a review of 沉默

So interesting to see how different this is to Scorsese's version, despite having almost the same plot and dialogues. While Scorsese's version felt like a contemplative spiritual journey that attempted to reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable religious questions, Shinoda's version feels almost like a horror film about the effects of religious repression, and the descent of a human being into the life of primitive, carnal existence, having been stripped off of his spirituality. The whole time I kept trying to understand what was the main purpose of the film. It seemed almost like a critique of systemic religious intolerance, but in the 20th century Japan that doesn't seem to be very relevant. The movie is effective and fun to watch as a thriller. Yet I'd be lying if I said the execution doesn't have certain flaws, mostly with pacing and acting. Some scenes fail to have the effect that they're anticipated to have. And the foreign actors seem pretty inexperienced. Kinda ruin some good scenes with their acting.