Over 27 years in the making, Martin Scorsese’s film, Silence finally came to life in 2016. The film centers on two Jesuit priests, Father Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Father Garupe (Adam Driver) who journey to Japan in the 1630’s to search for their mentor and friend, Father Ferreira. During the Tokugawa Era, Christianity was actively persecuted in Japan. The faithful were forced to renounce their faith, or apostatize. The priests are told that Father Ferreira had apostatized, and that no one had heard from him since. However, they are unable to believe this so they sneak in to Japan in order to find him. Garupe and Rodrigues find small villages in Japan filled with practicing Christians but soon realize they are in grave danger.
After a series of executions, the priests split up. Rodrigues is capture and held imprisoned. He witnesses the executions of Christians and is told the only way to help them is to renounce his faith. He refuses until he meets Father Ferreira who had done the same. He renounces his faith and is continually forced to do so but at the end of the film, upon his death we see that he was always Christian at heart. Silence is beautifully composed in typical, meticulous Scorsese style. Throughout the film, the director intentionally works to pay homage to his Japanese filmmaker inspirations.
Kobayashi’s Harakiri (1962) follows the story of Tsugumo, a ronin who arrives at the Iye Clan to use their castle to commit seppuku. As the film unfolds, the audience finds out the Tsugumo is there not only to commit seppuku, but also to seek revenge on the samurai who brutally forced his son in law to commit seppuku with a bamboo sword. Before arriving, Tsugumo has gone to all of the samurai involved in his son’s death, and cut off their top knots, bringing them great shame. The film ends with Tsugumo killing a number of the Iye samurai, before killing himself.
While the films both tell starkly different stories, the amount of similarities stylistically and narratively may come as a surprise. Due to Scorsese’s evident attempt to channel the aesthetics of Japanese filmmaking, one can find significant parallels, down to the exact shot, between Harakiri and Silence. Through the use of wide screen, careful compositions, sound and narrative form, it is clear that at the root of Silence are filmmaking techniques developed by early Japanese filmmakers such as Kobayashi.
In current cinema, it is not uncommon to find a variety of different aspect ratios across the top films in theaters. While the most common ratios today are 1.85:1 and 2.39:1, one can find anything from these norms, to the traditional ratio of 1.33:1 (or 1.37:1), and even filmmakers who use a variety of ratios in one film (cite empire online). The technological innovation in the past 50 years has allowed for vast creative opportunity. However, in the 1950’s when Cinemascope was the newest technology to enter Hollywood, it was not as popular. It presented problems for traditional filmmakers– sets would need to be rebuilt and it left filmmakers with the uncomfortable task of navigating the empty space in their frames.
For Japanese filmmakers, on the other hand, the new widescreen fit well into filmmaking in Japan. Despite initial issues with the tight spaces of Japanese architecture, it became clear that the new aspect ratio was suited to Japan. Due to the norm of floor and cushion seating, filmmakers did not have to worry as much about “diminishing the vertical human figure” (243). According to scholar Cynthia Contreras, Asian story telling has a legacy of being told horizontally, on emakimono, byōbu and fusuma (243). The wide screen, in this sense, was simply following suit in a long standing tradition of Japanese art. This art welcomes empty space, and celebrates it.
Both Kobayashi and Scorsese employ widescreen, anamorphic filming in Harakiri and Silence. In Harakiri, Kobayashi uses the widescreen to visually present the audience with the strict social codes of feudal Japan. Multiple characters can be shown in the screen at once, demonstrating the formal distances that the social hierarchy of samurai life demanded. Kobayashi is able to use the screen to indicate a character’s rank and relationship to another character visually rather than relying exclusively on dialogue. Scorsese, on the other hand, primarily uses the widescreen to immerse the viewer in the stunning landscapes of Japan.
Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto in an interviews states that he and the director decided on anamorphic filming because “Nature was extremely important in this story”, and it needed to be central in the viewing experience (no film school). Prieto also notes that the widescreen allows them to avoid romanticizing the experience and emphasize the fear and unknown. However, when Father Rodrigues is captured by the Japanese, the scenes move into a traditional Japanese samurai castle and Scorsese’s anamorphic shooting begins to serve the same purpose as Kobayashi’s.
