Da Tang Xuan Zang

as i recall the story of quan yin there's too much sufferings in this world, and watching this video..i questioned myself, why did he stopped before he heard there was a temple in the desert. Did he used his instinct or he counted the distance he traveled? Well of course everyone is trying to grasp whats given from the movie about buddhism, and after watching journey to the west we feel the need for buddhist communities to gather knowledge about xuan zang so the world knows a glimpse about the story to the west since we don't know if it's a fabricated stories foretold throughout the time. Just like the Christian movie, kingdom of heaven, at the start they didn't mention if it's a true story. im not trying to challenge someone to convert to buddhism, learn the languages in buddhism, their traditions, their considered sacred places, their deities, researching ancient scriptures from places around the world..but to me buddhism is about practicing dharma, nothing to attain. Look at the example when xuan zang were held captive by the king, he refused to eat because he wanted to show nothing more nothing less than his faith to continue the journey that was his wish from the start, are these buddhists trying to convince something projected by the movie to contain whats being corrupted physically? Who's gonna be held responsible for that scene? When xuan zhang was thirsty in the desert, and suddenly rain comes, its a good sign of hope, from that we see hope in a religion. Another scene is about a slave with a mask, he was cursed that he couldn't take off his mask, um.....seriously? He could just easily untied it. I was expecting more from movies we've watched like GI JOE combined with Transcendence combine with The Sorcerer and the white snake. People were expecting how do they define karma, is it from curses of the people we have not seen cursing us, or is it sort of curses passed on by the locals. We didn't even get the chance to know what's really in the book that xuan zang has after traveling to India...HELLLOOOOOOOO?

Xuan Zang's journey showed many obstacles in his path to gain an even deeper spiritual truth. Xuan Zang displayed great endurance and perseverance in the face of these obstacles.

At times I had to suspend disbelief for example when an elephant tipped over into a river, sunk and did not drown. Why is this important? I feel they went out of their way to show that Xuan Zang was not responsible for the death of any living creature which is a central tenant to Buddhism.

Where this movie breaks down is in detailing spiritual truth. The movie talked about debate and showed a winner with no debate! I would have liked to have seen at least a couple of minutes of debate interspersed.

Produced by Wong Kar-wai and directed by sixth generation Chinese director Huo Jianqi (who previously directed Postmen in the Mountains (1999) and Naan(2003), "Xuan Zang" is the first Indo-Chinese co- production by the state-owned China Film Corporation and Eros International.

The story depicts the 17 years long legendary seventh century spiritual journey of Buddhist monk Xuan Zang (Hsüan-tsang), who dissatisfied with the translations of Buddhist texts available in china and wanted to collect originals from Nalanda, from China to India during the Tang dynasty and whose famous journey served as an inspiration for Chinese fantasy classic "Journey to The West."

Eyes are not enough to see the splendor of this masterpiece. Those picturesque and unseen Chinese landscapes are breath-taking. This lavish and high budget spiritual adventure epic is memorable and rare kind. A film must not miss.

This film was selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated.

The film has truly wonderful visuals. Amazing landscapes, but also the filming makes the best of them.

But I was immensely irritated by the slow incomplete English subtitles. Cheap little fantasy or kung-fu movies do a much better job.

Much of the time, there was a subtitle in Chinese ideograms, but no clue to the context for an English-speaker. And more than half the world does not no Chinese or Indian languages. An amazing failing.

When there was something in English, it often seemed to pop up well after the events it related to.

A silly waste for a high-budget film with some noted actors.

If anyone decides to re-do it and have a proper version that might be popular outside of China and India, it would be good to give more context. We do get the bad translations explained, but people would wonder why Tang China is not letting people travel.

They also need to be told that this was before the rise of Islam, so a mix of Buddhism and Hinduism was the norm on the path the man followed.

Looking more widely, I noticed that when the man gets a follower, he has this servant carry his pack. Buddhism when institutionalised tends to be as bad as Christianity at rendering practical service to oppression.

Likewise I was unimpressed by an admired guru sitting well above everyone else, assembled to admire them. Not what I'd see as holiness.

I did see it as an excellent rendering of some interesting cultures. Which is why the sloppy English subtitles. And why I still give it a decent mark.

This is a masterpiece for knowledge people, from the script, acting, music, photography. For those lovers of package movie, "no brains needed", this movie will be too deep, complex, and boring. I strongly belive that once US. People start liking english doubled movies, they will adquire the taste for foreing movies with content, good scripts, and quality. Meanwhile, keep tasting boring remakes of movies that you can watch the original for free in the internet.