swampland of faith. The trees planted in it will not immediately dry up or be cut down, but will slowly decay, making people useless (to the effect). The description of Yoshijiro, novels are better than movies, weak and disgusting, repeated betrayal and repeated repentance, but at the same time very simple and without any malice, these people constitute this swamp. I really want to see what would happen if this movie were shot from Yoshijiro's perspective.
Although I am a Christian, from the point of view of faith, this film does not touch me as strongly as Garfield’s other "Hacksaw Ridge". Probably because the problems faced by little priests in the 17th century were far from the doubts that contemporary people would have, compared with the soldiers of World War II. The young and convincing priest, the undoubtedly top student of the seminary, had an initial demeanor and demeanor that was close to frivolous and arrogant. When facing the Japanese aristocracy, what I think about is the victory of the debate and whether he can become a good leader in the hearts of believers. In his imagination, whether he was saved by God or died as a martyr, the scene would always be vigorous. However, the long blood trailing through the courtyard gave his illusion a heavy blow. This heavy blow was not because of death, but because the death was so peaceful and ordinary. The blood was not particularly bright red, it was nothing but a dirt on the flying dust. There was no trace of dragging, and there was no enlightenment that "the whole earth is dark", only the cicadas screaming under the scorching sun and the greasy quietness of the tired summer afternoon. In my opinion, there are more inner arguments and abstract thinking in the novel, while the narrative is relatively simple, as if the author wants to show up from time to time. Perhaps this is what the priest experienced in Japan, wrestling with the marsh-like reality in vain through thinking and inner struggle.
The swamp with nowhere to work hard hit the priest who had thought he would never surrender. After the priest abandoned his religion, the novel began to end, "The object I want to fight against is not you, but the faith in my heart." This means that the enemy arranged by God is not the swamp, but the pride of the priest's heart. However, a large number of internal activities outside the environment have weakened this theme to some extent. The book concludes with this sentence: "Even if that person is silent, as of today, my life itself is speaking of that person." This argument Although straightforward, the self-persuasive tone inevitably makes readers puzzled.
And the movie just got rid of this tone directly. The priest before abandoning religion occasionally had inner monologues. After abandoning religion, his heart was also obscured by the audience's impenetrable silence. In the book, the priest is constantly thinking and explaining. In the movie, the audience sees only obedience and quiet sorrow. I think this is closer to the theme of "silence". The director arranges for the priest to hold the cross when he is buried, and the audience can infer from this that he should at least affect his wife, but this is not visible from the outside on the expressionless woman in the movie.
Therefore, what moved me in the movie was not the silence of God, but the silence of man. If a person believes, he cannot do it, he cannot say it, and he is forced to do the opposite without seeing any hope. Theoretically, he can conceal himself from the sky, waiting for an opportunity to have a little impact on the visible outside world, but where does the power that support him come from? How difficult is it to maintain the inner will under the appearance of external obedience? As Job's wife said to him:
"Abandon God and die!"
why not?
2
Frank, a Jewish psychologist who was detained in Auschwitz for three years, recalled that time, saying that in a concentration camp with insufficient food, extreme fatigue, and abuse, it is nothing more than 1 Love God; 2 love someone; 3 have the determination to accomplish things. He missed his wife during hard labor, which allowed him to sustain it. He said:
"I saw the truth for the first time in my life.... This truth is that love is the ultimate and highest goal that people can aspire to pursue. So I understand the greatness revealed by human poetry, human thoughts, and beliefs. The meaning of the secret: man’s salvation is achieved through love or being loved.... In a completely desolate environment, when people cannot express themselves with affirmative behavior, when their only achievement is to be correct The way-respectable way-when enduring pain, in such a situation, a person can be satisfied by recalling the image of the lover he still retains. Parallel for the first time, I understood the meaning of this sentence, 'Angels are lost in eternal thinking about infinite glory.'"
Not long ago, I heard a speech from a brother in the church and said that in heaven, angels sang "Hallelujah" forever. He said that when he was young, he felt that life in heaven was very monotonous. Why did he just praise him constantly? What's the meaning of light praise? Then he said that he now understands that the actions of the Creator are wonderful and endless. Every day, new beauty and surprises can be found in the new actions of the Creator. The so-called heaven is the constant curiosity and surprises forever and ever. process.
This process is also revealed in Frank's book. Prisoners who might die at any time feel comforted by the beauty of the setting sun, the gleam of the mountain peaks, and the blossoming trees.
Frank said:
"A positive life will give people the opportunity to realize value in creative work, while a negative life of enjoyment will bring him satisfaction in experiencing beauty, art, or nature.... But it is meaningful It's not just creation and enjoyment. If there is meaning in life, then this meaning must also exist in pain. Pain is an indispensable part of life, even like life and death. There is no pain and death. , Human life is incomplete."
Just like how to strive for success or enjoy success, experiencing pain can also bear the meaning of life. People's silence lies in not being able to do any positive things, even talking, to express one's heart. This is a kind of pain, and it is pain without external glory. The little priest traveled across the ocean to preach in the wilderness. He is not a person who is afraid of ordinary suffering. For him, there is no obvious glory, no missionary achievement, or even a sacrifice to be proud of, and he has to spend his life peacefully. It was the suffering he really experienced. This suffering is also closer to the plight of each of us, every long, boring life full of trivial failures and indifferent humiliation.
Job lost his wealth, his children, and his health. He sat in the ashes and spoke to him, cursing life. How many people are brave enough to respond to God's silence with human silence? Frank's experience in the concentration camp has proved that people who survived were never good at struggling. However, this is by no means to say that as long as you tolerate silence, you will definitely be able to survive to the end. God’s silence is pain itself, and man’s silence is man’s response to pain. In such pain, actions and screams have no effect. Everything is accompanied by the rising and setting of the sun, going back and forth like the stone of Sisyphus. .
Perhaps the only interpretation is that people can experience and think more deeply from suffering and see the meaning of life and faith.
But those who have suffered will no longer see the gloom. (Isaiah 9:1)
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The picture of the movie is not bad, but movies and novels are not very recommended from the perspective of the work.
Frank's book is called "The Pursuit of the Meaning of Life". It is a psychology work, but it is worth reading. The author's mere survival from the concentration camp has given him considerable authority in his words. Who can doubt a concentration camp prisoner's interpretation of the meaning of life? However, what he thinks is that the clue of the book is how to maintain mental health in desperate situations, discover the potential meaning of life in the worst environment, and use this to help others. Even in the concentration camp, when two more bowls of beans in the soup were extravagant, he secretly used pencil and torn paper to rewrite his lost psychology manuscript with shorthand notation. Even if you don't understand psychology, the author's peaceful account of life in concentration camps is worth reading. The refined text faded away from sorrows and joys, and occasionally feelings broke out, and the almost unbearable pain was condensed in just two or three sentences. In the foreword of the book which does not know which edition (almost 100 editions are printed in all languages), he said to those students who desperately want to be successful: "(Success) can only be a person who is more important than himself. It is the unconscious side effect of the dedication of a big cause, or as a by-product of dedication to others rather than oneself, it can be produced." I think this is the real "those who have suffered, will never see the gloom again."
The words are not for self-love.
The reason why ps did not specifically write a review for this book is because I have no ability to review the content of the first half of the concentration camp life or the second half of psychotherapy.
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