A junior monk, Bhante Dhammariya who lives in a quiet temple far away from the city finds a mobile phone which was left behind by a guest. This modern communication tool became his key to access the life he once lived before renunciation. The audience is brought along the inner journey of Bhante Dhammariya, as he struggles between his spiritual practice and the longing for his family.

The art direction is splendid and ingenious. The contrast between the mundane material world as represented by the mobile phone and the inner peace and wisdom obtained from spirituality was starkly highlighted through the clever use of cinematographic techniques. With the use of few words, the director was able to bring out the inner turmoil experienced by the protagonist. Angin is a film which tugs at our heartstrings – exposing our basic human desire for love and affection (amongst a select few), and the human capacity to go beyond such desires for the ultimate truth.

At various points in the film we are also reminded of the Buddha’s teachings, specifically of the Three Characteristics of Existence, namely impermanence, suffering and non-self. The film repeatedly invites us to contemplate the significance of this teaching in our own lives as we see it in the life of the protagonist. Angin is a powerful and deeply thought-provoking film, which may change your life.

Sat 29 Sep | 11.30am

Winaldo Artaraya Swastia, 2010, Indonesia, 24 min

Bahasa Indonesia with English subtitles, PG

This film will be screened with Your Mind Is Bigger Than All The Supermarkets In The World

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If you only like your films full of transforming robots, space ships, car crashes or gratuitous violence practiced by old Hollywood has-beens then this film is not necessarily for you.  However if you like films more broody and those that draw on human emotions for their dramatic impact then you could do worse than watch this Sri Lankan film from 1967.

Our protagonist is Cyril Tony Ranasinghe, who having returned from England finds Ceylon (the older name of Sri Lanka) ‘backward’ although he’s part of the most privileged echelons of society.

The story focuses on Cyril’s relationships with two women whilst trading on Buddhist imagery and formalities as a kind of backdrop to the central narrative of the film.

The melodrama plays against a backdrop of upper class 1967 Ceylon living full of ad hoc badminton matches on pristine lawns and the most wonderful British cars – contemporary for the period when the film was made of course – but now providing a beautifully historical tapestry perfect for all the brooding looks and subtle nuances that, to some extent, define the character of the film.

The interactions between the various strata of society coupled with the religious and moral over and undertones makes this a film that works at several levels none of which dominates or takes over in driving the narrative to its conclusion.

The film is a reminder of our true nature – that it is our feelings and relationships that ultimately define us and often resonate at far greater depths and with far deadlier potential than those explosions and bangs that have come to dominate so much modern Hollywood rubbish.

The film is in black and white and has subtitles but this only cements its authenticity and credibility, two aspects this reviewer found refreshing and welcoming.

Wed 26 Sep | 7.30pm

Lester James Peries, 1967, Sri Lanka, 106 min

Sinhala with English subtitles, PG

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In 16th-century Thailand, Singkam the bandit is convicted of murdering the warlord Larfah and is executed for his crime. Anont, a young monk who testified at the trial, is so unnerved by the case that he plans to leave the monkhood. Taking shelter from a storm, he meets a woodcutter and a thief, and the puzzling case is unraveled in a series of flashbacks. As each witness’s testimony is revealed, the truth becomes even more obscured, but the frailties of human nature come into painfully sharp focus.

Nothing is what it seems, and nobody is who they appear to be. We follow Anont’s journey down the rabbit hole – into an engaging study of lust, pride and greed – and out again, to understand that inner peace can only be earned through love and compassion.

This remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon loses none of the original’s intrigue, and similarly features stellar art direction and cinematography. Director M. L. Bhandevanov Devakula handles the complex story deftly, though with a touch more melodrama, but the stunning visuals, solid performances and unexpected narrative will hold your attention from the first frame to the last. This thought-provoking tale will stay with you long after you’ve left the theatre.

Sat 22 Sep | 1.45pm

Fri 28 Sep | 7pm

ML Bhandevanop Devakul, 2011, Thailand, 114 min

Thai with English subtitles, NC16 (Some sexual scenes)

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As of now (29 August 12.30pm), only One Mile Above is sold out.

To demystify, here’s the latest update. Most of our films are still available – so do buy your tickets soon! Only three weeks left to THIS 2012!

First of all, what struck me was how the director used different art forms creatively in his storytelling – it was refreshing, especially in the illustration of Islamic versus Buddhist Afghanistan. The colourful and stunning “moving paintings” really tickle the viewer’s imagination. 

I didn’t know what to expect at the beginning of the film although I know that Bamiyan is an area in Afghanistan where famous statues of the Buddha once stood majestically in this land of mountains. My lack of expectations perhaps enhanced my appreciation of this film.