The use of the wide screen allowed both directors to compose compositions. Both directors use contrasting compositions to create a dynamic viewing experience. In Harakiri, Kobayashi alternates between tightly closed compositions within the Iye Clan’s castle, and more open compositions such as towards the end of the film when Tsugumo duels with an Iye Samurai. His compositions tend to be simple, drawing simply on the surrounding architecture to frame and re-frame the characters in the frame. The wide screen lends itself to drawing our attention to the simple, geometry of the architecture, but also gives a constant reminder that the men are closed in to their surroundings. The structure of every frame, which is evidently carefully planned, mimics the harsh, structured nature of Japanese society and the nature of samurai society. The lines and shapes are rigid and encapsulating, often making the audience aware that the two samurai are constrained.
In Silence, Scorsese’s compositions vary more than Koybashi’s, however there are many similarities between the two. Scorsese often uses open shots to immerse the viewer into the natural setting of Japan, creating a sense of isolating freedom in the unknown. He contrasts this with scenes of hidden Christian worship that are closed, dark and very dense. When Father Rodrigues is captured by the Japanese authority is when Scorsese draws most on Kobayashi’s aesthetic. These compositions, too, are simple and geometric. The viewer is constantly reminded that Rodrigues is captured, and reminded of the rigid nature of Japan that is preventing Christianity from taking root. Scorsese uses the widescreen similarly to place characters at formal distances.
In side by side comparisons of shots from both Silence and Harakiri, it is clear how similar the compositions of both films are at times (Figure 1–4). The two directors have both taken advantage of the geometric architecture in the scenes to create closed, very structured compositions. While in Harakiri they serve more as a criticism of Japanese bushido, in Silence they are more so a visual manifestation of the rigidity of the country at the time. Both directors utilize the uncommon birds-eye-view shot to show more clearly how enclosed the characters are.
In addition to widescreen and composition similarities, both directors utilize similar camera movements. Both Harakiri and Silence use primarily a stationary camera. This stillness slows down the film and builds a sense of tension as the events on screen unfold. Both directors very intentionally choose moments to mobilize the camera. In Harakiri, as Kobayshi shows Chijiwa committing seppuku, the dramatic and confusing camera movements are startling and unsettling. Similarly, Scorsese moves the camera only in times of heightened emotional distress. For example, he will often use point of view shots, or tracking shots to trace the reaction characters have to the executions of other Christians. Pieto discusses Scorsese’s desire to keep the shots restrained and simple, with “only certain instances where the camera is in a strange position or a sudden camera movement”. The directors use camera movement to create another form of visual dynamism throughout the films.
Undeniably, the films share visual aesthetics; however, less obviously, they also share narrative similarities too. There is, of course, the point that both films are set in the Tokugawa Period in Japan. A time of strict social code and isolation from foreign countries, while also a time of change for the samurai class, makes this 200 year time span ideal for historical fiction dramas (History.com Staff). In addition, both films use challenging plots that move between the past and present. In Harakiri, the story unfolds slowly, keeping the audience in suspense and often unaware of what is actually occurring, or why. In Silence, though less frequent, Scorsese also jumps in time. He shows times before Father Rodrigues and Ferreira arrived in Japan, cutting to scenes of torture and execution. He does this in order to consistently remind the audience how severe the situation was for Japanese Christians.
Both Harakiri and Silence draw on the symbolism and rituals of their respective narratives. Harakiri uses the ritual suicide of seppuku, as well as the symbols of bushido such as the samurai armor and the Iye Clan’s unique symbol. These elements of the traditional are slowly broken down and proven to be facades. Silence often repeatedly shows Christian symbols and rituals such as the cross, confession, baptism and prayer to contrast the devoutness of the characters with their forced apostatizing, a ritual in its own right.
Both films pose moral questions, the characters being forced to reevaluate their own identities and moral codes. Tsugumo aims to point to the hypocrisy and false righteousness of the bushido and samurai code. He forces the other samurai to see the wrong in their ways. In Silence, the characters and audience together are taken on a journey that tests their faith, and questions the ethics of missionary work in Japan. Scorsese uses Father Rodrigues, Ferreira and Garupe to show that faith is not as simple as imitating Jesus and following the rules laid out by the bible and institutions. Instead, the characters are challenged to see their faith in new ways, to question it, and to understand that verbally apostatizing is not the ultimate sin.
Though both Harakiri and Silence tell to starkly different stories, and are two films made over fifty years apart, their stylistic and narrative similarities can and should be analyzed. It is clear that both directors are masters at meticulously planning their scenes. Both films serve as two of the best examples of their respective director’s work and can easily be considered masterpieces. Scorsese’s film, Silence, undoubtedly pays homage to the Japanese greats, such as Ozu, Kurosawa and Mizogachi. Though less well known, Kobayashi’s influence on the film is hard to argue. By comparing the two, we can see the way that innovations from Kobayashi years ago are still celebrated in filmmaking today.