These past few months directors Ian and Dominic Higgins have been buried away working on the edit of the film, honing scenes, polishing the visuals and designing the soundscape, but now they have announced they will shortly present the first test screening of a completed edit (with only directors and producers present) – so stay tuned for more info on this!
In the meantime, it appears our film isn’t the only thing to soon be revealed (albeit at this stage to only select crew). We came across an interesting and very timely story in the Ashai Shimbun newspaper.
It is common knowledge that Dr. Nagai was a convert to Christianity and that it was his new found faith that he turned to when confronted with the horrors of war. What is not common knowledge though is that Christianity in Japan is a little different to Christianity in the West.
Having been driven underground in the early 17th Century by the Japanese government of that time, these hidden Christians or “Krishitans” as they became known, began to develop their own form of Christianity, incorporating certain aspects of Buddhism and Shinto into their practices.
Now it seems the Vatican is about to start its first extensive study on the Krishitans.
A still from “26 Martyrs” courtesy of Pixel Revolution Films
Naturally there are some who question as to whether the Krishitans should be considered as Christians.
Annibale Zambarbieri, a professor of religion at the University of Pavia in Italy, has this to say in answer, “I think that we should call them, ‘Old Christians.’ Christianity has often mixed with local cultures. Even Pope Francis said that they are model believers. There is no reason not to regard them as Christians.”
Our experiences with Fr. Paul Glynn and his parishioners in Nara certainly back these words up.
For more on this, here’s a the full article from Ashai Shimbun….
All That Remains 