The Christian Revolt

Kyushu, 1637. The shogunate has banned Christianity, and in the Shimabara and Amakusa regions the peasants are crushed by both taxation and religious repression. A young man named Amakusa Shiro becomes the leader of the uprising. The ending is fixed: siege at Hara Castle, and defeat. The subject is not religion but leadership. Miracles are attributed to Shiro and he does not correct anyone; the revolt gathers not around a faith but around the people who gather around a man. When the defeat arrives, the real question becomes whether it was belief that led all these people to their deaths, or the need for belief. The form belongs to the Toei sword films of the era: a large cast, crowded battle scenes, black and white and a wide screen. Nagisa Ōshima uses that mould and hollows it out. There are no heroic beats, no victory, and the camera mostly keeps its distance. Disguised as a historical picture, the production is looking at the political repression of the sixties. After this work, made inside the big-studio system following his departure from Shochiku, Ōshima did not make another feature for a long stretch; the film did not perform commercially and he returned to independent production. Hashizo Ōkawa plays Shiro, with Ryutaro Otomo and Rentaro Mikuni on the opposing side. Who it is for: viewers interested in Japanese historical cinema and in early Ōshima. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a conventional sword film; the narrative is deliberately cold and refuses to exalt its hero.