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 […]
film
Pop Culture: The Case for A Greater Buddhist Presence
I never bought the argument that sacred stories, figures, and themes should not be brought to pop culture media like films or novels. Some of our more powerful and compelling pieces of modern fiction (and indeed, fiction from any era) was informed by not just the author’s spiritual identity or values, but by their intentional […]
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. […]
Identity in “In the Mood for Love” and “2046”
When work on the film 2046 began before 2004, Hong Kong film star Tony Leung lobbied hard for director Wong Kar-wai to let him grow a mustache. This was because his character, Chow Mo-wan, was totally different to how he was in 2046‘s prequel In the Mood for Love: whereas Chow in Mood was a gentlemanly […]
What was Possible, and What is no Longer: A Buddhist Dimension in La Dolce Vita
It’s a classic moment in film, one of quite a few from Federico Fellini’s black and white cinematic masterpiece. The charismatic but emotionally lost gossip columnist Marcello Rubini, played by Marcello Mastroianni, is at the beach, holding his hands up in bemused resignation as he struggles and fails to discern the shouts of a young […]
This is just to say
Ratnadevi I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold By William Carlos Williams I was reminded of this poem recently when it was recited in the film Paterson, by Jim Jarmusch. The movie is as […]