Samsara

Very rarely one can find such a well balanced movie with a full commitment from the whole staff: Director (Nalin Pan), all the Actors & the total Crew. Shooting a film like this is not an easy task. The beauty of the locations is just breathless (at several thousands miles of altitude!)... And if the hall has a good air conditioning system, for sure you will really feel the freezing winds that blows at the Himalayas by watching this outstanding film. It is not only the performance of the actors (animals included!... a smart dog called Kala -"Time" in Sanskrit- by instance or some impressive eagle!) but the quality of the script. There are some passages of the film that just tastes like a short documentary. And immediately it is softly engaged with the story. No matter how high could be your achievement, if it is not on balance with the Life Flow, you will face the even... unavoidably? Perhaps... Tashi (Shawn Ku)is a consecrated Lama that has been in the yoghi experience of Samadhi Meditation (Fullest Consciousness) during three years, three months, three weeks, three days... A little bit to much for his Master's criteria but the Disciple wanted to test himself till the very limits of his own potential. Recognized as a Khenpo (a title of tibetan scholastic mastery), some further and higher Initiation will be bestowed on him by the Highest Rimpocheh nearby. However, there is some other experience he has never faced till then: the awakening of his own sexuality and the relationship with the key of human gender, the woman! Therefore this new step will be postponed and replaced by his own decision's sake. As a layman, the Lama he used to be is almost gone. As a husband, he shows the main aspect of any other man of his condition. As a father, he forgets to be the one closest to his own child and... once more: he ran away. Finally, Tashi has to face the reality of Maya & Samsara, the value of the Teachings inside the Dharma from his Master and the higher spiritual level of his wife, the beautiful & convincing Pema (Christy Chung). After listening to her, there are very few subsisting doubts concerning the equal rights for both women & men to obtain the Buddhahood. This is the kind of movie one can see and watch time after time, just to check oneself's evolving... And to enjoy a very nice soundtrack with the exotic melodies of the dialogues in Tibetan Languages. Please, don't loose it!!

I loved everything about this movie, the story, the acting, the scenery and the love scenes. The raw passion that Tashi's character exudes throughout the movie and the tenderness that is Pema's character moved me.

The ending was one of the best I've seen in any movie. The poignant and piercing questions that Pema asks reminded me of a monologue from a Indian art-house film from the eighties called "Nikaah". The monologue (at the start of the movie) so eloquently spells out the plight of women throughout history.

The scene where the Sujatha lures Tashi, stands out in my mind as being very very sexy.

I was directed to this film after reading a review of "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring Again", directed by Ki Duk Kim which is highly recommended as well.

The love scenes in Samsara are gorgeous to behold and the female love/sex interests are very seductive. Monk Tashi is very well portrayed as so human and fallible as he leaves the monastery to pursue sex or worldly life. He was raised in the monastery so as his sexuality awakened he had to find out for himself. He rationalized that even Buddha was married before he was enlightened and so Tashi felt he should be able to know this too before he devoted himself to monkhood. Little does he know what is in store for this desire he has to experience...

The tale is more of the excursion of a Monk and his experience of marriage, sex and emotions that arise than of his enlightenment. He found out what he had to know and paid the price. The film is lush with Tibetan style dress, architecture and landscapes. The love scenes are a treat for the eyes and the lead actors are very convincing yet more subtle than raw.

Check out "Kundun" and "Razor's Edge"(Bill Murray)and "Master of Zen" as well if you are interested in drama as well as spirituality.

I have read all the comments on this film here and I was surprised one more time to see how differently people react to one and the same film. What struck me also was that some of the viewers clearly mistake Tibet for India, because apparently they don't know that there are Buddhists in India as well.

Buddhism has its origins in Hinduism itself as it is believed that Buddha is a reincarnation of lord Vishnu The Preserver, one of the three main Hindu gods. But through the centuries Buddhism slowly developed as an independent religion. The film was shot in Ladakh which is in the Indian Himalayas, not in Tibet and two of the characters go to the town of Leh which is the capital of Ladakh and hence it is also in India. I thought that it is important to clarify these details as I don't think that one should mistake Tibet for India. India is not just Bollywood and as a country living under the phrase "unity in diversity" it surely has lots of different religious communities and lots of different cultures.

As for the film itself - I loved it, not only because it has been so beautifully shot (by the Bulgarian D.P. Rali Ralchev) and not only because it meets us with a part of the world we barely know, but mostly because I could identify with the characters and their desires, anguish, pain, joy, dreams. "Samsara" (the Hindu concept of reincarnation) asks some philosophic questions in a very earthly manner, I think. The ideas of Buddhism, the detachment from earthly life in order to reach enlightenment, the conquering of ourselves, our ego, our earthly desires (to love, to have family, to enjoy the simple but earthly life of a farmer, to possess objects and to command love from the others) are ideas or rather dilemmas that many of us face from time to time. Buddha has said that the middle way is the right way to follow, but how can this way be found? Is it through experiencing the earthly life, then renouncing it and then devoting oneself to the life a monk, choosing the spiritual life in search of the almighty truth and the great soul? This was the way Buddha has chosen - being a prince himself, having a family, and then renouncing it and devoting himself to the life of a recluse, but of a recluse who has reached the enlightenment and a recluse willing to share the truth with the others.

Everyone chooses one's own way. Tashi is a person who asks himself questions and he's a person who searches for his own right path. To say that he is only an egoist who leaves his wife when he gets fed up the life of a family man and a farmer is quite simplistic, I think. I believe he has been very honest from the beginning to the end and that is why he left the monastery at first and came back to it in the end. The important idea that I have discovered was that no matter what kind of path one will choose there will always be an anguish along the way. Maybe it is because of the eternal question unanswered - what to choose - to satisfy all desires or to conquer the one and only? No matter what we choose we will always doubt from time to time that maybe we should have chosen the opposite.

What I really liked about this film also is the fact that it presented us with the female point of view in the final monologue of Tashi's wife Pema. She was given no choice from him when he decided to go back to the monastery. She had to stay behind and take care of their son. She was shown to us as the keeper of the traditions (not allowing her son to play with the modern toy his father bought him from Leh) but at the same time she had that free spirit to make love to the unknown Lama and afterward to even marry him. I liked the sensitivity of the writer / director who cared not only to show us the pain of Pema when realizing she's losing his husband, but also to make her an intelligent woman who thinks and who turns out be as wise and devoted as her Lama husband.

A beautiful set, spectacle landscape only revealing a story of a ugly fact. What is the religion really about? When Pema asked Tashi 'see what I have done? Did you do this for me?' and Tashi answered 'I only did it for myself.' It is very true. He is such a selfish man and the other only are his step stone. Pema and the son became a victim. He just want to explore life and Pema helped him to become another level of his next monk life.

Location is always important to such a atmosphere film and this film have utilized it to the most. 6 out of 10 goes to the beautiful piece of land.

My only criticism is the beginning of the film. The bird graphic was a bit too harsh. It looks too fake. The film would have wonderful if we forget this quick done work.