My Mandala is an Asian 'spiritual' drama with hidden elements of comedy.
It is an interesting film, and the cast is very strong, especially the actors playing the leading roles. Despite its deficiencies, it is also a rather impressive work for a first time director with only one other script to her name.
I'll admit that with Asian films I always feel I lack the necessary cultural background to fully understand the motivation of some of the characters. So as far as that is concerned I'll confine myself to saying that I wish that the explanation of the motivations of He Xinyu and her husband had been developed a bit more, for my sake at least.
Two more general - and in the end more weighty - problems are the failure of the script/edit to connect the film's diffuse sibling-relationship-storyline to its main plot, and the nauseating and at times chaotic flashbacks which are meant to illustrate that relationship-storyline.
Still - as I said - an interesting film to watch. Maybe even more so for those with some knowledge of Asian spirituality.
I give this a 6 out of 10.
I've just seen this film at the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg, and judging from the reaction of the audience, I am not alone with my confusion about the elements mentioned above, and the overall reaction had a general "6-out-of-10"-feel about it, in congruence with my opinion.
