1. Dramatic Films with overt Buddhist themes
2. Dramatic Biographies of Buddhists
3. Dramatic Films identified as "Buddhist" but with less-obvious Buddhist themes
This is a drama about the antiwar activites of the Buddhist priest Takenaka Shōgen during WWII and the social repercussions he suffered. Takenaka was born in 1867. He studied at Tōyō University and Ōtani University (as they are now called) He was an Ōtani Shinshū monk.
Somewhere deep in a forest of Bhutan, there is a gathering every twelve years of men and women chosen by the Old Man to enjoy a few days of anonymity. Masked silhouettes participate in rituals, performances and dances. Faceless, the men and the women allow themselves to be lascivious, playful and daring. One man attends this event for the first time and enters the experience like a new born. He stumbles clumsily through the first days, but quickly adapts, and when he spots Red Wrathful, he becomes totally intoxicated with her. But his desire will lead him down a dangerous path.
A young German woman bonds with an elderly Japanese woman while touring the Fukushima region of Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.
The head monk of a Buddhist monastery in a remote part of Northeast Burma departs on a long journey from which he may never return, leaving young novice monks alone in the middle of the forest. On their own, strange and magical begin to happen.
A Japanese Zen Buddhist continues in his secular attachment to punk rock. His master suggests he perform a live concert. The film was shown in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2011.
Based on a novel by award-winning author and Zen Buddhist priest Sōkyū Gen'yū (玄侑宗久).
Three criminals become Buddhist monks in order to recover stolen goods buried beneath a temple.
Release of this film was delayed due to protests by Buddhists.
Five horror film segments by different directors. One segment, "The Novice," is about a fourteen year-old boy whose mother makes him become a monk after he is caught being a thief. Thinking this would free him from suspicion, he joins the monastic order and continues his lifestyle. He faces the karmic consequences of this.
Based on ideas from Jodo Shinshu in Japan, as told in the book Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician by Shinmon Aoki, 2004. Encoffiners prepare corpses and families of the departed. It received the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Chance and karmic interactions of five individuals from different social-economic backgrouds are depicted in scenes of alcoholism, postpartum depression, religious desperation, compassion and redemption.
A washed-out songwriter's bad karma begins to catch up with him. His life goes into free fall as his girlfriend leaves him, his career goes downhill, and his mother passes away. All these setbacks make him live in even greater spite of the world until he encounters a Temple Street vendor who introduces him to Buddhism.
Following a Thai custom aimed at cheating death and ridding oneself of bad karma, a man who lies in a coffin for an evening has a series of terrifying experiences.
Also called 1028 (or Ten 28), 12 Lotus is a musical. A girl steals an image of the Bodhisattva Guanyin and cares for it. The lead actor, Qi Yu Wu, was himself named Guan Yin in Royston Tan's previous film, 881.
In Argentina, two brothers are orphaned as children when their parents are killed. As adults one becomes a skilled Buddhist practitioner, the other a university philosophy professor, influenced by their father and mother respectively.
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Ghost of Mae Nak (Mark Duffield, Thailand, 2005) horror From a Thai legend about a wife who dies in childbirth but refuses to leave her husband. Buddhist priests work to exorcise her relentless ghost. The story is also told in the Thai film Nang Nak, 1999 (see below). |
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A Chinese Tall Story (Jeffrey Lau, Hong Kong, 2005) science fiction Based on Journey to the West (sometimes called Monkey in English), which was also the model for the Dragonball anamation series. The story takes place in the younger days of the famous Chinese monk Tripitaka (Xuangzang) and tells of the relationship between a monk and an alien. |
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Zen Noir (Marc Rosenbush, USA, 2004) comedy A detective investigates what seems to be a murder at a California Zen temple. |
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I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell, USA, 2004) drama Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin. A man hires "existential detectives" to investigate his life. According to the director's commentary, ideas in the story are based on his college classes under noted Buddhologist Robert Thurman, who also serves as the model for Dustin Hoffman's detective character. |
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The Simpsons episode 332 (19th episode in season 15) "Simple Simpson" , (Jim Reardon, USA, 2004) comedy Homer becomes a superhero, "The Pie Man," throwing pies in the faces of the deserving. Mr. Burns unmasks him and puts him to work for evil. As a part of this plan, The Pie Man is ordered to pie the Dalai Lama. Because Lisa has become a Buddhist, Homer is conscious stricken. The Dalai Lama is depicted making jokes and flying. |
