THE TRANSCENDENT NATURE OF BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY: Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy

©2006 by Annabelle A. Udo
(published in Listen & Be Heard week of April 3, 2006)

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With March 10 marking the 48th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, such films as Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy plays a significant role in modern society sharing an unobtrusive perspective of a culture that contains an amalgamation of monastic traditions, political endurance, and cultural edification.

Complete with digital restoration of original material filmed in the '70s, British Director, Graham Coleman, welds together this trilogy into a single presentation after more than 20 invisible years. Offering amazing and rare footage of a world that seems unscathed by time, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy takes on a Dante-esque journey of the spiritual and mystical elements as it applies to Tibetan Buddhism. The film follows Tibet's living cultural legacy that represents more than 2,500 years of examination into the nature of the mind and the human condition.




Beginning in 1977 at Sera Monastic University Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe, South India, this facility was originally the second largest monastery in Tibet where 6,000 monks studied and lived. Part I of this trilogy treats viewers to sit in with the monks and witness a lively early morning debate session. As well, this segment transitions to an intimate portrait of a younger Dalai Lama as a spiritual and temporal leader.

Part II travels to The Great Stupa and the Phulwary Sakya Monastery, in Boudha, Nepal, providing a wonderful and poetic interpretation of an ancient sacred ritual called "A Beautiful Ornament" which intends to protect and sweep away negative elements in society.

Part III explores the ultimate of Buddhist philosophy of death and impermanence by way of traveling to the Tiksey Valley in Ladakh. There we come across the monastery, where Tiksey Rinpoche is teaching his students by quoting the incomparable Yogi Tsongkhapa on understanding impermanence and prolifically stating these words of wisdom: "Our life ebbs and finishes from moment to moment. We lead a comfortable life yet there are many circumstances that cause death, our life is like a candle in the wind and at any time the wind can blow upon us, and bad conditions make the length of our life-span indefinite. At death even though this present body's continuum ceases, the mind continuum never ceases at all. Therefore at death we take rebirth again and again."

Although a film that seems to be geared towards the more serious practitioner, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy shows the mystique and beauty of the faculties of the human spirit when one chooses the path towards enlightenment and renunciates all worldly things. Most impressive of this film's production is its timelessness--philosophically and cinematographically--that if you didn't know this was produced more than two decades ago, it could have easily just been done today. With uninterrupted documentation of monastic life and mantras interpreted in completion as if you were a guest in the monastery, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy presents no commentary and only translation of the rituals that speaks for themselves. For more information visit www.tibet-trilogy.com

Film Review: Journey From the Fall

©2006 by Annabelle A. Udo

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San Francisco Premiere
USA/Thailand 2005 | 134 mins | Color 35mm | English, Vietnamese w/E.S.

"Journey From the Fall" screens at the Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco on Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 p.m.

From "Apocalpyse Now" to "Full Metal Jacket", American moviemakers have made many memorable films about the Vietnam War, however, being American they have approached the subject from a unilateral perspective. This ethnocentric point of view has led to the phenomenon where Vietnamese people often serve as no more than the backdrop of the American drama that occurred in Vietnam. "Journey From the Fall," this year's festival closer directed by Ham Tran, gives its audience a completely different perspective being the first Vietnamese American film to deal directly with the aftermath of the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.

The film beautifully opens up with the grandmother's narration of a well-known Vietnamese folktale about Le Loi, a warrior king. According to this legend, Le Loi used a sword sent from heaven to hold off Chinese invaders back in the mid-1400s. After his final victory, as Le Loi was boating in Hanoi, his sword leaped from its scabbard and into the mouth of a turtle. The turtle plunged underwater with the sword, never to be seen again, and the lake has since been known as Ho Hoan Kiem which means the "Lake of the Returned Sword".

“Journey From the Fall” tells the story of the Vietnam experience after the news crews left, after the mob scenes at the gate of the U.S. Embassy, and after the helicopters were being pushed off the aircraft carriers. It is a gripping film that follows the refugee experience of Long Nguyen, a high-ranking officer in the South Vietnamese army, who, against his wife’s wishes, chooses to stay and fight for his country. Nguyen ends up having to endure a brutal imprisonment in a series of re-education camps designated by the Communist government. His decision to stay in Saigon with the enemy at the gates could be likened to the captain who chooses not to abandon ship. The film captures a futile point in Vietnam’s history that no matter what one did, there was no guarantee of survival and always hell to pay.

