Thursday, January 12, 2017, 16:15 - 21:30
Martin Scorsese's long-awaited passion project takes us into the Japanese heart of darkness
Special Sneak Preview Screening: SILENCE (Chinmoku)
in Collaboration with Kadokawa Corporationfollowed by a Q&A session with stars Tadanobu Asano, Yosuke Kubozuka and
Issey Ogata
Thursday, January 12 at 4:15 pm (doors open at 3:45 pm at the Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho*)
In Japanese/English/Latin with Japanese and English subtitles
U.S./Taiwan/Mexico, 2016 162 minutes
Attention: two different venues!!
*The screening will be held at the Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho
The Q&A session will be held at FCCJ
4:15 pm Screening at Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho
Bic Camera Building 8F (doors open at 3:45 pm)
7:30 pm Q&A session at FCCJ with guest speakers
Yurakucho Denki North Building 20F
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese, based on the novel by Shusaku Endo
Produced by: Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Randall Emmett, Barbara De Fina,
Gastón Pavlovich, Irwin Winkler, Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Ciarán Hinds, Issey Ogata,
Shinya Tsukamoto, Yoshi Oida, Yosuke Kubozuka, Nana Komatsu, Ryo Kase, Liam Neeson
Film courtesy of Kadokawa
Nearly 30 years after he read Shusaku Endo's Tanizaki Prize-winning 1966 novel about the persecution of "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan) in 17th-century Japan, acquired the rights and set about adapting the monumental work, Martin Scorsese has finally completed his epic "Silence" (Chinmoku). The last in his trilogy of faith-based films, after "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) and "Kundun"(1997), it is being awaited around the world with enormous anticipation.
"Silence" tells the story of two Portuguese "padres," Sebastian Rodrigues (Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Driver), who journey from Macao to Japan to search for their missing mentor, Christavao Ferreira (Neeson), after receiving the startling news that he has gone native. The priests find a Japanese wretch, a lapsed Christian named Kichijiro (Kubozuka), to help make the dangerous crossing to the southwestern coast. They arrive in 1639, just 4 years after the Tokugawa shogunate's sakoku policy has closed the country, creating an increasingly hostile environment for any outsider brave enough to enter. More perilous still, the shogunate is violently persecuting the devout, gradually forcing some 300,000 believers underground.
Rodrigues and Garupe find safety of sorts with a group of clandestine worshippers in the tiny village of Tomogi, and begin ministering to them, conducting baptisms, hearing confession, reciting the Latin mass. But soon enough, the area's ruthless Inquisitor Inoue (Ogata) has Rodrigues and his new followers behind bars, and sets about putting their faith to the ultimate test. "The price for your glory," gloats Inoue to the padre, "is their suffering." Forced to witness the gruesome tortures that befall those who refuse to renounce their faith, some make the ultimate sacrifice of apostasy, stepping upon fumie (icons of Christ), and abandoning hope of reaching paradise. Throughout his many trials, Rodrigues continues to beseech God for guidance, but He is silent, even as his believers are met with intolerable fates.
Scorsese's "Silence" is a slow-burn masterwork, with a message that has contemporary resonance, reverberating across the centuries. As the director reminds us, "The conflicts that occur - the persecution of religious minorities, the testing of faith - are timeless."
Join us for this very special screening of "Silence," ahead of the film's Japan-wide opening on January 21.
For more (Japanese only): http://chinmoku.jp
TADANOBU ASANO began acting at 16, and has appeared in an enormous range of films, specializing in troubled souls: alcoholics, psychopathic killers, peeping toms, war photographers, gay samurai. He has won numerous acting awards, including a 2015 Asian Film Award, and worked with all of Japan's leading filmmakers. Asano is the first Japanese actor of his generation to make it in Hollywood, where he has starred in Kenneth Branagh's "Thor," Peter Berg's "Battleship" (2012) and Carl Rinsch's "47 Ronin" (2013). He has also starred in Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's "Last Life in the Universe" (2002), for which he received an award at the Venice Film Festival; Hou Hsiou-Hsien's "Café Lumiere" (2003), and Sergei Bodrov's Oscar-nominated "Mongol" (2007). He has just finished shooting Martin Zandvliet's "The Outsider," starring with Jared Leto. It will be released late this year.
YOSUKE KUBOZUKA breakthrough film was "Go" (2001), for which he received the Japan Academy Award for Best Newcomer, and became the youngest actor in history to receive the Best Actor Award. He hasn't looked back. Among his film highlights are "Ping Pong" and "Laundry" (2002), "Under the Same Moon" (2005), "For Those We Love" (2007), "Where the Legend Lives" (2008), "Pandora's Box" (2009), "Tokyo Island" (2010), "Himizu" and "Helter Skelter" (2012), "Tokyo Tribe" (2014) and "Deadman Inferno" (2015). In 2010, and made his first stage appearance as a lone terrorist in Shuji Terayama's play "Blood Sleeps Standing," and continues to be active. Since 2006, Kubozuka has also been playing reggae music throughout Japan, and has released five albums to date.
ISSEY OGATA received runnerup honors from the LA Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the mincingly nefarious Inquisitor Inoue in "Silence." A versatile stage performer, actor, comedian and writer, his big break came when he won the gold medal on the TV show "Birth of Comedians" and played a lead role in the TV drama "Evil Grandmother" in 1981. Among his many film roles, he has played the lead in Edward Yang's "Yiyi: A One and a Two" (2000), Jun Ichikawa's "Tony Takitani" (2004), and portrayed Emperor Hirohito in "The Sun" by Aleksandr Sokurov, which marked his first visit to FCCJ in 2006. He is the star of the Issey Ogata Show, on which he pokes gentle fun a variety of targets and has won critical acclaim.
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk (3211-3161) or register below, still & TV cameras inclusive, by Tuesday, January 10. Members are restricted to two tickets each. Should seats fill up, you may be placed on a waiting list. You may attend the Q&A session without attending the screening.
This screening is a private, noncommercial event restricted to FCCJ members and guests, and guests of Kadokawa.
- Karen Severns, Film Committee
