Starting with the name of the film, Little Buddha, viewers can already know what they are going to be introduced to. The religion of Buddhism is familiar to almost everyone, yet not every other person knows about its history, teachings and even emergence. After watching this film, being already familiar with some aspects of Buddhism, I think that Little Buddha is a great start for anyone who is willing to learn the basics of this religion. Little Buddha is a great introductory film to Buddhism as it introduces viewers with some essential things about Buddhist religious traditions, such as the story of Buddha, Buddhist teachings (the Dharma), some religious norms for Buddhists. In other words, it shows an overview for people living outside of the Buddhist world. Furthermore, taking into consideration that the film begins from Conrad's family living in Seattle, I believe that this film was particularly made for the Western world.
First and foremost, this film has effectively delivered the story of Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha and meaning "an enlightened one", starting from the related prophecy when he was conceived to the moment of him achieving the Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. This story was well organized and delivered to the viewers as a fairy tale narration from the book of the same name 'Little Buddha', which was presented to a young boy Jesse Conrad, a reincarnation of Lama Dorje. Such a fairy tale-like delivery of life of Buddha was well depicted using a young boy's imagination. Curiosity, which can describe Jesse, even made viewers engage in that story, because he always asked questions about Buddha and Buddhist traditions and wanted to know more. Later on, when the story was narrated to all the three reincarnations of Lama Dorje, Jesse, Raju and Gita, young children imagined being together with Buddha, watching the whole story in-person near a tree of Gita's house. In my opinion, this was a brilliant move in filming this, because this fragment of the movie shows the Buddhist believe that Buddha is everywhere, yet nowhere. So, kids imagined that he was near them, however, there was no one except them and the monks.
Moreover, the film could introduce some essential Buddhist teachings. One of the ideas that were explained was the idea of compassion and suffering, which is one of the main concepts under Buddhism. This was seen in several moments of the movie, like the very first words of Gautama when he was just born: "... free all creatures from sufferings", and the moment when Gautama first saw aged people, different illness and death for the first time. He started to feel compassion for every creature after seeing sufferings all around. In addition, a similar scene can be seen in Jesse's exploration of suffering when he chased Raju because of his Gameplay. The parallel that was made between Gautama and Jesse at that moment shows us that possibly a young boy can also follow Gautama's path and become Buddha someday. Another principle that stood out to me was the cup and tea analogy that Lama Norbu used to explain Mr. Conrad the Buddhist vision of body and mind. Cup as the analog for the body, which means that as well as cup stops being cup when it is broken, your body stops to exist when you die. However, your mind can travel to another container, or body, as the tea can be poured into another cup. The fact that the filmmaker showed in detail the cup and tea analogy made it helpful for me, as a non-Buddhist person, to understand the body and mind concept of Buddhism. The film included other examples of Buddhist teachings, such as a goat and a priest story, which introduced us to the idea of reincarnation and karma.
Finally, viewers can see the way Buddhist monks live and how they perform different religious traditions. When monks travelled to the different parts of the world, we could barely see them bringing some personal things, except for the medicine of Lama Norbu. Throughout the whole movie, we see that monks never changed their clothing to another; they always wore robes. They always took off their shoes when they entered the living zone or sacred place. Lama Norbu even taught the viewers about the importance of circumambulation in Buddhist traditions, when he told Jesse to go clockwise to investigate the temple.
In conclusion, Little Buddha is a light movie, meaning that it is easy to follow the plot and understand the message behind, yet it could explain some of the important Buddhist principles. The cinematography did a great job of depicting the parts Buddhist religious traditions by creating and delivering a fairy tale-like story of Buddha. As it has been noted above, the use of the western family's young kid as a reincarnation of Lama Dorje was an effective way to acquaint Buddhism to the outsiders of this religion, most probably to the Western world. On the whole, Little Buddha is a very informative movie for those people who want to learn and know more about Buddhism.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Act Normal
(2006)
Beyond the normal life: a unique and calming story
1 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Act Normal" is a documentary produced in 2006 by Icelandic producer and director Olaf de Fleur. It was filmed between 1994 and 2006 and it shows the story of the first Icelandic monk, Robert Edison, who disrobed and became monk once again after his marriage and divorce.
This documentary is wholly centralized on Robert T. Edison and his unique story as a Buddhist monk. As the majority of the interviews is given by Robert himself, it seems to me that it helps to concentrate more on the character, his feelings, and his personal development, and does not distract from important moments. However, this distraction happened during watching this documentary, when there was one additional interview that was taken from his ex-wife. Personally, I believe that the interview with his ex-wife is of no importance and is an extra part of this documentary, that can be excluded. Despite this opinion, the presence of this love story resembles the title of the film "Act Normal", because when he returns to a life of an ordinary man he acts the way that is believed to be "normal" and marries a woman he met in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, his comeback to a normal life as an ordinary person plays an important part in this documentary, because it displays what kind of benefits, difficulties or unusual things he experienced as a "normal" man after a long stay in the rank of the monk and how he did overcome these problems.
Sometimes in the movie, the video material is not provided in chronological order, so it can confuse the audience, that is why in such cases it is better to concentrate on the audio of the interview rather than on the video fragments incorporated in the movie. In my opinion, it is better to follow the timeline in the documentary in order to represent his story to the audience better.
One of the best parts of this documentary film is that it shows the life of Buddhist monks very well. Viewers who are already familiar with Buddhism may notice how Robert follows Vinaya Pitaka, meditates, chants, discusses the doctrine of anatma and follows the Eightfold path as a whole. The audience can also notice the importance of laymen in Buddhism, as the film often shows the moments when laity people share some things with Robert, and he himself told a story how he was dependent on the good nature of laity when they offered him food.
Through the whole documentary, audience is accompanied with good music that perfectly suits the documentary. The choice of the music also plays an important part in the production of the movie, because it sets up the atmosphere for the audience, so they could dive into the movie better. To my mind, the director could achieve this goal well.
On the whole, I think that this documentary is an extraordinary story that represents the difficulties and challenges of Western man becoming and being a monk. Apart from the Buddhist concepts and notions, an ordinary viewer can learn a lesson that being and acting "normal" sometimes is not what a person needs. It is better to follow the unique path that will make you feel happy rather than stick to the universal concept of normal life prescribed by the society.
My Reincarnation
(2011)
The matter of responsibility in family and in religious lifestyle
25 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"My Reincarnation" is one of the unique films of Jennifer Fox, an American producer and director, that was released in 2011. This is documentary film that shows a biography of one of the Tibetan Buddhist masters, Rinpoche, and his son, Yeshi. The most interesting fact about this documentary is that it took 20 years for Jennifer Fox to film and produce it.
The story of the documentary is not focused only on the Dzogchen, one of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, but it touches the family relations and altruism. Family relationship between son and father is one of the central topics that is discussed in this movie, that can be observed through the interviews of both men. These interviews show an unusual father-son relation, where one is a master, and another is son of a master, showing the great responsibility laid upon their shoulders just by their titles. Master Rinpoche feels the responsibility to help other people and save the cultural identity of Dzogchen, that is why he sacrifices all his time that he could spend with his family. A dozen of students and followers all over the world replaces him his family. During his life he put the duty of master higher than the duty of father. However, that does not necessarily mean that Rinpoche completely fails in his role as a father, because in the documentary we just see him more as a master rather than as a father.
On the other side of the story, there is his son, Yeshi, who believed that Rinpoche took too much responsibility that negatively affected his own personal life because of Rinpoche's altruist lifestyle, that include continual teachings all over the globe and consultation with the followers of Dzogchen. Through the whole documentary it is seen how Yeshi's opinion on his father's attitude towards life has changed during these 20 years. At first, he did not understand, or even did not want to understand, all things related to these teachings, while towards the end of the documentary he accepted his fate of the reincarnation of his father's uncle, also a great master of Dzogchen in Tibet.
Great effort has been put in the recording and the production of this movie. Jennifer Fox used a good method of blending the interview material with other daily life video materials. By following this method viewers can actually see what did Rinpoche and Yeshi mean in their interview as it helps to visualize the interview in their real life. Furthermore, this method helps us to better understand feelings of these two main characters. Another thing that can be noticed throughout this documentary is Buddhist teachings and lifestyle. We can see how the first community, Merigar, has appeared and how Rinpoche is trying to deliver teachings to the students through representing samsara as an ocean.
The documentary "My Reincarnation" is not just a simple biography of a religious master. It is also a story about relationship between father and son, the struggle of responsibility, the story of many other people, who seek peace and solution in the teachings. There are a lot of useful life lessons that can be learned from this movie.
Enlightenment Guaranteed
(1999)
A first steps into Buddhism
18 March 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Enlightenment Guaranteed" is a German movie that was directed by Doris Dörrie. The genre of this film is drama and comedy. The main characters of this movie are two German brothers, Uwe and Gustav, who spend some time in the Japanese Buddhist monastery at Monzen. Prior to this trip one of the brothers, Gustav, was actually a follower of Buddhism and originally, he wanted to visit this monastery alone. However, his brother Uwe faced serious family problem when his wife left him and took all their 4 children with her. Being upset and angry at his wife, Uwe persuaded Gustav to take him to the trip to the Buddhist monastery and that is how their story began.
First of all, we can clearly identify main Buddhist notion through this movie. All of their personal problems that they face in Germany along with the hardships faced in Japan, such as getting lost and losing all belongings, shows the Buddha's teaching that life is a suffering. Gustav as a person more familiar with this religion understands this idea and tries to comfort his brother during these hard times. All of the problems that they faced actually made it possible for them to better understand the Buddhist ideas.
Furthermore, one of the good features of these movie is the detailed demonstration of the life of the monastic community, the sangha. Almost half of the movie is devoted to the life in the monastery of two brothers, where we can see the daily routine of all monks. When two main characters share their fears and problems with the monk viewers also are able to see some of the Buddhist ideas. The interesting point is that the advices given by the monk can actually relate to all people, even who are not familiar with Buddhism.
With regard to the production of this movie one of the interesting features is that it looks like a documentary film. All of the actors in this movie play characters with their own name, that is why viewers have a feeling that everything happened is based on the real events. In addition, the montage of the movie resembles documentary, because some of the shots added were video fragments that two brothers have recorded during this trip. Some of the fragments resembles a personal diary or sometimes an interview, that makes the movie a little bit special.
However, one of the things that may disappoint viewers is the duration of the movie. It seems like the story line was extended on purpose and some of the scenes included have no meaning in the movie, that is why viewers can get bored while watching this film.
In conclusion, this movie can help people, who are not familiar with Buddhism, to become acquainted with it, as this movie introduces one of the main teachings of Buddha that life is a suffering and it successfully shows the life of the sangha in the monastery. This can be counted as a first step in learning about the religion. Even though the resemblance with documentary film makes "Enlightenment Guaranteed" unique for that time, the duration of the film and the development of the story line makes this movie less interesting. I evaluate this movie as 8/10.
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