Change Your Image
madinajumagulova
Reviews
Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)
It's natural to make mistakes
I watched a movie "Spring, summer, fall, winter... and spring" three times: during my childhood, at the age of 17, and today. When I was a child, I thought about this movie as a fairytale. At the age of 17, the movie seemed to be tragic. Today I came back to the idea of fairytale: the movie, in my opinion, is full of symbols and events which are mysteriously happening during the movie. Some of them are intuitively easy to understand even though I am not a part of Korean and Buddhist society. Also, today the story seems to me not so tragic but rather more natural and daily, and the relationships between the old monk and his disciple feels like the relationships between father and son.
When the movie started, I was wondered with how the temple was incorporated in the nature. We could see that the house was located near the forest and could be built inside of it. However, it was built on some platform on the lake. It may look like strange place for building a temple but if the temple was built inside of the forest, during the building of the temple, trees would be cut down in the possible place of the temple. Even from the location of the temple we could see caring attitudes toward the nature of people who built the temple and the monk who lived in it. Moreover, the temple represents the old monk. As I understood, the major part of his lifetime he spent alone and was surrounded by nature.
Important participants of the movie are animals: fish, fog, snake, cock, cat. In the first part of the movie, young disciple kills a fish and a snake. In the "Summer" part, we could see a fish and snake. They are different from the previous part, but it was symbolic: even though you made mistakes, the life continues. I understood as a second chance given to the young disciple.
In the "Fall" part, we met a stray cat which was found by the old monk near the gates. Ironically, not so long after that his disciple came back to the temple. His mature disciple resembles the stray cat. The stray cat was not able to come down to the earth from the statue without help, however, it's natural for cats to jump without fear. This cat was not able to do such a natural thing. The disciple who disappointed in his life and wanted to end his life, however, it's natural to want to live for human beings. Both went astray. Also, we could see how the old monk was especially emotional toward the cat although he didn't show any emotions to guests in the "Summer" part, when people act disrespectful in the temple. In the "Fall" part, we can see how the monk gentle to the cat: he was petting the cat with a smile. And it was the only place in the movie when we could see how the old monk smiles. This act reminds how he cared his young disciple when the disciple was a child. Moreover, in the scene when the disciple was carving sutra, the cat was also feeling discomfort. In the end of the "Fall" part, when the disciple found peace after whole night of work, the disciple and cat left the temple. I think that scene was important because it illustrated that every people have own destiny and you should sometimes let
them go even though it may bring you a feeling of loneliness and suffering.
Another important aspect which I want to highlight in this story is the relationships between people, especially family relationships. As we noticed, there are not so many dialogs in the movie as we usually find in movies. This makes us more careful toward nonverbal expressions and small gestures.
In the "Spring" part, when the old monk wakes up, he tenderly tries to wake up the boy. In the "Spring" and "Summer" parts, we could see how the monk was observing actions of the boy and letting him to make his own mistakes. It may seem indifferent attitude of the monk toward the boy, but it was acceptance of weaknesses of his disciple. The monk didn't blame the boy even when he decided to leave and took away the Buddha's statue. This situation looked like the situation with grown up children and parents: at certain moment of life children leave, and it's natural.
In the "Fall" part, we can see how the monk accepted his disciple. He was not blaming him for the murder, he was worried about his wellbeing and happiness. When the disciple tried to commit a suicide, the monk became furious - this act is unnatural for monks who train their patience and acceptance for years. From that we can conclude that the monk had been personally moved by the action of the disciple.
Another situation I would like to discuss is when the disciple told that he killed his wife because she had left him, the monk said that you should your loved ones let them go. This action may seem alien to the monk, however, we can see it in the end of "Fall" part. In the scene when the disciple and cat were leaving, we can see how the monk was sad and lonely. I can not think that it's a coincidence that after the leave of his disciple the monk deiced to end his life. My feeling is that the monk understood that his disciple would be living a better life and he would come back to the temple, so the monk accomplished what he ought to do in this life. I was emotionally touched when I recognized that during the self-immolation, I saw traces of tears. We can think about it as his attachment to the disciple: the disciple and the monk were a family. In the
end, the monk let his disciple go even though it brought a suffering.
In my opinion, the last 2 parts were final, they showed that all in our lives are periodical as seasons of a year. And at the first glance the nature of human beings may seem to be cruel, stupid, greedy, it does not mean that humans are not able to change and feel sorry for the things they've done. It's natural to make mistakes. As I understood from the movie, you will always have the second chance to start your life.