Ok Baytong (Nonzee Nimibutr, Thailand, 2003) drama A Thai Buddhist monk leaves the temple where he has lived since he was five, after learning his sister has been killed by insurgents. He learns to live in the secular world and meets Muslims in south Thailand. | |
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Travelers and Magicians (Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan, 2003) drama This movie is among the first to take a Himalayan Buddhist perspective (Wikipedia). Written and directed by Khyentse Norbu, the Tibetan Buddhist Lama who also directed The Cup |
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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring (Ki-duk Kim, Korea, 2003) drama With Yeong-su Oh, Ki-duk Kim, Young-min Kim. The story takes place on an isolated lake, where an old monk lives in a small floating-island temple. |
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Hollywood Buddha (Philippe Caland, USA, 2003) drama The release of this film was cancelled because Buddhists protested about the poster (left) and the content of the film. It will be released in the Fall 2009 as a part of a trilogy titled "buddha, karma and the gypsy". |
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The Anniversary (Ham Tran, USA, 2003), 28 minutes. A Vietnamese monk is haunted by his memories of war and betrayal on the anniversary of his brother's death. Winner of 25 international awards and the USA Film Festival award for Best Short Film. Semi-finalist for a 2004 Academy Award. |
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Running On Karma (Johnnie To and Ka-Fai Wai, Hong Kong,
2003) drama |
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Samsara (Pan Nalin, An independent Italy/France/Indian/German: Tibetan with English Subtitles film, 2001) drama A spiritual love-story set in the majestic landscape of Ladakh, Himalayas. Samsara is a quest; one man’s struggle to find spiritual Enlightenment by renouncing the world, and one woman’s struggle to keep her enlightened love and life in the world. But their destiny turns, twists and comes to a surprising end. Directed by Pan Nalin. With Shawn Ku, Christy Chung, Neelesha BaVora. Pan Nalin is also director of the award-winning documentary Ayureveda-Art of Being. |
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Echos of Enlightenment (Daniel J. Coplan, USA, 2001) drama |
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King of the Hill
season 4, episode 18, "Won't You Pimai Neighbor?" (Boo Hwan Lim and Kyoung Hee Lim, USA, 2000) animated comedy In apparent parody of the Kundun story wherein the infant Lhamo Döndrub is identified as the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Bobby is examined as a potential Lama. |
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Enlightenment Guaranteed (Doris Dörrie, Germany, 2000) comedy Dörrie creates a comic work about two brothers who travel to Japan for a retreat in a Zen monastery in hopes of getting their screwed-up lives back together. |
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The Cup (Phörpa, Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan, 1999) drama Young monks scheme to watch the World Cup in a Tibetan temple in exile in India. Written and directed by Tibetan Buddhist Lama Khyentse Norbu |
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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, France, 1999) drama A hitman models himself after Buddhist-inspired Samurai philosophy. |
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Himalaya or Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef (Eric Valli, France/Switzerland/U.K./Nepal, 1999) drama "Elemental, sweeping, and often majestic, this is both an engaging drama and a labor of love in tribute to the Buddhist, semi-nomadic people of the Dolpo, a remote region deep in the interior of the northwest Himalayas." — Wally Hammond, Time Out. Funded through France-based corporations. It was the first Nepalese film to be nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 72nd Academy Awards. |
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Nang Nak (Nonzee Nimibutr,
Thailand, 1999) horror |
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Hwaomgyong (also called Hwaomkyong. English title: Passage to Buddha . Sun-Woo Jang, Korea, 1993) drama A boy travels seeking to understand life. Based on similar events in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Some say this is the best Korean film on Buddhism to date. |
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Little Buddha (Bernardo Bertolucci, U.K./France, 1993) drama Shot on location in Nepal and Bhutan, "Bertolucci's sincere, even rhapsodic, study of Buddhist history and modern-day reincarnation is a visual delight." — The Film Journal Keanu Reeves stars as Siddhartha |
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Come, Come, Come, Upward (Korean title: Aje aje bara aje, Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1989) drama Sun Nyog becomes a Buddhist nun and attempts to disentangle herself from a suicidal alcoholic she once saved. |
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Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (Yong-Kyun Bae,
South Korea, 1989) drama |
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Fancy Dance (Masayuki Suo, Japan, 1987) comedy Yohei, a punk rocker, has to become a Buddhist monk in order to inherit a mountain temple. Yohei though initially rebelling against the tough monastic discipline learns to adjust. Then his girlfriend shows up, enticing him to return to his rock 'n' roll roots. |