As for the outstanding acting by Long Nguyen (who plays the character of the same name), as well as Kieu Chinh, Diem Lien, and Nguyen Thai Nguyen, the subject matter itself wasn’t just something they read out of a book, but rather a story they had experienced in their own lives. The Closing Night Gala in San Francisco takes places March 23 with director Ham Tran and the cast of Journey from the Fall at the screening and Awards Gala to be held at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts.

Film Review: Citizen Dog

©2006 by Annabelle A. Udo

(published in "AsianWeek" - week of March 10-16, 2006)

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Thailand | 100 mins
Fri 3/17 | 7:00 PM | Castro Theatre
Sat 3/18 | 9:15 PM | Pacific Film Archive

If Taxi's Latka Gravas met Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie, "Citizen Dog" would be the love child of these two innocents. Directed by Thai filmmaker, Wisit Sasanatieng, the storyline of "Citizen Dog" is more than boy meets and chases girl, but rather a mushroom-like trip that turns Bangkok into a city of comical illusions. Hilarity and weirdness are the two ventricles of this colorful film and begins when a young man, Pod (Mahasamut Boonyarak), leaves the slow pace of the countryside to enter the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. In addition to taking on a variety of jobs including chopping off fish heads at a sardine factory he finds himself love-struck with Jin (Sangthong Ket-uthong), a maid with a compulsive disorder for order and an obsession with a book that contains a language she hopes to decipher one day just merely by staring into it. In his pursuit of Jin, Pod takes on a job as a taxi driver in order to drive her around but in the meantime must contend with the oddities of his passengers that go along with this chosen profession. An appropriate film for 2006, being the Year of the Dog, "Citizen Dog" offers vignettes of eccentric, light-hearted romance and digital technology that shows a lot of simple, yet, creative defiance as to how a world with a cup that runneth over with dreams can transcend reality.

Film Reviews: Eve & the Fire Horse and Water

© 2006 Annabelle A. Udo

(short version published in "Listen & Be Heard" weekly for March 8, 2006--comprehensive review in "AsianWeek")

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The 24th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival kicks off in San Francisco on March 16 and continues through March 26 with its last film screening in San Jose. The festival has a robust line-up of films and the following are two recommended picks from the festival's international showcase that display sensitivity to the child's perspectives--they are certainly worth checking out! For ticket and program information be sure to visit www.asianmericanmedia.org or call 415.865.1588.


EVE & THE FIRE HORSE
Sat 3/18 | 2:30 PM | Kabuki 8 Theatres/San Francisco; Mon 3/20 | 7:30 PM | Kabuki 8 Theatres/San Francisco

Directed by international award-winning filmmaker Julia Kwan, "Eve & the Fire Horse" is an engaging film from start to finish. With the innocence of Charles Schultz' "Peanuts" gallery mixed with the anthropomorphism of "Chronicles of Narnia," the film is wondrous with its storyline that follows a precocious 9-year-old girl named Eve (Phoebe Jo Jo Kut). Born in 1966, the Year of the Fire Horse, known for being notorious among Chinese families for producing the most troublesome children, Eve is determined to find her place in her home life which is abundant with Chinese customs and superstitions. In days of old, when liberated and overly assertive women were frowned upon as troublemakers and difficult to marry off, it was considered most unlucky to have a daughter born in this year. Raised as a Buddhist, Eve's carefree childhood suddenly becomes a spiritual quest when her older sister, Karena (Hollie Lo), finds a fascination with Christianity and introduces her new beliefs to Eve. A beautiful film with an astounding cast including Vivian Wu of "The Last Emperor" fame, "Eve & the Fire Horse" is riddled with fairytale-like surrealism and absolutely captivating all the way to the end.


"WATER"
Sun 3/19 | 6:00 PM | Castro Theatre/San Francisco

Taking place in1938, India is amidst an unsettling time under British colonial rule and Gandhi's "Quit India" movement of civil disobedience is at its peak. "Water" follows the storyline of Chuyia (Sarala), an 8-year-old girl who is widowed even though she has no recollection of ever being married. According to ancient texts of the Laws of Manu, women in India have been deemed to live by certain rules in society which includes how they are to conduct themselves should their husbands die before them. One of these options, other than being burned in the husband's funeral pyre or marrying the brother-in-law, is to live under deprived conditions in "widow houses" and to seek renunciation. A predictable romance ensues between the super gorgeous Kalyani (Lisa Ray), one of Chuyia's fellow widows, and the handsome Narayan (John Abraham), her determined lover and a crusader of Gandhi's cause. As well, a treat for any "Bandit Queen" fans is Seema Biswas who wonderfully plays the role of Shakuntala, providing a spell of melancholy and victory that holds the film together.