Whether through film or streaming, Buddhism has a staggering repository of untold stories
movies
The Buddhist Film Channel: The First Buddhist-themed Streaming Platform, with Gaetano Kazuo Maida
The executive director of the Buddhist Film Foundation discusses this year’s selection of great Buddhist films and the first Buddhist streaming platform
Carving the Divine Streaming on Vimeo!
Watch the documentary on Japanese Buddhist sculptors. “Carving the Divine” releases today on 1 April
In a milestone for Buddhist film, “Carving the Divine” is coming to Raindance
It is no secret that the film industry is going through an accelerated evolution. What should always remain at the core of the debate, however, is quality content. I find it very heartening that Yujiro Seki’s Carving the Divine, one of the most original Buddhist-themed films to have come out in recent years, will be […]
Film Review: “Tashi and the Monk”
An accidental baby born to a very young woman in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India—one of the most remote and disadvantaged areas of the Himalayan region—Lobsang Phuntsok was considered to be an “uninvited guest of the universe.” Having started his life as a difficult, unruly boy, Lobsang was sent to a monastery in […]
Buddhist Media: Jesco Puluj’s Search for Paths Less Travelled
What does it mean to be a follower of the Buddha’s path? The Enlightened One was, after all, the Prime Wanderer, the First Monk. His life, no matter how shadowy from a historical perspective, defines how we see Buddhism and its subsequent presence in human history. In theory, he is not really unique at all, […]
Refusing to See Reality in “In the Mood for Love”
In the Mood for Love did for Hong Kong what La Dolce Vita did for Rome. Just as the Trevi Fountain was relatively unknown as a tourist spot before Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni’s iconic embrace, In the Mood for Love is a sensuous, colourful masterpiece that eroticizes cramped living spaces and romanticizes the gritty alleyways […]
Asian Representation in Pop Culture: A Lifelong Passion
I’m very much interested in exploring Asian philosophies and culture in both my academic and personal life. Of course, in academia today we must be mindful of our contexts and horizons. While I consider myself Chinese, I’ve grown up in an English-speaking environment. English is my first language rather than Cantonese or Mandarin. There are […]
The Noble Reporter: Lessons about Right Speech and Media from “Roman Holiday”
Roman Holiday is one of my favourite movies, not only because it’s a moving comedic romance (one of the few romantic comedies I enjoy) but because it touches upon a timeless issue in journalism: what stories are worth reporting? It gets more complex than simply bad or boring stories versus good and entertaining ones. It’s […]
Shaolin (2011): A Guilty Pleasure
I have mixed feelings about films that have an overtly religious element, especially when the religion plays a central role in a movie focused on bone-crunching action, head-crushing martial arts, and temple explosions. I class Shaolin, which is an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of the martial art masters in Republican-era China, as one such guilty indulgence. […]