These words might seem counterintuitive to many believers, even blasphemous. ![]() ![]() When one can say to God, ‘I hate you,’ it is like saying, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ With these words authentic prayer begins.” I congratulate them one and all on the release of the film and hope for its success.“Hatred can always change to love. I would like to convey my heartfelt appreciation to Martin Scorsese, the actors, and to everyone on the production staff, as I know they had to overcome numerous obstacles in making this film. It is a great fortune to have been able to pass on the filming rights to such a person. What is important is to get to know as individuals the weak who have been ejected and rejected by society.” Replace strong with “good” and “weak” with “evil” and the statement is remarkably similar to my father’s observation.ĭespite the difference of genre, of film and book, there is a common sensibility shared by Scorsese, the director, and my father, the writer. Martin Scorsese spoke at the event, saying, in essence, “Being strong is not the only way to sustain a civilization. The other day a special screening of the new film was held in Japan for the Japanese press. Now that I am in my sixties, I think I am just beginning to understand what he meant. There is good to be found within evil, and plenty of evil to be found within the good.” I was in my early twenties at the time and his comment echoed in my mind like a Zen koan riddle. My father once told me, “There is no such thing in the world as absolute evil or absolute good. I remember my father telling me how impressed he was with Scorsese’s fervent request.Įver since Taxi Driver, Scorsese has focused on the common theme of conflict between antisocial protagonists and the hard realities of society, and I think it is this fascination with the struggle between the weak and the strong that attracted him to the strange Christian tale of an Eastern island nation. Martin Scorsese came to see him there and spoke long and passionately about his desire to make the film. My father was first approached about the idea of making another film of his novel when he happened to be in New York some 20 years ago. The Endo family is pleased to see the most recent film version come to fruition. It was first made into a film in Japan just four years after the book came out, and now, more than a half-century later, it has once again been adapted as a film. The story progresses at a speed and with a rhythm that is rare for a literary work but apparently highly suitable for film. This is the essence of the story, full of raw suspense in the first half that merges into deep reflection on God’s silence in the second half. Eventually, the Jesuit priests are captured and after being forced through considerable trial and tribulation, they are compelled to recant their faith by stepping on a fumi-e image of Christ. Christianity has been banned in Japan, but they encounter hidden Christians ( kakure kirisutan) who have maintained their faith. In the 17th century, Jesuit missionaries make their way from Rome through Macao to Nagasaki. ![]() Silence, written more than 50 years ago, was a major novel written by my father, Shusaku Endo.
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