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Erleuchtung garantiert (1999)
"Too much enlightenment dazzles me"
Enlightenment Guaranteed is the movie filmed by a director Doris Dorrie. It tells the viewers a story of two brothers, who at a first sight live usual life in Germany. One of them Gustav tries to follow Zen and practices some meditation. At the hard time of their lives, both of them go to the monastic temple opposite to Tokyo to seek enlightenment. The author of the movie emphasizes the illusion that westerns see in trying to reach for real Zen and enlightenment.
The way Gustav saw Zen Buddhism before going to the temple and after differs. For him at first, Zen was more of an illusion to escape the reality of his life. He tried to fill in his life with different kinds of "typical" Buddhist things that he could find or easily follow. He read about Zen, tried to meditate, he even had a sandbox to calm him down. He has been shown more a fanatic of a popular mainstream to help him deal with stress. His brother, Uwe, on the other hand, was mocking Gustav for his interest in it. Yet during his hardship, he begged him to take him to the temple as well. Even on their way to the temple Uwe was reading Gustav's book on Zen Buddhism and saying some of the key concepts of it: about suffering, illusion, meditation, and idea of 'self' or 'no-self'. There were no particular Sanskrit names for all these concepts, yet they have been illustrated in the way it would be perceived by the usual Western.
The pilgrimage to the temple and the life with the monastic community was for them the source to find the inner peace. Yet for both of them, it came differently. The film shows how hard both of them to bear the monastic life within the monks. At some point of the movie, Gustav even says: "And then I think to stay cool, Gustav. You came here to find inner peace".
The monastic life has been shown with great details, yet realistic, because of the struggles that alienated Gustav and Uwe go through. They have to wake up at 4:30 AM, clean the temple, participate in the practices and meditations, eat by the rules and repeat the cycle over and over again. The movie seems to be very accurate in this sense. It shows the small details, which are a part of Zen monastic life: they procedures before they are allowed to eat, the way the take chopsticks and even the method of "shock" during the meditation to achieve satori(enlightenment). Both of them do find this trip significant though: Gustav finally accepts him as being gay and Uwe seems to be ready to let go the situation that happened with his wife Petra. The sangha community did not help to become truly spiritually enlightened, but they did for sure found the peace and courage to come back to their lives and fight (or meditate) through the struggles. As Gustav said crying about his talk with Abbot: "He said that I could make mistakes and he'd still care for me".
The movie is anthropological, unique and very visual. By the usage of different filming techniques (or not using them) it did not felt like a film or a documentary, it felt like an honest diary. In this sense, it is phenomenal in showing the inner side of the monastic community, the struggle a 'new' monk can go through and the way Zen Buddhism can be seen by the Western people.
Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)
Mystical Dharma and the Cyclicality
The movie "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" directed by a vanguard Korean director Kim Ki Duk is a pure illustration and the reading of the Buddhist dharma, core Buddhist teachings. The work can be torn apart into separate pieces of symbolism, yet seen as a complete cyclic work of art. Through the cyclicality of the nature and the life of one person the director could interpret basic Buddhist concept in a lens of cultural Korean Buddhism and the mystical premises which should not be taken presisely.
Unlike Weerasethakul's "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives" the cyclicality as an essential part of the Buddhist dharma has been shown from a slightly different perspective. The driving force for samsara has not only been the deed of one person, as we have partially observed from Uncle Boonmee, Kim Ki Duk illustrated cyclicality in all aspects of the world: from the rotation of day and night, change in seasons to the evolution of human emotions and senses to the change in generations. Even the title of the movie cyclical, as the Buddhist teachings suggest that time is not linear rather cyclical. Here the viewer comes back to the point zero at the end of the movie as well. It has been illustrated not only through the return to the spring season, which can be seen as the point of rebirth: we see the monk with the little boy both in the beginning and in the end. Other seasons can also be seen as other processes of this cycle: summer is birth, fall is life and winter is death. They can be in different levels at the same time: the development of nature, life of the old monk and life of a little boy.
Even though the movie represents the small sangha, the monastic community, everything depicted by the director should not be taken literary, because it involves mystery, which is not explained by the movie. For example, even small details of the monastic life have not been shown and can raise some question: for example, the sources of food they have used to live. Another controversial moment in the movie is the one when the little boy has arrived on another shore and played with fish, frog and snake (which has been shown for the didactic reasons, as the viewer gets to see later), the old monk has also somehow arrived at that side of the shore, possibly just walking on the water. Leaving this questions without the answer, the director almost points out on the fact that even though the representation of the Buddhist livelihood seems more or less accurate, it should not be taken without a doubt. Despite this, Kim Ki Duk masterfully showed 3 Jewels on Buddhism: the Buddha, who has been depicted several times throughout the movie, Sangha, monastic community, and the Dharma, Buddhist core teachings. Even the Dukha, the suffering, which is the main driving force of Samsara, has been shown not only through different types and degrees of physical pain, but also through the moral dissatisfaction and psychological suffering: "Didn't you know beforehand how the world of men is? Sometimes we have to let go of the things we like. What you like, others will also like," - as the old monk commented after the younger one's return to the temple.
Even though the movie includes a lot of controversial moments, it could masterly introduce to the viewer core concepts and teaching of Buddhist community, however, the viewer should take responsibility to filter and polish the information.
Loong Boonmee raleuk chat (2010)
A Movie or a Meditation
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) by Apichatpong Weerasethkul is an ambiguous movie that can be approximated by an act of meditation in Buddhist culture. It is important, however, to state that the Buddhist premises in the movie are secondary and should be interpreted only with the acknowledgment of its' binding with the primordial Thai culture. Boonmee gives a clear explanation that he can be considered an adherent of Buddhism, referring to such ideas as karma, but this is not the only aspects of Buddhist culture that Weerasethakul used in the story: temporality, time and realm of life are one of the main concepts that are traced in the movie, however, should not be taken as explicitly Buddhist.
Temporality and time are one of the key features of the movie itself, and also in the dharma, the Buddhist teachings. The story is set in Thailand, in the country-side, and illustrates the conventional daily life on Boonmee, who seems to be a rather good living man with own property, suffering the kidney disease. The storytelling divides into various storylines, showing the contemporary current state of Boonmee and also his possible past lives. However, having no distinguished focalizer, it was left for the viewer to decide what is present, past and future according to the culture shown in the background. Due to the low real-life-like pace of the narration, it is even harder for the viewer to logically categorize, like the photographs shown closer to the end of the film are difficult to classify clearly. This feeling of things, action and even life itself being temporal and having rather a cyclical framing than linear is described in the Buddhist teachings as well as commented by Huay, the ghost wife Boonmee: "I have no concept of time anymore". Even the end of Boonmee's life is cyclical as well, returning to the cave, where his first life was created, emphasizing the cyclicality, but also the impermanence and, almost, insignificance.
The characters themselves also represent several Buddhist teachings and concepts, like realms of life and rebirth, however, should be repeatedly put in the context of the cultural background of the story. Huay, according to bhavachakra, the wheel of life, represents the realm of ghosts, whose dominant emotion has always been considered greed. Even being a ghost she still feels attached (almost greedy) to Boonmee, commenting "Ghosts aren't attached to places but to people". Boonsong, the son of Huay and Boonmee, also does not ascribe himself to the human society. According to the wheel, transformed into the hairy big ape Boonsong would be a part of the animal realm, representing ignorance. Being ignorant, he wanted to get the knowledge about the mysterious creature on the photograph he showed during the dinner, became addicted to finding out what it was. This can be seen as an oblique reference to the different realm of life in Buddhism, showing that the suffering, samsara, in every domain is what rotates the wheel.
Weerasethakul is a master of the cinematography, being able to immerse the viewer into the Thai country-side to act as a visual anthropologist, leaving everything unsaid, ambiguous and oblique. He uses the fundamental concepts of the Buddhist teachings to show the pieces of life in a whole picture, to comment of the cyclicity not only of one insignificant life but also the cyclicity of time itself, of feeling, emotions and even national history in some sense. Though he never gives the answer, for example, the split of Tong and Jaai in two parts in the end of the film is left to the subjectivity of each viewer. The impermanence and cyclical nature of the life by the director in a way, so that the viewer can feel it and live through it with the characters, trying to find answers and dharma in a way.