Act Normal (2006)
"Everything that arises must pass away"
"Act Normal" is the 2006 documentary movie produced by Icelandic director Olaf de Fleur which shows the religious path of ups and downs of a British monk named Robert T. Edison, who decides to abandon his homeland to practice Buddhism in Thailand and Iceland, becoming a first Buddhist monk ever to be in Iceland. But later Robert faces a turning point of his life by marrying to a woman, stopping his monkhood, going through a divorce and then coming back to Buddhism again. The film through a story of Robert tries to explain the most significant pillar of Buddhism - impermanence of everything. To show how important that is, the movie focuses on critical moments of Robert's life such as dissatisfaction with life choices he made and his marriage, divorce and a following understanding and redefining of Buddhist main ideas. Also, "Act Normal" is very good at letting the audience to have a peek on what is the Buddhist monk life is and could be a nice attempt to challenge a viewers' stereotypes about Buddhism by illustrating a daily life of a monk and cleverly demonstrating that monks are not saints but common people with common problems.
The documentary was filmed in the period between 1994 and 2006, depicting different moments in Robert's life but does it non-linear way by showing each period rather randomly then chronologically which could at first confuse the audience but personally I would say that it does a good job in building the right environment to perceive Robert's experience and how he went through different periods in his life, this kind of cinematography resembles a chain of distinct memories in a way that memories often come chaotically rather than systematically. One of the such memories to begin with is how Robert became a monk, he immediately confronts an idea that people who choose to become a monk are in fear of responsibility in life and therefore escape in religion, he suggests that picking such way of living only challenges you, because you are obliged to completely change the lifestyle and live in the scarce of any luxury and, moreover, strive to have an open and pure mind. One of the few prohibitions of Buddhist monks, as for the most clerics, is full abandonment of any sexual activity and the movie focuses on this part of Robert's life, particularly on how he searched answers for what does love mean. His attempts and efforts on that matter brought him to the crucial point - he fell in love with a woman and decided to marry her which led to a bigger occasion, to quit Buddhism. From Robert's perspective this was not a spontaneous decision, in my opinion, the film showed that there was a premise for this to happen. Some moments before, Robert had an emotional crisis provoked by his disappointment of life and the choices he made, especially a choice to become a monk. At that moment of the film, when Robert get married and started a regular non-cleric life, happens the most important revelations on Robert's head, he started to grasp the meaning of impermanence. Despite the fact that the new life for Robert was a challenge to all the habits he has been getting used to it was a bigger challenge for his mind and mentality. Eventually his marriage breaks apart leaving a huge hole in his body which he unsuccessfully tried to fill by womanizing. From this moment it can be seen how lost Robert was, he tries to live a regular life but only comes to one conclusion, this kind of life is not for him, therefore, deciding to become a monk again but with more comprehension and clearness in his head. Living a regular family life for less than a year or in other words, acting normal, pushes him to gain his own opinion on what love is, which he simply describes by saying that love and infatuation are similar but in a different degree, thus, summing up with love being overrated. The whole experience Robert has been going through causes him to reconsider his values and finally leads him to come back to Buddhism again. As he moved to Thailand and proceeded to practice his monkhood, Robert says the vital point of this movie: "Everything that arises must pass away", implying that the feeling of permanence makes people unhappy and forces them to suffer, but the understanding of impermanence frees your mind and body.
To sum up, "Act Normal" serves as a great example to carefully explore a world of a simple Buddhist monk, the problems they face on a daily basis and how they challenge them. Nonetheless, it is important to mention how this movie could change a common perspective of clerics, especially Buddhist monks and the way they perceived. Also, the film thoroughly explains different Buddhist practices and analyzes some of the most important pillars in Buddhism.
Buddha's Lost Children (2006)
Living is an art to be learned
"Living is an art to be learned" is an opening phrase in a documentary movie called "Buddha's lost children" which accurately describes what the main character, the monk Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kositto or shortly Khru Bah, wants to educate his young apprentices. The film by Dutch director Mark Verkerk thoroughly captures a one-year moment of a local residents of a Buddhist monastery placed in the so-called Golden Triangle, an area in the northern part of Thailand which unfortunately well known for being a largest drug-producing region in Asia. The film focuses on children who have been taken under a wing of the local monk Khru Bah to become his novices due to such harsh conditions as a poverty, starvation and drug abuse. By showing a daily routine of the Golden Horse monastery this feature film tries to say that for the children, who ended up in poor and disappointing circumstances of this former high criminal region, the only and best option to have a better life and a brighter future is to bind their life with a Khru Bah and his Buddhist community. Khru Brah teaches children essential basic life skills and Buddhist traditions but most importantly how to apply those traditions in practice. Khru Bah' s involment, work and influence are a great example to challenge a stereotype of Buddhist monks who are perceived to be passive and compliant with contemplative perspective of the world.
