Movie Review of Om Shanti Om (2007)

Movie Review of Om Shanti Om

The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences--good, bad, and indifferent--are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.
-Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindess

A delightful movie. It parodies itself, yet manages to have epic moments. It’s silly and sad, melodramatic and moving, goofy and sexy. If you enjoy Bollywood, you’ll love all two hours and forty-seven minutes of this wonderful movie.

The musical numbers are sensational, reminiscent of Hollywood musical at their peak with a delicious East Indian flavour and a touch of tongue in cheek (plenty of Bollywood stars in cameo); they make it difficult to stay in your seat. Watching it will make you want to run out and buy the soundtrack.

Although the underlying karma is through Hindu eyes, the messages are universal. Love conquers all. We must have faith in our dreams and take risks to achieve them. The wheel may turn slowly but it does turn.

Movie Review of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

Review of the Movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Greed rises from wrong ideas of satisfaction; anger rises from wrong ideas concerning the state of one’s affairs and surrounding; foolishness rises from the inability to judge what correct conduct is.
- The Buddha

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a hilarious movie for the whole family. It does get rather intense at times and the sentient, headless chicken attack might be too scary for small children.

Flint Lockwood has the right motivation; he wants to use his ability to invent to save the town. However, due to combination of the townspeople’s gluttony (symbolized by the ever increasing girth of the mayor) and Flint’s desperate need for love, he allows things to get out of hand.

The message of be who you really are in spite of the mockery of others threads through the story. Not everyone expresses love in the same way; communication can be difficult, especially between a father and son. The movie pokes fun at one shot celebrities, typecast weather girls, theme parks, disaster movies, the hours we spend watching “cute” internet videos, politicians, and even snow days. There are funny references to other movies that parents will appreciate.

Movie Review of The Duchess (2008)

Review of the movie The Duchess

The first steps toward spiritual freedom from the worldly bonds and fetters are to control one’s mind, to stop idle talk, and to be somewhat pensive.
-The Buddha

This historical-romance is based on the life of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, who lived in the 18th century. It examines how duty supersedes personal happiness. It also demonstrates how a woman could have wealth, prestige, beauty, and influence, and yet have nothing.

In spite of her best efforts, her husband openly loves another woman, “Well, as they say, the Duke of Devonshire must be the only man in England not in love with his wife.”

In spite of his cold, selfishness, there is a moment when we also sympathize with her controlling husband, the Duke, as he watches the children playing and says, “How wonderful to be that free.”

Freedom is a recurring theme. The Duchess and Charles Grey both believe freedom is an absolute, and this is the source of both their inspiration and their pain.

Movie Review of The Reader (2008)

Review of the Movie The Reader

As sweet as honey, thinks a fool an evil deed, so long as it bears no fruit;
But when it bears fruit, then the fool comes to grief.
- Dhammapada 69

The Reader has been both praised and torn apart by reviewers. It is the story of a young man who had an affair with a much older woman, fell in love with her, and then lost track of her until he was in university. Then, he discovers, she was not the woman he thought. I would like to look at the issue of Hanna’s ethical framework and how it affects the young man who loved her.

Under the review of the television series Flashpoint, you will find a relevant quotation by Thich Nhat Han about how we are formed by our circumstances. Hanna’s circumstances seem to have formed her into a woman who feels deep shame over her own limitations but not of her horrific actions during the war. She also defends her action by saying, “What would you have done?” No one responds. They could be horrified by the question but also they may realize that not being in the circumstance, they could not say for sure how they would have behaved.

At another point in the movie, young legal students are discussing the camps and one shouts, “Everybody knew what was happening. Everyone knew about the camps. Everyone.” Did the people believe in victory so much they never thought they, as individuals and as a nation, would be held accountable for the atrocities?

We know from the beginning there is something not quite right with Hanna’s morality. She helps an ill boy, Michael Berg, age 15, but then immediately seduces him. She never says hello, simply barks orders. She vacillates between indifference and affection toward the boy. Is she a woman of her times? Her nature at conflict with her environment? In the end, her skewed morality does her in.

The reaction of Michael and the damage the relationship has done to him are paramount. Is it lust or is it compassion? This first deceptive relationship cuts deeply causing him to distance himself from everyone, his wife, and even his daughter. It is only by showing Hanna compassion is he able to grieve and heal.

Review of the Movie Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Review of the Movie Kung Fu Panda

Though one should conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, he who conquers his own self, is the greatest of all conquerers.Self-conquest is, indeed, far greater than the conquest of all other folks. Dhammapada v. 103, 104

Although there are many moments in this movie where meaningful dialogue occurs, any wisdom gained by these is overshadowed by the continual fight scenes. Although the location is “The Valley of Peace” most time and energy is spent perfecting warrior skills and incarcerating (horribly) the potential threat to this “peace.”