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Eros Eterna (Kōji Wakamatsu, Japan, 1977) fantasy Director Kōji Wakamatsu made many films about sexual "transgression" and women who wanted to die. In this one, a women is cursed by being the reincarnation of Happyaku Bhikkhuni (Eight-hundred year-old Buddhist nun), although at one point she says she has been alive 1200 years. She spends her life helping others, but must suffer from seeing all the people she cares about die. The Japanese title of the film, Seibo Kannon daibosatsu, means Holy Mother Great Bodhisattva of Compassion and Kannon's iconography is mixed with that of Happyaku Bhikkhuni. The main help she offers comes through sex, which she has with the village pervert out of compassion, a blind girl who plays the biwa, a boy in middle school, and others. This is neither a trait of the Bodhisattva Kannon or Happyaku Bhikkhuni, although female Bodhisattvas who save people through sex can be found in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. |
 | Kung Fu (television series, 1972-1975) and The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon, its feature-length pilot (Jerry Thorpe, USA, 1972, ) 74 mins. drama David Carradine stars as Kwai Chang Caine, a Chinese-American Buddhist priest, trained in the Dharma and martial arts in China's famous Shaolin Temple. Caine travels around the American wild west in the 19th century, philosophizing, righting wrongs, attempting to spread peace and inevitably kicking bad-guy butts. |
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Siddhartha (Conrad Rooks, Sweden, 1972) drama The story of a young Indian who embarks upon a journey to find the meaning of existence. Based on the novel by Hermann Hesse. |
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The Burmese Harp (J. Biruma no tategoto, Dir. Kon Ichikawa, Japan, 1956) drama At the end of WWII, a soldier of the Japanese army escapes capture by pretending to be a Burmese Buddhist with surprising consequences. |
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Lost Horizon (Frank Capra, USA, 1937) drama After a plane crash in the Himalayas, a small group of civilians explore the fabled kingdom of Shangri-La, a seductive escape from the realities of World War II. |
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Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, USA, 1919) drama A Chinese Buddhist travels to London to teach the Dharma. There he discovers harsh realities of everyday life and gives up his broad ambition. Applying his principles on an individual level, he meets a local girl who is abused by her father and tries to help her. |
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A biopic on the life of Dōgen (1200-1253 CE), founder of Japanese Sōtō Zen. Japan Times review: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20090116a3.html Japanese with English and other subtitles. |
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The life story of His Holiness Karmapa XVI is told by those close to him in Tibet. Not only was a Buddha recalled but so was the film. Likely because of complaints about production and content quality (see reviews on Amazon, etc.), the filmmakers decided to rework it. |
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Dramatization of the life of the famous Tibetan saint Milarepa (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE). The director, Neten Chokling, is a Tibetan Buddhist priest. He also acted in Khyentse Rinpoche's films The Cup (1999) and Travellers and Magicians (2003). |
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A movie about Gendun Choephel (1903-1951), a legendary Tibetan Buddhist. See full description at http://icarusfilms.com/new2006/angr.html |
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Dramatic biography about the life of the 14th Dalai Lama |
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True story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountain climber who became friends with the Dalai Lama at the time of China's takeover of Tibet. |
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Currently in Japanese with no foreign subtitles. But if you know the basics of his life story it's easy to follow. The film was nominated for five Japanese Academy Awards as follows. Best Actor: Kin'ya Kitaōji; Best Screenplay: Akira Hayasaka; Best Art Direction: Norimichi Igawa; Best Music Score: Stomu Yamashta, and Best Sound: Kiyoshige Hirai. |
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Japanese with English subtitles. |
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A number of critics say this AI's development occurs in yogic progression as described by Alan Watts, whose voice is depicted as a character in the film. See, for example, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-goldberg/alan-watts-reborn-in-her_b_4848864.html |
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The plot revolves around the relationship between a young drifter (a kind of modern-day śramana) and a battered housewife. The film is notable for the lack of dialogue between its two main characters. |