The film starts off by revealing a backstory of Khru Bah, his Thai box past and how certain crucial moment of his life encouraged him to change his way of being. The pivotal turn was a vivid dream that made Khru Bah to become a Buddhist monk, he devoted 15 years of his life spreading a word of Buddha and saving children by taking care of them when they needed it most. Although the path he chose in not the easiest one he obtained true followers and friends like nun Khun Ead, for example. For the las five years Knuh Ead is responsible of the daily life of the monastery by sorting the alms and donation and keeping children' hygiene in good condition. The Golden Horse monastery where Khru Bah and his novices inhabit is heavily depends on hill tribe people and their donations. He collects alms every day, usually it is food but for the villagers it is a chance to earn a merit according to Buddhist tradition.
But then the focus of the picture is moved to one of his novices named Suk. Suk is one of the many poor children who ended up in monastery because he lost both parents thus became an orphan. He was a quiet and shy child who rarely spoke but with Khru Bah and surroundings' help and compassion he opened his heart and now considers Khru Bah and nun Khun Ead as his father and mother. By acquiring a true family, Suk can help other children to overcome life's obstacles and as his "father" he also wants to become a monk someday. Another child named Yee is yet to become an apprentice, his mother wants Yee to follow Khru Bah's people because she cannot provide him with enough food. The fact that Yee once fell from a tree and needed a close attention from his mother makes her decision even more painful, but she understands that this is only way she can secure her child. In course of time Khru Bah is granting Yee a new name - Pan Sean, thus, saying that "Yee is now dead" and from now on he is one of the novices. Later is seen that Suk and Pan Sean became much closer friends and Suk helped Pan Sean on his first steps of his learning and in such way proved that his intention to become a monk will come someday. Afterwards, in one the many tribes around a border, Khru Brah notices a four-year-old boy named Boontam, who has a certain illness that disturbs his walking capability. Khru Bah notices something special about this child, he said that this boy has a good karma but most importantly he mentions that he has been praying for Buddha to be born here, in the Golden Triangle, to help him spreading a word along the border, Khru Bah believes that Boontam is possibly a reincarnation of Buddha. As a Thai monk, Khru Bah is adherent of Theravada branch of Buddhism, whose followers believe that people and also the Buddha can reincarnate, that is why he assumes that Boontam is possibly the reincarnated Buddha. Under Khru Bah'S care Boontam's health was significantly improved and spends his life back and forth between the monastery and village. Aside from taking those children under his care, Khru Bah teaches them useful and important life skills and lessons. The good example would be schooling them basics of animal husbandry with the horse, as Khru Bah said "The novices learn the close link between humans and animals. Taking care of a horse is like looking in a mirror" meaning that children can apply acquired skills and knowledge to take care for themselves. Khru Bah sometimes use light physical abuse like punching and hitting and justifies it by saying "If horse is stubborn - child hits the horse. If child is stubborn - I must hit them". This can be seen as something that a monk will not do, and it is true, but from different perspective in it can be perceived not as a monk and novice relationship but more as a father and son thus showing more deep and compassionate connection between them and still he tries to hold his temper while being responsible for several dozen children with different approach and mental state as well as harsh circumstances they turned up in.
Overall, this documentary film carefully gives an a quick but nonetheless significant and important glimpse on the issues of people who live on borders in the Golden Triangle, especially focusing on children whose destiny could turn to be bonded with drug abuse, hunger, impoverishment if it was not for Khru Bah's unselfish and fully involved help, love and compassion. Also, this film provides a good example of how some of the Buddhist traditions can be taught to be used in practice thus confronting the typical stereotype about Buddhist monks and how they are recognized. This film could be recommended for people who wants to know how a religion can help people and try to solve some issues even at the smaller scale like the Golden Horse monastery and the villages that are under patronage of the monastery in the era when religion is highly criticized.