ZEN (2009) The Life of Zen Master Dogen (Jpse. with Eng. Subtitles). Full film.
•Jul 19, 2018
It appears from the film that Buddhism was in a very corrupt state in Japan in the 13th century, with drinking and whoring common in the Sangha.
To find out what the Buddha had really taught Dogen travelled to China, where he met the master Ju-ching, whose teaching was to have a life-long effect of the young monk: the practice of Zen is to have the mind and the body fall away, this falling away is the path out of ignorance and vice.
Almost upon meeting the master he received face-to-face transmission at the Tien-tung-shan temple and given the transmission of the Dharma.
Another big influence on him at that time was the Kitchen Master at the Ayu-wan-shan kuang-li Zen Temple, in whose honour the Kitchen Master Instructions were later written.
After returning to Japan in 1227, he wrote his first major work, which brought him some notoriety, and not a little persecution from the established sects.
Even though he moved some way from Kyoto to avoid persecution, the temple he founded there was eventually burned down and he was forced to retire to an even more remote location, at Eheiji in the Echizen mountains.
On his way he was joined by the monk who was to become his main Dharma heir, Ejo, and members of other sects who were looking for a more pure form of the teaching.
In the film there is a sub-story about a young girl called Orin whose life Dogen saves before he leaves for China, and meets again as a young woman, who has fallen in with a cripple, who forces her to prostitute herself for an income.
Later, in a remake of the Kisāgotamī story, she loses her child to illness, and begs Dogen to restore him for her. He tells her to fetch a bean from a house where no one ever died, but of course there is no such house (this is a parable taken directly from the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gautama). This film does not credit this to the Tathagata, which was odd.
Orin follows Dogen to Eheiji, and a young Kitchen Master falls in love with her, and disrobes. On his death-bed Dogen gives permission for her to ordain when he has passed away.
Later in the film Dogen is called to Kamakura to meet the Shogun who is tormented by the spirits of those he has killed on the battlefield, Dogen gives his Zen teaching: “Zazen is to see the water in the vast ocean,” and the Shogun offers to establish him in a monastery he will build for him in Kamakura, but Dogen refuses and returns to the mountins.
Not long afterwards we see him on his death-bed at the young age of 54, appointing his successors and giving his final teaching before passing away. At the funeral we see legions of monks attending, who are presumably meant to represent all his Dharma heirs over the centuries since that time.
The main outline of the story presented in the film seems to be fairly accurate, but some details, like Orin’s story appear to be added for dramatic effect, and I am unsure whether they really form a part of his life-story.
There is little effort made to really convey what his teaching was, but then this is dramatic biography, not a documentary as such, and we cannot really expect any more.
Review by: Anandajoti (Dharma Documentaries). 2011
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'Zen' Buddhist teacher Dogen Zenji is a very important religious person during the Kamakura period, 750 years ago. After his mother died, he decides to move to China and settle as a Buddhist teacher. One bright morning, enlightened, Zenji returns to Japan as a devoted evangelist of the 'new' Buddhism. However, this new form of Buddhism is not accepted in all communities.
—Rene Guillot
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Director: Banmei Takahashi
Writers: Banmei Takahashi (screenplay), Tetsuo Ôtani (novel)
Stars: Kankurô Nakamura, Yuki Uchida, Ryushin Tei
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This film is posted for entertainment (& enlightenment) purposes only, not for any money-making whatsoever. Rights are with the producers of this film. Fair-Use license.
Love & peace x.
London 2018.
Zen (2009 film)
| Zen 禅 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Banmei Takahashi |
| Screenplay by | Banmei Takahashi |
| Based on | A novel by Tetsuo Ōtani |
| Starring | Nakamura Kantarō II and Yuki Uchida |
| Music by | Ryudo Uzaki |
| Edited by | Junichi Kikuchi |
Production company | |
Release date | 2009 |
Running time | 2h 7m |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese language |
Zen (禅) is a 2009 film directed by Banmei Takahashi and starring Nakamura Kantarō II as Dogen, and Yuki Uchida as Orin.[1][2]
The story is based on the novel Eihei no kaze: Dōgen no shōgai written by Tetsuo Ōtani in 2001.[3]
The film is a biography of Dōgen Zenji, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher. After travelling to China to study, Dogen founded the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. The Buddhist Film Foundation described it as "a poignant, in-depth, reverent and surprisingly moving portrait of Eihei Dogen."[4]
Reception[edit]
Russell Edwards of Variety described it as "The origins of a spiritual tradition are depicted with prerequisite solemnity and a pleasing veneer of arthouse showmanship."[5] Mark Schilling, writing for The Japan Times, gave the film three and a half stars and described it as a "rare serious film about this form of Buddhism, which has had a huge cultural influence but is little understood — let alone practiced — by ordinary Japanese."[6]
Release[edit]
The film premiered in Japan in 2009. The following year, it had its US debut at the International Buddhist Film Festival.[7] The film was released on DVD and includes a short documentary entitled The Zen of Dogen with Kazuaki Tanahashi.[8]
References[edit]
- ^ "Zen - Reviews, Movie Trailers, Cast & Crew. Movies at Film.com". Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ^ Ouellette, Kevin (15 May 2009). "DVD release - Zen (Amuse Soft Entertainment) available on 6/25/2009". Nippon Cinema. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ^ Giuliano Tani. Cinestoria del Giappone : il Sol Levante attraverso i suoi film. Kappalab, 2018. ISBN 9788885457102.
