You don't need to be religious to find this film intriguing

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2017)

I am not religious and I really don't think you have to be religious to find this film so fascinating.
It just so happens to be about Christianity and faith, but one can take the film and relate to it with anything that they're extremely passionate about.
For example, rather than religion, what if one was a really passionate soldier fighting for their country, and they end up being captured by the enemy; if they don't burn or spit on their own flag and respect the enemy's culture instead, their family or close friends would be killed. The use of severe torture was a way to get the religious groups to apostatize; this story is extremely relevant in today's society (or any era for that matter) -- think about it, the use of waterboarding can make ANYONE admit they're terrorists.
I think it also questions about pride/thinking rationally in certain situations. To some, throwing away your pride and dignity is as good as being dead. It is a catch-22.
What also makes this film/story interesting is how people can interpret it completely differently; one can see the behavior as being selfish/cowardly or entirely respectable.
First of all, the Old Samurai Inoue (played by Issei Ogata) is fantastic. He just has this bizarre creepiness charm to him, almost like an iconic cartoon character... just has that same presence that Christoph Waltz had in Inglourious Basterds.
The Interpreter to Inoue (played by Tadanobu Asano) is also excellent... of course he has the best English out of all the Japanese actors. It's that friendly charm that makes the characters much creepier/deadlier/nastier than the stereotypical villains. The best villains don't believe what they're doing is really wrong.
Kichijiro (played by Yosuke Kubozuka) is an absolutely hilarious character. He is like a rat. He seems to portray the typical flaws of being a human. The main character has trouble deciding many times throughout the film, seesawing back and forth on what to do, and Kichijiro's character is always like a mirror metaphor to him.
The dialogues between the Samurai/Interpreter/Rodrigues defending Buddha and other metaphors throughout about one seed may grow in one country but dies in another/the land being a swamp is really interesting.
At first when I found out the movie was going to be 3 hours, I thought that was going to kill me, but it wasn't bad at all. The beginning is a little slow (they could have cut that whole China part), but it gets really interesting towards the second half.
If you're just into mindless fast cutting action films and not so much a deep thinker, this film is not for you.
This movie is based on the 1966 historical fiction Japanese novel by Shunsaku Endo. There was also a movie made in 1971, which has some similar scenes, but I definitely prefer Scorsese's version.
This should be the real winner for an Oscar, but I'm sure Hollywood loves Hollywood, so they'll end up giving it to LA LA Land instead. Andrew Garfield is really becoming a big star than just a super hero. If you enjoy character study and great dialogue/something that makes you think, definitely watch it. It's really tragic and haunting.