Mind Mirror [6] Buddhist Films (cont.)

There are dozens of Buddhist films from Japan. Who can forget Rashomon (1950), in which a monk hears of one event told from different points of view. Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp (1956) is a response to the search to find spiritual meaning after the destruction wrought by war. We see a Japanese soldier injured in Burma at the end of World War II. A Buddhist monk takes care of him, and he returns to his military unit in Buddhist robes. In the films of Yasujiro Ozu (Early Summer, The End of Summer, etc.), the Buddhism's implied rather than explicit. Each scene, each shot, is given equal emphasis.  The camera is usually placed low, as if everything were seen by someone sitting on a zafu cushion on a tatami mat, contemplating.  A character doesn't experience a climax so much as undergo a subtle change that enables them to appreciate the suchness of things.  Nothing much happens, yet it's everything.

And Hollywood films can have unintended Buddhist themes, such as It's a Wonderful Life, in which we see what life would be like if one single person hadn't lived, revealing how each person affects everyone else. A film worth seeing more than once is Groundhog Day (1993), in which one man relives the same day 10,000 times until he gets it right. (Paul Schindler has compiled a lucid, deep Ground Hog Day portal to explorations of the film's spiritual resonance shedding light on the interface of spirituality and cinema in general, as well as the unique message of this film in particular.) George Lucas refused to specify whether The Force referred to by Yoda in Star Wars stands for the Tao, the Holy Spirit, Buddha-mind, etc., nor whether Luke Skywalker's journey represented the Buddha's. After all, the motto in Hollywood has been: "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." A more recent phenomena was the Matrix trilogy, with threads from several traditions. (Question, when does a luminous message outweigh violence served up piping hot?)

Recent films about Tibet, such as Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Kundun (1998), and Windhorse (1999), have come a long way from the Hollywood moonshine stereotypes of Lost Horizon (1937). Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha (1993) crosscut the life of the Buddha (played by Keanu Reeves) with the fictional story of a contemporary boy in Seattle thought to be a reincarnated Tibetan lama. Plus, there are now such documentaries as Anguish of Tibet and Wheel of Time (2003). And, from nearby Bhutan, The Cup (2000) was the first film made by a Buddhist lama, Khyentse Norbu, who followed his debut with Travellers & Magicians (2003). [His student, Neten Chokling, has filmed part one of the life story of Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint; part 2 is in the works.]

And there are films in which Buddhist elements pop up like weeds between cracks in concrete, such as in the 1993 biopic about Tina Turner, What's Love Got To Do With It. Just one line in a movie can be undeniably Buddhist, such as in Monsters, Inc., when Mike says to Scully (about Boo), "Oh no!, now that you've given it a name, you'll become attached to it!"

"What if the worst is true? What if there's no God, and you only go around once and that's it. Well, you know, don't you want to be part of the experience? You know, what the hell, it's not all a drag. And, I'm thinking to myself, 'Geez, I should stop ruining my life searching for answers I'm never gonna get, and just enjoy it while it lasts.'"

~ Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters