Nicolas Winding Refn will continue to build one of the most iconoclastic filmographies in cinema with his next film: "The Avenging Silence." Not much was known about his follow-up to last year's polarizing, shocking, repulsive, beautiful, brilliant "The Neon Demon" ... that is until just a few hours ago.
According to The Playlist, The film's full synopsis is now available to read and available via Crouching Tigers Project Lab which launched just last month at "International Film Festival & Awards Macao.” Twelve projects were selected for the given filmmakers to try and pitch their films to producers, distributors, backers etc. ""The Avenging Silence" was one of them.
This is the synopsis they got:
A former European spy, accepts a confidential mission from a Japanese businessman exiled to France to take down the head of the most treacherous Yakuza boss in Japan.
But it’s in the extended synopsis where the story gets truly fascinating, as it looks like once again, Refn will have (as the title suggests) a protagonist who doesn’t say much at all:
The spy was one of the leading spies in Europe. An injury inflicted to his vocal cords during a failed mission six years ago left him mute, forcing him to leave his profession. Now, six years later, he is sought out and put on confidential assignment by a former Yakuza, now a retired Japanese businessman in exile in France, to track down and kill the head of the most dangerous Yakuza family in Japan.
Afraid of flying, our spy anonymously boards a cargo ship headed for Tokyo. An onboard explosion sinks the ship and our spy finds himself washed ashore on a life raft in southern Japan. As a mute, our spy must silently journey through Japan seeking 4 clues – symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death – which will guide him to the unknown location of the Yakuza boss. Meanwhile, the Yakuza boss, known for his 2004 mass slaughter of Yakuza members who had turned against him, is believed to be plotting to reenter the Japanese underworld after living in his own surreptitious world in the mountains, void of all technology. This way of life becomes an obsession for the Yakuza boss. Rumors spread that he had committed suicide years ago but escaped prisoners from his hidden camp told stories of his plan for a comeback. Now rival Yakuza families suspect he is forming a master plan to return, a plan that unburies the most infamous story of Yakuza betrayal.
Our spy finds himself on an existential journey through Japan in search of pieces to the puzzle that will lead him to a confrontation with the ultimate Yakuza boss in a terrifying conclusion.
Last august Refn tweeted this tease about his potential next film:
