Silence Page #6

CUT TO:

31 INT. CHARCOAL HUT DAY 31

A few hours later. Beams of straggling SUNLIGHT creep beneath

the door.

RODRIGUES:

Let’s go out. Let’s risk it. Just for

a moment.

28

Garupe looks up from making little crosses out of wood

splinters and pieces of straw as Rodrigues opens the door.

CUT TO:

32 EXT. CHARCOAL HUT DAY 32

The ground outside the hut is wet with just-fallen rain.

Rodrigues sees clear water dripping from bright green leaves.

He turns his face to the sunlight piercing the mist. Garupe is

seated beside him on a rock.

Rodrigues notices a BIRD, SOARING through the shafts of

sunlight over Garupe's shoulder.

RODRIGUES:

There. Look. I'm sure it's the same

bird.

We see the bird, FLOATING free in the light wind.

RODRIGUES (O.S.)

The one from the ship. It watches over

us.

Garupe turns his head to watch the bird...

RODRIGUES (O.S.)

It’s God’s sign.

...still in flight but nearing the ground, flying past...

...TWO MEN, apparitional figures in the still-thick mist.

Standing, staring. Unmoving.

Garupe SEES them first. He reaches for Rodrigues’s arm.

GARUPE:

Don’t move. Someone’s here. Watching

us.

Rodrigues follows his gaze, SEES the two men shrouded in the

distant mist. He doesn’t move a muscle. Until...the mist SHIFTS

and OBSCURES the figures.

RODRIGUES:

Now!

The priests DASH for the safety of the charcoal hut and...

CUT TO:

29

33 INT. CHARCOAL HUT DAY 33

...their hiding place in the floor. They RIP the floor boards

up, squeezing themselves into the deep darkness.

CUT TO:

34 EXT. CHARCOAL HUT NIGHT 34

Hours later. The land looks peaceful under a full moon.

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35 INT. CHARCOAL HUT NIGHT 35

The priests are now coiled tensely in their hiding place. The

soft sound of a VOICE pierces the quiet.

GOTO MAN 1 (O.S.)

Padre...

The Priests start to panic.

GOTO MAN 1 (O.S.)

(a little louder now)

Padre.

Rodrigues starts to get out of the hiding place.

GARUPE:

No! It’s not the signal!

The door creaks...

GOTO MAN 1 (O.S.)

Padre, do not be afraid, it’s all

right. We won’t hurt you. We’re

Kirishitan, Padre. Kirishitan.

Rodrigues and Garupe wait. They hear footsteps walk away.

Rodrigues wrenches free. He hoists himself out of the hiding

place, goes to the door and opens it. He sees TWO MEN

prostrating themselves before him on the ground.

GOTO MAN 2

We frightened you. We are sorry.

(As Rodrigues collects

himself)

(MORE)

30

GOTO MAN 2 (cont'd)

We want to ask you to come to our

village. To Goto. People miss our

faith there. Our children need you. We

have no Mass, no confession.

The Goto Men watch them eagerly. One of the men has bloody feet

from climbing the mountain to the hut.

GOTO MAN 1

All we can do is pray.

Rodrigues looks down at the Goto Man’s bloody feet.

CUT TO:

36 INT. CHARCOAL HUT NIGHT 36

Rodrigues carefully bathes and bandages the Goto Man’s bloody

feet as Garupe questions them.

GARUPE:

How did you know we were here?

The Goto Men lower their eyes.

RODRIGUES:

It’s all right. You can tell us. Was

it one of the faithful?

GOTO MAN 2

It was a Kirishitan of our village.

Kichijiro.

GARUPE:

(stunned)

Kichijiro? Our Kichijiro?

GOTO MAN 1

He says he came here with you.

RODRIGUES:

But he is not a Christian.

GOTO MAN 2

Yes he is. It’s true, he spoke against

God to the Inquisitor, Inoue Sama. But

that was eight years ago. His whole

family was put to death. He spoke

against God. But he still believes.

CUT TO:

31

37 EXT. A VAST STAND OF REEDS DAY 37

High angle down on the tall green reeds WAVING AND RUSTLING.

VOICES raised in intense debate float in the thin air. The men

from Goto stand aside respectfully, listening anxiously.

MOKICHI (O.S.)

No, Padre...

RODRIGUES (O.S.)

But we will return here.

ICHIZO (O.S.)

I don’t know the people of Goto, so I

don’t know they can be trusted.

RODRIGUES (O.S.)

They are Christians, just like us.

Garupe and Rodrigues stand among the villagers who have stopped

their work. Surrounded by the reeds, they look like creatures

at the bottom of a deep dry sea. They are troubled at the news

the two priests have just told them.

MOKICHI:

Kichijiro told them to come here. I am

not sure why. Why does he do anything?

RODRIGUES:

Kichijiro brought us to Tomogi.

GARUPE:

It will be only for a few days. Deus

commands us all to spread the gospel

to every living creature.

ICHIZO:

(beat)

But one will stay. Here. Please.

MOKICHI:

It is safer. There is much danger to

travel together.

ICHIZO:

And for us, too. Danger for all.

CUT TO:

32

38 EXT. TOMOGI BEACH NIGHT 38

Rodrigues sails from the beach in a boat piloted by a silent

BOATMAN. Garupe, Mokichi and Ichizo and a few other villagers

watch him move away into the GATHERING FOG. Rodrigues makes the

sign of the cross, but he is hardly filled with confidence

himself.

The Boatman squints ahead into the fog, shadows from the

lantern on the mast making his face look like a ghost mask.

Rodrigues SEES a second boat nearby, carrying the Goto men. One

of them looks back at Rodrigues, his face expressionless.

This makes Rodrigues even more uneasy as the second boat is

swallowed in the darkness like a ghost ship.

RODRIGUES:

Boatman...we’re losing them.

The Boatman doesn’t acknowledge him. Rodrigues says a silent

prayer before his boat, too, vanishes in the gathering fog.

CUT TO:

39 EXT. GOTO BEACH DAWN 39

A face suddenly appears in the fog. Then another.

On the boat, Rodrigues recoils, startled, fearful, as...

...FOUR VILLAGERS WADE into the BREAKING SURF on the beach,

surging toward the boat.

RODRIGUES (V.O.)

“Truly, on the journey I was full of

fear..never more than when we landed

on the island.”

Four sets of hands CLUTCH at him. He thinks he is being

captured...until one of the villagers makes the sign of the

cross. Then another. And then all.

Rodrigues is reassured. He lets himself be helped off the boat,

into the surf, towards the beach. The villagers stay close to

him in the water, protecting him.

RODRIGUES (V.O.)

“But the joy which greeted me, I

finally realized, was almost as great

as my own, coming safely to that

village. I thanked God for bringing me

here.”

33

Another small group of villagers waits anxiously. As Rodrigues

makes his way toward them, they part respectfully...

...and Rodrigues sees Kichijiro in their midst, smiling like a

hero.

RODRIGUES (V.O.)

“Even the sight of Kichijiro was

somehow welcome.”

Rodrigues regards Kichijiro with a look of relief tempered by

wariness. In the distance, a dog HOWLS.

CUT TO:

40 INT./EXT. GOTO CRUMBLING FARMHOUSE DAY 40

In a crumbling farmhouse, with a large congregation of

villagers, Rodrigues celebrates Mass under a bright and

cloudless sky. It is an occasion of reverence and joy.

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