Synopsis
In the year 1637 in Shimabara of Tokugawa-era Japan, oppressed peasant Christians revolt against the shogunate with the aid of a charismatic Christian rebel leader Shiro Amakusa.
1962 ‘天草四郎時貞’ Directed by Nagisa Ōshima
In the year 1637 in Shimabara of Tokugawa-era Japan, oppressed peasant Christians revolt against the shogunate with the aid of a charismatic Christian rebel leader Shiro Amakusa.
The Rebel, The Revolt, Shiro Amakusa, the Christian Rebel, The Revolutionary, Amakusa Shirô Tokisada
THIS IS OUR STAND!
Brutal. Philosophical. Rhetorical. This was so much better than I’d expected it to be. Tension all the way through. Outstanding camerawork of exquisite long takes that convey a gut-wrenchingly engaging story that asks real questions.
Beautiful film and a new favorite for sure.
Part of my Japanese New Wave Top 200
Oshima's brutal look at the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan is incredibly interesting on paper (both as an interesting piece of history in its own right, and as a allegory for what was happening with the student protests against the Ampo treatment in the 1960's). However, it doesn't really work for me in its execution. The film is slow and theatrical to a fault with dull and dialogue-heavy storytelling. The cinematography is very dark and not very engaging, although Oshima's sensibility for long takes and long-range compositions is clearly on display. I like the depressive atmosphere and there are some interesting battle scenes. But if you want a new wave-adjacent samurai film, watch Sword of Doom, Shura, or Assassination instead. And if it is the historical religious struggles of Christians in Japan you're interested in, Shinoda's Silence (which I double-billed with this one) is a far better film.
Your religion has excommunicated you! Opposition against the government is not forgiven!
...
We will form our own religious world. There will be no distinction between farmer and samurai. It will be an ideal world without starvation or death. We will record everything for historical purposes. Just as there is pain and suffering in this world, our battle will give hope and courage to the people.
Oshima's samurai film — like his other excellent, barely seen period genre film of this era, The Catch — is fervently present-tense in its radicalism, and shades its politics with pragmatic morality.
Death in God's world is purer than your world in God's eyes.
How to fight a losing battle. Really surprising that this isn't better known. To me it's much more engaging than THE CATCH and I guess most early Oshima. In a way it's a period version of NIGHT AND FOG IN JAPAN, another taking of accounts of the political despair after the lost ANPO fight, including reflections not only on the question of violence, but also on gender relations, the role of artists etc - but filtered through straightforward, technically extremely accomplished genre trappings and bathed in gloomy nightmare lighting schemes.
A series of intricate long takes often filled with dozens of extras enacting the chaotic but relentless mechanisms of history, punctuated by close-ups of isolated, glowing, vulnerable faces. I can only imagine how hard this would hit from a print.
“My wife and I have no pleasures in life anymore. The young people are being killed. It’s all over.”
THE CHRISTIAN REVOLT is one of the gloomier Edo Period films. Everyone is so cloaked in shadows that you barely see any faces for the first 15 minutes. A grey haze permeates the scene, indoors and out.
“Look at that empty sky. Can you tell me that Heaven exists up there?”
It’s a cruel and depressing account of true events, in which the shogunate has decided to basically exterminate Christianity. It’s Japanese Nazism. Execution, torture, and rape ensues, leading to talk of a peasant uprising. The oppressive score, which sounds like something from a Universal horror film, gives us little reason to have hope for them.
“I quit being a farmer. I will become a murderer. I’ve become the devil!”
Feels like SCHINDLER’S LIST meets Japanese SPARTACUS. Sometimes the minimalist black and white photography reminded me of Carl Theodor Dreyer.
A thought provoking look the Christian persecution in Japan. Somewhat works as a period version of Night and Fog in Japan, although not nearly as powerful as that film. Brutal and relentless actions. Disorganization of religion. The narrative is dark and is reflecting of the of hope for the characters. Some good battle scenes. Filmmaking wise nothing to extraordinary, some good long takes and good plain black and white photography. It gets the job done. Pretty good piece of provocative cinema.
“I am not here to bring peace...”
Master of tapping into, colorfully validating, expanding, exploding the turmoil at the heart of whatever plagued part of culture and reality alike he turns to next (be it imperialism, culture erasure, the means, ends, and faces of rape culture, the place of cinema in a world that doesn’t want to listen or see, everything post-War-To-End-All-Wars-and-The-Greater-War-That-Followed, et cetera), the Oshima treatment endures as multi-faceted, as broadly minded as possible, as complicated and challenging in presentation as possible. As Godard’s spiritual sibling (or is Godard *his* spiritual sibling?), his treatment is furthermore one of unfiltered scorn, irony, self-critique, ire, sympathy, and the list grows with each new film I see, each time I return…
Oshima’s contribution to the samurai fold follows the seventeenth century uprising by farmers and peasants against the Shogunate after having their religious beliefs (Christianity) outlawed and deemed punishable by death. Also called “The Christian Rebel; Shiro Amaksu” (played by Hashizo Okawa), Oshima refuses to create a linear biopic, taking a much wider stance on the ideological clash by following a number of supporting characters such as Shiro’s old friend Shinbei (Ryutaro Otomo), his wife (Satomi Oka) and the various differences of opinion within the Christian sect. In fact, Shiro almost becomes a marginal figure in the film until the end. What slowly emerges is a violent history lesson… one in which the ideals of faith purport innocence but breed malevolence. Just like his previous film “The Catch”, Oshima seems to be defining the morose sadness of history repeating itself endlessly.
written as part of my ongoing exploration of Nagisa Oshima at itsamadmadblog2
Although the original Japanese title Amakusa Shiro Tokisada announced the name of the Christian rebel leader and presumably he is the narrative focus of the film, this period film is largely an ensemble piece serving as an allegory to the repression of the student demonstration as witnessed in Night and Fog in Japan. Oshima utilities continuous long take and wide shot to frame the oppressed Christian farmers as a group, within at the time of their discord, whilst uses close-up during torture scene to intensify the emotional sufferings without being overtly grotesque. The outcome is foreseeable and Oshima retains empathy for the human weakness whilst never sentimentalizes the failure.
Added to: Nagisa Oshima, Ranked
A film that is hampered by its budget, a setting unfamiliar to its director, and a script shockingly not radical enough. Totally see why Oshima dipped his toes into this territory, but the results, while still very good, sit far behind the great jidaigeki's of before and since. Even chanbaras I don't particularly like, like SWORD OF DOOM, feel distinct and monolithic compared to this, a film whose politics are there but not as in your face as many of Oshima's other great accomplishments. THE CHRISTIAN REVOLT feels restrained, held in check, and temperate when it should have been violent, chaotic and as hotly and fiercely political as Oshima normally is.
"Night and Fog in Japan" (1960), "The Catch" (1961) & "The Revolutionary"(1962) are all similar movies- only with different themes when you take a minute and just think. They all share the same ideals only different versions. They are all nihilistic and fiery in a way only Ōshima could create. Sadly, this doesn't work with me because the quality of the movies depreciated with the chronology of these 3 films.
Deep-dive into J-history; the link betwen Christian beliefs and revolutionary struggle is... just sorta there, not clarified or explained in any way, even though all the Christians here believe they're betraying Christ's teachings by doing resistance. A bit dry and academic, esp. for an action movie.