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A very trippy and dream-like movie that Richard Linklater shot with digital video and then rotoscoped to look like an animated work. The main character comes to realize that he is stuck in a dream, just as Buddhism suggests (although Buddhism is not mentioned). There is much talk among the characters about Lucid Dreaming and this is a very good film to watch if you are interested in that topic. If you like this movie, you should also check out Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, his adaptation of a Philip K. Dick writing, also rotoscoped and also about life as a dream-like illusion. See the chapter on Waking Life in Buddhism Goes to the Movies. |
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After people die, they spend a week with counselors, also dead, who help them pick one memory they can take to eternity. They describe the memory to the staff who work with a crew to film it and screen it at week's end; eternity follows. Also see the 2010 American remake of After Life with Liam Neeson: http://amzn.to/2wfgs3E |
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Inspired by the story of an airplane crash survivor, Max (Jeff Bridges), who is incapable of coping with life, finds comfort in another survivor, Carla (Rosie Perez). Weir describes, "when the aircraft crashes [Max] discovers a wonderful treasure: an almost ecstatic acceptance of death, a glimmer of eternity." — Berlin Film Festival |
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Since it's premier "in 1999, its strength as metaphor has only increased... The monopolization of information by vast corporations; the substitution of an agreed-on fiction, imposed from above; the sense that we have lost control not only of our fate but of our small sense of what's real-all these things can seem like part of ordinary life now." — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker |
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Analyzed by critics as a man’s philosophical struggle with himself, progressing along the lines of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. For a discussion of this, see the chapter in Buddhism Goes to the Movies. |
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This simple, sad story of the gap between generations in a Japanese family revealed to Western viewers the poetic acuteness of Ozu's style. "Wonderful....One of the manifest miracles of cinema." — The New Yorker |
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The film consists of eight dreamy sequences inspired by reoccuring dreams that Kurosawa had, including one related to Buddhist hells. |
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Bank robber/surfer/skydivers led by a free-spirit called Bodhi/Bodhisattva are hunted by a federal agent who learns about life from them. "It's a killer rush." Also see the 2015 remake of Point Break. |
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"It's like a mad tea party or a mad, modern Platonic dialogue about the meaning of life... Malle creat[es] the illusion that we are simply listening in on the dinnertime conversation of the playwright Wallace Shawn and the former avant-garde theater director André Gregory." — Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies. ...But is it Buddhistic? Hum... |
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A science fiction comedy about a guy who, just before the world ends, finds an esoteric guide to the universe. But again, is it really Buddhistic as some people have claimed. If so, it's hard to see. |
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A man wounded in Vietnam continues to live a nightmare in New York. His path of intrigue and horror seemingly leads to hell or heaven. Allegedly based in some part on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol). This is actually a pretty good movie that doesn't get enough attention. |
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Based on a Jataka. Believing people seek release from suffering, Angulimala tries to kill 1000 people for his own spiritual merit. After an hour and a half of murder and mayhem, Angulimala meets the Buddha and lives a converted live for the last 10 minutes of the film. |
How to Cook Your Life
(Doris Dörrie,Germany and USA, 2007) documentary
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook
author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life. By the director
of Enlightenment Guaranteed (see above).
Words of My Perfect Teacher (Lesley Ann Patten, Canada, 2003)
documentary
Documentary filmmaker Lesley Ann Patten turns the camera on her guru, Khyentse
Norbu, one of the world's most admired Buddhist
teachers, and accomplished filmmaker (The Cup, see above). An
honest, witty, autobiographical exploration of the human drive to be inspired.
— Elan Mastai, Vancouver
Int'l Film Festival 2003
10 Questions for The Dalai Lama (Rick Ray, USA, 2006) documentary
Filmmaker Rick Ray is allow to ask the Dalai Lama ten questions of his choosing.
The Yogis of Tibet
(Jeffrey M. Pill, USA, 2002) documentary
Documentary showing Tibetan Buddhists discussing ideas and demonstrating practices.
The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche
(Tenzing Sonam, Ritu Sarin, U.K., 1991) documentary
Documentary on a life of devotion, and the continuity of Tibetan culture in
exile. A disciple searches for the child who is the reincarnation of the late
Khenshur Rinpoche.
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana (Eilona Ariel and Ayelet Menahemi, USA, 1997, 52 minutes) documentary
A documentary about teaching Mindfulness Meditation in a prison in India.
The Dhamma Brothers (Andrew Kukura and Jenny Phillips, USA, 2008) documentary
A documentary about doing Mindfulness Meditation in an overcrowded maximum-security
prison in Alabama.
The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei
(Christopher J. Hayden, USA, 1993) documentary
A documentary look at the extreme marathon training of monk Tanno
Kakudo. In fascinating detail the film depicts his death-defying fast, vegetarian training diet, handmade
straw running shoes, and ritual feats of endurance.
The Giant Buddhas (Christian Frei, Germany,
2006) documentary
Investigation of the destruction by the Taliban of the huge Buddha cliff carving
in Afghanistan.
To the Land of Bliss (Wen-jie Qin, 2002, 47 min.) documentary
It's an examination of ZCLA, but it was made right
when the sex and
alcohol scandal was going down there. So you get a
pretty ugly and
pretty fascinating "portrait." Given the scandals at
so many other
Buddhist centers (including another at ZCLA!), this
film is
important viewing for specialists and practitioners,
though not for
survey courses.
Zen Buddhism: In Search of Self (Gong Jae-Sung, Korea, 2007) documentary
Preaching From Pictures: A Japanese Mandala(David W Plath, 2006) documentary
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Films by John Daido Loori:
[see: http://www.johndaidoloori.org/jdl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=51]
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Films by Todd Lewis:
Images from a Daruma-san Exhibition (Todd Lewis, 1994: 10 minutes) documentary
From the website http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/tlewis/FilmListingPage.htm : "Videos shot, directed and produced by Professor Todd Lewis and distributed by East-West Initiatives. These short films were designed for classroom use in high schools and colleges. Each comes with a short guide, complete with a bibliography for additional readings."
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Video Sangha provides an array of education videos online at: http://www.videosangha.net/
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The following three films are reviewed in
The Journal of Buddhist Ethics,
Volume 14 (2007).
http://www.buddhistethics.org/
Films by Edward Burger, "Amongst White Clouds,"
and Kesang Tsetan, "On
the Road with the Red God Macchendranath,"
are reviewed by Joanna
Kirkpatrick.
John Daido Loori's "The True Dharma Eye: Zen
Master Dogen's Three
Hundred Koans" is reviewed by Gregory Miller.
Michael Goldberg's film, "A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki," is reviewed
by Wayne
S. Yokoyama.
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Seeing Through the Screen: Buddhism and Film
Taught by Professor Robert Sharf, director of the Group in Buddhist Studies,
University of California, Berkeley. http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu/filmseries/
BuddhaFest Film Festival talks & meditation, in Washington, DC: http://www.buddhafest.org/films-talks/
International Buddhist Film Festival, in San Francisco: http://www.ibff.org/
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Zen Filmmaking:http://www.filmmaking.net/articles/show_article.asp?id=34 and http://scottshaw.com/zenfilmmaking.html
Thai Buddhism in Horror Films: Nang Nak and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his past Lives
http://ww2.coastal.edu/rgreen/
Buddhism Goes to the Movies, Ronald S. Green, Routledge, 2013.
Buddhism and American Cinema, compiled and edited by Gary Storhoff and John Whalen-Bridge, SUNY, 2015.
Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film, Sharon A. Suh, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.
Seeing Like the Buddha: Enlightenment Through Film, Francisca Cho, SUNY, 2017.
Japanese Mythology in Film: A Semiotic Approach to Reading Japanese Film and Anime, Yoshiko Okuyama, Lexington Books, 2016.
Im Kwon-Taek: The Making of a Korean National Cinema (Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series), edited by David E. James and Kyung Hyun Kim, Wayne State University Press, 2001.
Whether or not they can be called Buddhist Films legitimately, this is a list of movies that critics, directors, and/or others have alleged to have associations with Buddhism. I made this list in preparation of the manuscript for Buddhism Goes to the Movies, Routledge, 2013. I also use it in my class called Buddhism in Literature and Film. Syllabus for Buddhism in Film and Literature - at Coastal Carolina University
I hope to updated this list of films with representations of Buddhism. So please send me titles and/or links to where they can be obtained.
email: rgreen@coastal.edu
Return to http://ww2.coastal.edu/rgreenAbove, Sailor Mars invokes the mysterious power of the bija seed-syllables, mantras of the Womb Mandala of Japanese tantric tradition.