- ^ "Zen". The Buddhist Film Foundation. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
- ^ "Zen". Variety. January 25, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
- ^ "Zen". The Japan Times. January 16, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
- ^ "IBFF Showcase 2010". The Buddhist Film Foundation. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
- ^ "New Film Zen, Now on DVD". The Buddhist Film Foundation. Retrieved September 23, 2015.
External links[edit]
- Zen on IMDb
- Zen at Rotten Tomatoes
 | This article related to a Japanese film of the 2000s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
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'Zen'
Religious film lacks thrill of temptation
BY MARK SCHILLING
Jan 16, 2009
I was one of those hippies who got into things Japanese via Zen back in the 1970s. I spent two years practicing zazen in Michigan and I had a first-row seat when Alan Watts — that early explainer of Zen to the West — spoke on campus. I even taped a photo of Shunryu Suzuki, the author of “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” — still the best introductory book to Zen practice — on my wall.
Living in Japan, however, I soon realized that I was not Zen-monk material and that the local image of Zen is far removed from the West’s often romanticized view. Instead of being mysterious embodiments of “Oriental Wisdom,” Zen monks are figures of fun for Japanese TV comics, who put on bald wigs and bop each other with oversize versions of the paddles real monks use to keep drowsy meditators alert.
Banmei Takahashi’s “Zen” is that rare serious film about this form of Buddhism, which has had a huge cultural influence but is little understood — let alone practiced — by ordinary Japanese. Perhaps it’s a sign that, after decades of a single-minded focus on materialism, the culture is returning to its spiritual roots; or that one Baby Boomer director (Takahashi is 60) is getting religious in his old age.
ZENRating
Director Banmei Takahashi
Run Time 127 minutes
Language Japanese
Opens Now showing (Jan. 16, 2009)
“Zen” focuses on the life of Dogen, the 13th-century monk who founded one of the main Zen sects, Soto-shu. This is an unusual choice, since Dogen was an unflamboyant type who devoted his life to the practice of peaceful (if purposeful) meditation, not the showier varieties of miracle-working found in the usual religious biopic. It is also an inspired one, since Dogen was a fearless spiritual seeker and brilliant writer whose deeds and words still engage. The film is generally faithful to what is known of his life, from the early deaths of his parents to his travels in China and his difficulties with the religious powers-that-be in Japan.
The problem, dramatically, is that Dogen apparently had little in the way of the usual human weaknesses. Takashashi, who wrote the script, tries to solve this problem with fictional characters who have them in spades so that Dogen gets chances to display his compassion. “Zen,” however, suffers from the over-earnestness endemic to the genre: It is trying harder to convert — or at least enlighten — than entertain.
The story starts when Dogen, a boy of 8, is at his mother’s death bed and takes to heart her final request: Find a way to escape human suffering. Soon after, we see him, now a young monk (Kantaro Nakamura), trudging through the Chinese outback in search of a true master. He finds him in Ju-ching (Zheng Tanyong), an elderly Zen priest who urges him to “cast off body and mind” through zazen, which he finally succeeds in doing after hearing another monk scolded for dozing. The sharp words jolt him into his own Awakening.
Following his enlightenment (shown in a whimsically animated shot of Dogen sitting on a cartoon lotus, soaring blissfully into space), he returns to Kyoto, where he soon attracts a small, devoted band of followers, including Ji-uen (Ryushin Tei), a Chinese monk he befriended at Ju-ching’s temple. He also attracts the unfriendly attention of the monks of Kyoto’s Hiezan, a Buddhist center for centuries, who label him a heretic and chase him out of town. Fortunately, he finds a powerful protector in a local magistrate, Hatano Yoshishige (Masanobu Katsumura).
He also renews his acquaintance with Orin (Yuki Uchida), a woman he saved from a sword-wielding samurai as a child and who has since turned to prostitution to feed her baby. Orin is attracted to not just Dogen himself, but his tolerant philosophy of Buddhism, in which even a fallen woman can receive Zen training. Dogen resists her invitation to her futon, though she herself is later tempted by a handsome young monk (Kengo Kora) who serves as the temple cook.
His biggest test comes when the frazzled Shogun (Tatsuya Fujiwara) asks Dogen to deliver him from the ghosts of dead warriors who haunt him, but is enraged by Dogen’s seemingly simple-minded solution: Just sit, without goals, seeing things as they truly are.
The film offers an eloquent explanation of Dogen’s Zen, using his own pithy words, as well as an ideal exemplar in Nakamura, a young kabuki actor who has the right Zen-master look and attitude, but without a trace of more-enlightened-than-thou smugness. Also quite good is Yuya Uchida as Orin, who is both likably natural as a prostitute and touchingly dedicated as an aspiring nun.
In depicting the Dogen/Orin relationship, Takahashi, a former maker of pinku (softcore porn) films, may have been inspired by the notorious “marriage” of Jesus and Mary Magdalene in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” but takes the film in a less controversial direction. Followers will probably be relieved, but I was a bit disappointed. Enlightenment is all well and good, but how, I wondered, would you animate Zen love?
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Kantaro Nakamura in "Zen" | © 2008 "ZEN" SEISAKU IINKAI