kamilakuanysheva Review of Enlightenment Guaranteed

Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999)

quite interesting, but sometimes boring

[7/10 · 18 March 2018]

I have watched a documentary movie named "Enlightenment Guaranteed" by Doris Dorrie. At the first sight, I thought that this movie was produced by the students of any film academy because I was not familiar with German cinematograph before. Only after doing some research I realized that the cast consists of quite famous actors in Germany. I believe that my fist assumption appeared due to the reason that the beginning of the movie was boring. Generally speaking, a small number of dialogues makes the viewer bored and does not involve him in the course of the movie. Moreover, slow development of the story also forces to turn the movie off as soon as possible. I would like to watch more about the process of coming to the enlightenment rather than family dramas or drunk adventures in Japan. Speaking about the essence of the film, I can say that it was pretty interesting. A typical story of rivalry between two brothers makes each person to see him- or herself in the place of main character. The younger one have always tried to be perfect compared to elder because of the fictional and self-imposed complex that parents love one child more than another. Against the backdrop of that complex brotherhood relationships were strained enough and the younger brother Gustav decided to turn to religion. However, I think that it was just a tool as he still had bad habits and anger towards his brother Uve while the true Buddhist, trying to get good karma and increase merit, tries to completely clean the mind of bad things. Gustav was going to go to the trip to Japanese monastery named Mon Zen when the Uve's wife leaved him. After a number of absurd circumstances, both brothers went to Japan as they believed that Uve will get distracted from the problems in his personal life. On the contrary, he started to hate her wife more and more and on the day of arrival they went to a bar and, as a result, got lost in the large metropolis without money. However, they were lucky to meet a countrywoman in a completely foreign country who helped the brothers to reunite and reach the monastery. Uve always disregarded Buddhism and laughed at Gustav but when he met so many problems in one moment he began to see the meaning in the Buddha's words and other sutras. If Gustav was aware of monastery life, then for Uve it was something new and confusing because monks have completely different lifestyle. Brothers were immersed in the search of who they really are, meditated, read sutras and so on. But surprisingly, Uve made much greater progress that Gustav. I believe that this happened because he focused on the real problems, inner thoughts and attempts to understand himself while his brother though about physical pain and was not motivated at all. Moreover, in my opinion, for Gustav Buddhism is more a lifestyle and instruction set about how to live while for Uve is like a rescue. In conclusion, I think that this movie is really good and understandable regardless the shooting quality and directing work. Many concepts, such as Four Noble Truth and sungha, were explained by simple words and on the real life examples that might help us. In addition, there was a drop of humor and drama that diversified the film a little bit. What I liked most is that each viewer might see himself or his problems like cheating of Gustav's wife, divorce or again drunk problems. In addition, some scenes shot in the form of video diary caused interest inside of me.