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

I felt like I ought to have enjoyed this more. The tranquility and natural beauty are reminiscent of Anh Hung Tran. But it was a bit boring. As an exploration of Buddhist philosophies, it works alright, but it seemed to be lacking a real human element, for the most part. Good to just sort of zone out to (like a Zen koan, I suppose) but not terribly engaging.

The story is sort of unintelligible, and the philosophical dialogue expounds no more than any brief dabbling in Buddhism could garner. I loved this more for its abstract moments, which capture a mysterious beauty while, strangely, these are portrayed using clearly an amateurish grasp of film as a medium. As such, something happens here that is unique despite the presence of glaring flaws in conception and execution.

Beautiful scenery and a somewhat boring story just could keep my attention. I had to watch this in five 30 minute chunk because my attention kept wondering while trying to watch this.

shave a bunch of asian dudes heads and make them all wear the same clothes and I'm up shit creek as far as keeping track of characters. Edit: oh wait, there was only one 20-something asian monk guy? I thought there were two. see what I'm talking about. so when the old dude was talking about the "master up on the mountain" who injured himself on the ice, he was talking about himself in the third person? wtf. Edit2: wait, no, that was some 4th random monk saying that? shit's confusing.

Three Buddhist monks, one old, one young, one a child, live in a remote monastery, seeking to come to terms with their respective destinies, but for the younger two, these destinies are far from clear. Often gorgeous (director-writer Yong-Kyun Bae is best known as a painter) and thought-provoking, in that it allows one to question the value of the monks' devotion, rather than placing them on a holy pedestal. It does begin to drag and disappear into its own abstractions in the second half.

Really lost me entire movie. It is not that it is hard to catch some part the stories, the way it is done make it to necessary heavy to watch. Although I think this movie has influence on Kim Ki-duk "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring".

There are some powerful scenes but the narrative is so hard to follow that it almost seems unnecessary. The washed out colors, rushed editing, cultural differences and lack of dialogue don't make things any easier. The director also seems to be trying too hard, there is a good hour of shots of inanimate objects that to me just seemed pretentious. As for an introduction to Zen and Buddhism, I thought it missed the mark. The actions of the younger monk were bizarrely masochistic.

This film gets more beautiful every time I see it.