Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?: A Zen Fable (1989)
"Dharmaga tongjoguro kan kkadalgun" (original title)

Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok... See full summary »

Director:

Yong-Kyun Bae

Writer:

Yong-Kyun Bae

Stars:

Yi Pan-Yong, Sin Won-Sop, Hae-Jin Huang

2 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Yi Pan-Yong	...	Hye-gok
Sin Won-Sop	...	Ki-bong
Hae-Jin Huang	...	Hae-jin
Su-Myong Ko	...	Abbot
Byeong-hui Yun	...	Ki-bong's mother
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Myeong-deok Choi
Hui-yeong Kim	...	The Other Disciple
Eun-yeong Lee
Seon-hye Lee

Storyline

Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok calls him Kibong!; and, an orphan lad Haejin, whom Hyegok has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. The story is mostly Yong Nan's, told in flashbacks: how he came to the monastery, his brief return to the city, his vacillation between the turbulence of the world and his hope to overcome passions and escape the idea of self. We also see Hyegok as a teacher, a protector, and a father figure, and we watch Haejin make his way as a curious and nearly self-sufficient child.

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Plot Keywords:

monastery | enlightenment | buddhist | master | orphan | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

23 September 1989 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?: A Zen Fable

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bae Yong-Kyun Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

137 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film took seven years to complete, using a single camera, and was edited entirely by hand.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Hyegok: Haejin! Haejin! There is no beginning and no end. Nothing is immutable, everything changes. That thing which does not come into being does not die.

User Reviews

A film requiring multiple viewings

I first saw this film several years ago, and I was told that it was so hard to understand. Then I studied more about Zen Buddhism, and slowly but surely, I did begin to understand.

The movie is considered the best film about Buddhism, and rightly so. The director, a professor at the Buddhist Dongguk University in Seoul, took seven years to make it and used non-actors to play the parts.

He recently remastered the image and dialogue in a new DVD release, but unfortunately, no extras or featurettes. This film is one of the greatest made, and I feel sorry that it hasn't gotten the proper DVD treatment it deserves.

Nonethless, this movie is a meditation about Buddhism, life and death, and our raison d'etre. Definitely not to be missed.