"Octopuses are remarkably bright creatures, it says."

Hey!! points, snaps, and whistles!!

"Why is human life so full of grotesque irony, he muttered quietly to himself."

"How could anyone sacrifice himself for a false faith?"

This is such a circular argument/thought. People die for unjust causes and false ideologies all the time. Over 250,000 people died in the American Civil War fighting to further slavery...

"...Bishop Köyū impressed me deeply by saying that only a boring man will always want things to match; real quality lies in irregularity - another excellent remark."

"Everyone would like to leave their name unburied for posterity -- but the high-born and exalted are not necessarily fine people, surely. A dull, stupid person can be born into a good house, attain high status thanks to opportunity and live in the height of luxury, while many wonderfully wise and saintly men choose to remain in lowly positions, and end their days without ever having met with good fortune. A fierce craving for high status and position is next in folly to the lust for fortune."

"There arose in my mind a story I had heard while still in Macao. It was about a Franciscan priest who, escaping a martyr's death, had carried on an underground apostolate -- but then he had given himself up at the castle of the feudal lord, Omura. Because of his momentary rashness, the whole underground work of the mission was impaired and the safety of the Christians was jeopardized. This story was well known. Its moral was that a priest does not exist in order to become a martyr; he must preserve his life in order that the flame of faith may not utterly die when the church is persecuted."

This is precisely the idea that intrigued me so strongly while watching the film! The question of at what point is it better to renounce the faith so that you might live another day to continue the fight for the faith than to simply die a martyr?

"But now there arose up within my heart quite suddenly the sound of the roaring sea as it would ring in my ears when Garrpe and I lay alone in hiding on the mountain. The sound of those waves that echoed in the dark like a muffled drum; the sound of those waves all night long, as they broke meaninglessly, receded, and then broke again on the shore. This was the sea that relentlessly washed the dead bodies of Mokichi and Ichizo, the sea that swallowed them up, the sea that, after their death, stretched out endlessly with unchanging expressions. And like the sea God was silent. His silence continued. "No, no! I shook my head. If God does not exist, how can man endure the monotony of the sea and its cruel lack of emotion? (But supposing... of course, supposing, I mean.) From the deepest core of my being yet another voice made itself heard in a whis- per. Supposing God does not exist... "This was a frightening fancy. If he does not exist, how absurd the whole thing becomes."

This inner dialog is what I find so interesting about this story. It's the linchpin of the struggle with and for his religion. I love how this story faces this theme head-on.