It's a movie about faith, and it's rather dull.
In the early 17th century, Portuguese missionary Rodriguez was tasked with missionary work in Japan and in search of the missing Father Ferreira. Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate at the time strictly prohibited Western religions. Rodriguez insisted on preaching under the harsh environment of surveillance and pursuit by the authorities, but was thrown into prison. He witnessed the brutal torture of Christians by the authorities, and persuaded Father Ferreira, who had long since abandoned the religion, to persuade him to do his ideological work. Afterwards, he finally gave up religion and became a prosecutor checking smuggled religious objects.
After Rodriguez was captured, he had a conversation with Inoue, who represented the authorities.
Inoue: "The teaching you brought may be true in Spain and Portugal, but after careful study and thought, we think it has no use or value in Japan. Our conclusion is: it is a threat."
Rodriguez: "But we believe that we have brought you the truth. The truth is universal, the truth is common to all countries, and it connects ancient and modern, so it is called truth. If the teaching is truth in Portugal, but not in Japan, Then it's not the truth at all."
Inoue: "It is well known that a tree that thrives on one side of the water and soil may rot and die on the other side. The same is true of a Christian tree, where its leaves rot and its branches cannot survive."
Rodriguez: "It wasn't the soil that killed the tree, there were 300,000 Christians in Japan until the soil was poisoned."
Although Inoue appears as an absolute villain in the film, I still kind of agree with him. The Jesuit Rodriguez thought his own teachings represented truth, but it turned out not to be. As early as half a century ago, with the European Renaissance in full swing, the Reformation movement advocated by Martin Luther was in the ascendant, exposing the distortion of the original teachings in the Bible and various scandals of the Catholic Church. The killings of the Crusades, the "jihad" of Islam against the infidels, the abstinence in Buddhism, which act represents the truth?
In the long evolution of human beings, we are always searching for universal truth. However, the truth we have sought so far is relative and is always limited by our own thinking, because people's rationality is also affected by the times and the environment. restricted. People are always in the long river of relative truth, gradually approaching the other side of absolute truth. Even a senior priest like Rodriguez is constantly doubting in the process of preaching. The title of the film "Silence" is actually blaming God. In the face of various sufferings of Christians, he has always remained silent. He thought to himself: "Even if God is silent, my life, everything I have done, has been silently in his name. In the silence, I hear your voice."
To be disrespectful, this inner monologue of Rodriguez is a bit self-deceiving. You think, in the face of evil deeds, God can't even save his own son, how can he save you? At most, Christians devote themselves to self-examination before dying to obtain spiritual salvation in their hearts.
In his secret mission, Rodriguez found this phenomenon: "They desperately desire objects with symbols of faith, so I try to satisfy them as much as possible. I worry that they regard these symbols of faith as more important than the faith itself. But How can I refuse them?" In my impression, Master Long Lian in Chengdu also encountered this situation. No matter who they are, they are treated leniently. Because the vast majority of religious believers are the low-level people who have no culture, and who also know little about the religion they believe in.
This involves the education of the people. When it comes to indoctrination, there are generally two modes, one is brainwashing and the other is enlightenment. Brainwashing is relatively simple and straightforward, from the Dagushu in the early Qing Dynasty, to Hong Xiuquan's worship of God, to the practice of Fa and Qigong without getting sick, and even now, it is all in this case. Enlightenment is a very long and difficult thing. The Renaissance, the Encyclopedia School, Lu Xun's essays, and the literacy classes in the liberated areas should all be enlightening. The fundamental difference between the two is that one is to force the audience's thinking activities, using material interests as bait, to force a kind of thought into people's minds. One is to enlighten people's own consciousness, to understand themselves and the world, to be tolerant of beliefs, and to give people more spiritual choices. Enlightenment will have twists and turns and pauses. Don't you see now that people have a little money, they can't find Bei. Treat fashion as great and best-selling as sublime. Unbelievable strange situation. Today's China, as Wang Anyi said, is still in an "Age of Enlightenment".
Back to the movies.
When Rodriguez was in prison, he met Father Ferreira, and Father Ferreira had already abandoned the church. He explained to Rodriguez: "I have been preaching in this country for fifteen years, and I know better than you. It, our faith cannot take root in this country."
Rodriguez: "Because the roots have been cut."
Ferreira: "No, because this country is a swamp, nothing can grow, and if any seed is planted here, its roots will rot."
It can be seen that Father Ferreira did not really lose his faith, but was disappointed with the country of Japan.
Generally, the spread of a belief and an idea in a country depends on the self-confidence of the nation. For example, Christianity was introduced to China as early as the Tang Dynasty, and it was called "Nestorian" at that time, and "Cross Temples" were built all over the country. I traveled to Bingzhongluo, Yunnan last year. In such a remote mountain village, there are Christian churches built by missionaries in the 1920s and 1930s. And the era of the most lack of self-confidence is precisely the most corrupt and dark era, such as China's Qing Dynasty, such as Japan's shogunate era.
The persecution of Christians in Japan was very cruel. Only when Perry's black ship arrived, Japan immediately confessed. During the Meiji Restoration, ministers went to Europe for inspection, learned a lot of Western systems, and advocated democracy and freedom. The cabinet was also in a tuxedo. However, what it has learned is only formal, with only its appearance, and it is coy and coy. The things in the bones have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Still a swamp.
There is a small detail, Rodriguez smuggled to Japan to land, and encountered some Christians, please come home. Knowing that they were starving, he took out a finger-sized salted fish and served it respectfully. Rodriguez took a bite and immediately vomited disgustingly. Fortunately, these villagers were praying devoutly and didn't see it. I think, this must be the food recommended in "The Lonely Gourmet"?
View more about Silence reviews
