At first, I thought this was an anti-Buddhist movie. In the end,the nuns both lie to and disobey their dying abbotess and the one who takes the bones is the true inheritor of the – light. (Inheritor of something, not sure what.) But now, a few hours later, I think it was only incidentally anti-Buddhist, and that it was primarily concerned with purity and what constitutes purity. The nuns were just a symbol for a concern for purity and in the end they succumbed to both jealousy (the abbotess was waiting for the one who took the bones – all the names have escaped me- and not the nun who just finished 3 years in a cave) and pride (evidence: their lack of obedience to their superior.)
The beard koan was meant to carry a lot of weight; I missed it. What was that about?
I disliked (but it was a sign of the times) how the woman was consistently defined vis-à-vis a man – her father, her high school teacher, her husband(s). But, to be fair, the story was developed just as much by her relationship to the abbotess and her sister nuns.
Compassion, as announced in the beginning, is the overriding virtue. And it is, but I don't see that a reason to disparage spiritual quests. It's an old Catholic argument, too – the active vs. the contemplative life, except that it's a straw man of an argument. The real struggle is the lies we tell ourselves as a society to allow greed to flourish. I figure both monasteries and hospitals are needed to crack that lie.
I give it 7 stars, though, for the utter beauty which the camera captured and the perfect time capsule of a period of Korean life.
The beard koan was meant to carry a lot of weight; I missed it. What was that about?
I disliked (but it was a sign of the times) how the woman was consistently defined vis-à-vis a man – her father, her high school teacher, her husband(s). But, to be fair, the story was developed just as much by her relationship to the abbotess and her sister nuns.
Compassion, as announced in the beginning, is the overriding virtue. And it is, but I don't see that a reason to disparage spiritual quests. It's an old Catholic argument, too – the active vs. the contemplative life, except that it's a straw man of an argument. The real struggle is the lies we tell ourselves as a society to allow greed to flourish. I figure both monasteries and hospitals are needed to crack that lie.
I give it 7 stars, though, for the utter beauty which the camera captured and the perfect time capsule of a period of Korean life.