When Po, the overweight bungling Panda, eventually proves himself and is given the scroll of power to read, he discovers that it is blank. More to the point, it reflects the person who looks into it. Just as the noodle broth has no secret ingredient, so too the scroll has no secret power. The message is that we carry our own power within and need to fulfill our own potential without looking for some magical outside answer. However, this worthy message is overshadowed by other negative messages.

Tai Lung frees himself from an inhumane prison to confront his former teacher and surrogate father, Shifu. He says, “All I ever did, I did to make you proud! Tell me how proud you are Shifu! Tell me. Tell me!” Is this not a cry of suffering? Tai Lung was abandoned by his birth father as an infant, then again as an adult/student by his adoptive father/master.

Shifu replies, “I have always been proud of you. From the first moment I've been proud of you. And it was my pride that blinded me. I loved you too much to see what you were becoming, what I turned you into. I'm... I'm sorry.” If he was sorry, why did he abandon Tai Lung in prison? Why did he not visit and concentrate on undoing the damage? He cast him aside like a failed project.

Tai Lung pauses, shocked, but the inevitable battle of student against master ensues. When Tai Lung eventually obtains the scroll and learns it is blank, he is furious to discover he spend twenty years in prison for nothing.

Po, the Panda, defeats him and peace is restored to the valley. However, the cruelty done to Tai Lund is never addressed. Although the movie is peppered with Buddhist sayings such as “There is a saying, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.”it is deeply lacking in either wisdom or compassion.

There are many funny parts, some clever witticisms, and numerous dramatic fight scenes, but underneath the movie sends a message of insensitivity and disconnectedness and that violence, masquerading as Kung Fu, can solve the problems of pride, loneliness, and hatred.

Movie Review of Departures (2009)

Review of the Movie Departures

Most people are unwilling to face the reality of impermanence and death. They forget that life is transitory. They quarrel with each other as though they are going to live forever. But, if they would face the fact of death, their quarrels would come to an end. --- The Buddha
This is a Japanese movie with English subtitles. It is a deeply moving and powerful story dealing with difficult topics, death and relationships between husbands and wives, parents and their children. Masahiro Motoki portrays the cellist Daigo Kobayashi whose dream of living as a professional musician are dashed. He moves his wife back to his northern village and inadvertently takes a job as a coffinman, one who ritualistically prepares the deceased for cremation. His experiences with the dead, the horrifying and the beautiful, open his eyes to the wonder and preciousness of life.

The images of salmon spawning, swans scrounging for grass, and the employees lustily devouring fish and chicken bring home the sanctity of life and the realities that all things that live, must die and that to live we must consume the lives of others. All we can do is live each day with gratitude and deep compassion for all.

Once he has forsaken his ambition to become a professional cellist with an expensive instrument, he is able to play his childhood cello with deep joy and connection to life and nature.

Like the untouchables in the time of the Buddha, Daigo is shunned, first by an old friend and then by his wife. He tells his wife, "We are all going to die." The movie gently leads us through the different ways people deal with grief, each family helped by Daigo’s respectful and tender process of preparing the body.

Daigo also has an anger towards his father who abandoned him as a child. By accepting life as it is and death as it is, by forgiving and living with compassion, Daigo and his wife learn to live a full, happy life. When he lets go of the anger, his vision clears and he is able to see his father clearly.

Throughout the movie characters keep referring to "fate" as having brought them to their circumstances. They could have just as easily said karma in most instances. More than once, Daigo's decision to keep secrets from his wife, violating "Right Speech" has negative consequences. But of course, the karma of their actions is never black or white. All experiences provide the opportunity for growth in wisdom and compassion.

Have a lot of tissue on hand when you watch this movie. The theatre was often completely silence except for the sound of sniffling. It will touch you profoundly.

This movie is based on the book Coffinman: A Journal of a Buddhist Mortician. Although most of the death preparations include some Buddhist rituals or items, Daigo’s religion is never mentioned in the movie. The Hongwanji (Head Jodo Shinshu Temple) in Japan was disappointed in the removal of much of the Buddhism. However, the movie gets across its messages beautifully. I plan to read the book and will then add any further comments.

Review of the Television Series Flashpoint (2008+)

Review of the Television Series Flashpoint on CTV

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.
The Buddha
Flashpoint is a slick and hard-hitting Canadian television series filmed in Toronto. The Strategic Response Unit, a highly trained SWAT team, handle hostage situations. Greg Parker, the leader, tries to empathize with the criminal and convince him or her to surrender peacefully. His job is to defuse the situation or give the command for the snipers to shoot the aggressor.

Quite often Greg, his team, and the audience connect and identify with the aggressor. At times, the hostage seems to be more of a villain than the person with the gun. Each episode begins at the peak of confrontation, and then rewinds to explain the series of events that have led up to this moment of ultimate threat. Cause and effect are clearly explained.

This heartrending show demonstrates how people can be caught up in causes and conditions that lead them to places and actions they never expected or desired. We indentify and feel compassion for the hostage, the hostage taker, the SRU team, and the people who love each of them.

There are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.

When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.

Thich Nhat Hanh