{"id":2014,"date":"2006-09-25T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-25T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/09\/scorsese-bringing-missionaries-to-vancouver\/"},"modified":"2006-09-25T20:15:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-25T20:15:00","slug":"scorsese-bringing-missionaries-to-vancouver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/09\/scorsese-bringing-missionaries-to-vancouver.html","title":{"rendered":"Scorsese bringing missionaries to Vancouver?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Production Weekly<\/a> reports that Martin Scorsese is once again planning to shoot a film based on Shusaku Endo\u2019s Silence<\/a><\/i>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSilence\u201d is set in sixteenth century Japan, where Portuguese missionaries must contend with traders from rival European nations and the persecution of Christians by Japanese feudal lords. The feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of Japan, and try to do so by torturing priests into apostasy, denying their faith. This is done symbolically by stepping on a \u201cfumie,\u201d a Christian image, like a picture of Mary or a crucifix. Two Portuguese priests, Sebastian Rodrigues and Francis Garrpe, make a dangerous journey to Japan, both to locate and comfort Japanese converts, and to discover the truth about a supposed apostate priest, Ferreira.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Somewhat bizarrely, Scorsese plans to shoot this film about Portuguese missionaries to Japan next summer \u2026 in Vancouver!<\/p>\n

FWIW, I have not read Endo\u2019s novel \u2014 yet \u2014 but I did see another film that covered this same historical episode at the Vancouver International Film Festival ten years ago, and I wrote the following blurb for the October 22, 1996 issue of ChristianWeek<\/i>:<\/p>\n

The Eyes of Asia<\/a><\/i>, from Portuguese director Joao Mario Grilo, goes back to 17th century Japan to tell the story of Julian of Nakaura, a Japanese Jesuit priest who was tortured to death for refusing to renounce his faith. Grilo mixes the historical narrative with a modern \u201cstory\u201d in which a European (Geraldine Chaplin) visits Nagasaki and learns the story of Julian\u2019s martyrdom from the priests who keep his memory alive.<\/p>\n

The cross-cutting between these two timeframes feels a little awkward at times, but Julian\u2019s faith is treated respectfully \u2026 except, perhaps, for a curious epilogue which gives the last word to Cristovao Ferreira, the Jesuit provincial who succumbed to torture, renounced his faith, and spent the last 20 years of his life working for the shogun. In this last scene, Grilo seems to question whether the Jesuits should have ever come to Japan in the first place, despite the obvious joy he lets Julian show in his Christian faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Incidentally, the IMDB indicates that Silence<\/i> has been filmed once before, as a Japanese film, in 1971<\/a>. But is it available anywhere?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Production Weekly reports that Martin Scorsese is once again planning to shoot a film based on Shusaku Endo\u2019s Silence: \u201cSilence\u201d is set in sixteenth century Japan, where Portuguese missionaries must contend with traders from rival European nations and the persecution of Christians by Japanese feudal lords. The feudal lords want to drive Christianity out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nScorsese bringing missionaries to Vancouver?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Production Weekly reports that Martin Scorsese is once again planning to shoot a film based on Shusaku Endo's Silence:\u201cSilence\u201d is set in sixteenth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/09\/scorsese-bringing-missionaries-to-vancouver.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scorsese bringing missionaries to Vancouver?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Production Weekly reports that Martin Scorsese is once again planning to shoot a film based on Shusaku Endo's Silence:\u201cSilence\u201d is set in sixteenth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/09\/scorsese-bringing-missionaries-to-vancouver.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-09-25T20:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/7991\/933\/400\/silence.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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