By Eryn Sun|Christian Post Correspondent
And the Good News is … just nine minutes and fourteen seconds long?
With the average attention span among youth constantly shrinking, one ministry continues to capture the hearts and minds of the lost in a unique language most teens find hard to resist – Japanese animation.
Adopted from the original “JESUS” film created by The JESUS Film Project, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, “My Last Day” tells the story of Jesus’ crucifixion through the eyes of the thief who hung next to him in a short anime format.
The film opens with soldiers brutally whipping Jesus amid an angry and approving crowd, while the jailed thief looks on out of his cell. Passing from regret to repentance and ultimately to redemption at the cross, his own guilt causes him to realize Jesus’ innocence.
“Remember me Jesus when you come as king,” utters the repentant thief who, although hanging on the cross, is comforted by the promise of paradise.
Giving audiences the opportunity to witness the personal transformation of the criminal when encountering the truth of Jesus Christ, the first-person narrative makes the story all the more relatable and real.
The end of the film displays a link to a website that answers the question “Who is Jesus” and presents the Gospel message, offered in several different languages. People are given the chance to repent and receive Christ through prayer.
“My Last Day” is part of the latest strategy of the ministry to create and translate media tools to communicate the story of Jesus in “heart languages of the world.”
“Heart language is a combination of two factors,” stated Greg Gregoire, senior associate for The JESUS Film Project, to The Christian Post. “The mother tongue of the person [and] the second factor is the communication style that people want to receive information.”
“We now have the JESUS film in over 1,100 languages … and today many people, both literate and non-literate prefer a story format.”
Recognizing that short films were a more receptive medium, Gregoire noted, “By using film we can tell the story [of Jesus] and it can be dubbed into other languages and accents and used by many people to retell the story.”
The classic “JESUS” film is over 31 years old and while still very effective in many contexts, the next generation – the millenials – and other media-sophisticated audiences needed a different way to connect to the story, said Gregoire.
With this new version of the original, which employs highly stylized animation techniques proven to be popular worldwide, the ministry hopes to effectively reach younger audiences.
“It won’t be their grandparents’ JESUS film. It won’t even be their parents’ The Passion of the Christ. It will be the story of Jesus told in their language,” expressed the film’s renowned writer Barry Cook, who also directed Disney’s “Mulan” and was the visual effects supervisor for “Beauty and the Beast.”
“Since anime appeals to media-heavy cultures, the potential impact of using anime for a Christian movie is staggering.”
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