For those of us who are familiar with the popular version of the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang’s Journey to the West, this short film offers a fresh perspective of his journey, and of course, being a history buff, I loved it!

What moved me was the image of a tiger walking beside the monk, exploring the land together. Indeed, compassion and loving kindness are like invisible music, felt and understood by all beings, including the ferocious tiger. Fear could just be another name for the lack of compassion and loving kindness.

Overall, I think this short film is a beautiful rendition of the rich history and culture surrounding the Bamiyan Buddha statues. I like this film and will certainly recommend it to my friends. Just watch it with an open mind and appreciate it for what it is.

This film will be screened with Schooling The World.

Mon 24 Sep | 7.30pm

Patrick Pleutin, 2008, France, 15 min

Chinese and Arabic with English subtitles, PG13 (Some nudity 些许裸露画面)

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HEADSHOT is the latest work of one of Southeast Asia’s leading filmmakers, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang. The film follows Tul, a policeman betrayed by the very system he swore to protect. Disillusioned, he joined a syndicate of professional assassins who take justice into their own hands by weeding out corrupt politicians, businessmen and crooks.

During an assassination job, Tul gets shot in the head. He recovers but he now sees things upside-down – literally. At the same time, the “long arm” of kamma also catches up with Tul as the scion of a corrupt politician begins to hunt him down. Thus begins Tul’s spiritual awakening as he sought to lead a life in the saffron robes. He puts away his pistol and kneels before a Buddhist monk (you would have expected to see an aged Thai Luang Phor or senior monk, but here, a Caucasian monk ordains him; a nod towards Westerners who come to Thailand to seek spiritual awakening).

Even though he is now a monk, Tul is not spared from the relentless manhunt that is targeted at him. And in order not to tarnish the sanctity of the robes, Tul disrobed while his Western Ajahn chants a loving-kindness mantra.

Despite the imagery of sex, gore and stylized gunfights, HEADSHOT is a film embedded with subtle Buddhist themes. The camerawork is still, quiet and meditative, as if inviting the audience to view the film as an exploration behind the causes of the ugliness of humanity – lust and hatred, as well as the law of cause and effect.

Even with good intentions, Tul’s unskillful and unwise methods to bring about “justice” through violence and killing has it that certain negative consequences cannot be avoided. While his spiritual awakening is not clearly spelled out, Tul’s impaired vision means that he is now forced to look at things attentively, instead of the past where he “sees things in passing and not paying attention.” The film is perhaps titled so because of Tul’s eventual ability to see things mindfully and that liberation is not confined to the physical realm, but happens also within the mind – or head.

HEADSHOT is not exactly the best introduction to Pen-Ek’s body of works, but it is a decent effort with beautiful cinematography and solid acting (Nopachai Jayanama as Tul) which cinephiles can appreciate.

Headshot (Fon Tok Kuen Fah)

Sun 23 Sep | 4.30pm

Tue 25 Sep | 7.15pm

Pen-ek Ratanaruang, 2011, Thailand / France, 105 min

Thai with English subtitles, M18 (Sexual scene and violence)

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Does this upside-down vision condition really exist in real life?

Win Lyovarin, the writer of the novel we adapted the film from, sent me a newspaper clipping several months ago about a guy who reads and writes upside-down since a rather young age. The man is now in his 60’s, I think. That’s as close to an upside-down vision as I’ve ever heard of. But someone actually seeing things upside-down? I don’t know…

Talking about Win Lyovarin, what is it about crime noir that attracted you? Did it originate from Lyovarin’s original story?

It’s the mystery, cigarette smoke, beautiful women, ugly men, nice clothes, betrayal and perhaps the fact that the heroes of those films or novels are usually ordinary guys who find themselves in really extraordinary situations and have to try to survive. Lyovarin wrote this novel, Fon Tok Kuen Fah, after being inspired by American film noir from the James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum era. He mentioned this very explicitly in the forward of the novel. So yes, it originates from the novel.
 

So to adapt to a noir milieu, did you consciously decide to make this film a departure from your recent output?

Stylistically, every film of mine is dictated by the script. It just so happened that my last 3-4 films had been scripted mostly by me from my own original ideas, so they looked and felt more or less similar. Headshot, on the other hand, was scripted from a novel written by someone else with a very clear intention to be a crime noir. So we made a conscious decision to conform to that style.

In Headshot, corruption seems to infect the very core of Thai society and politics. How much does it reflect your own belief about the present situation in Thailand?

Corruption seems to be at the very core of Thai society and politics for as far back as I remember. And I don’t think it will disappear anytime soon. This, in my opinion, comes from the fact that our country has given in to democracy without being really ready for it. Most of the people in our country are still poor, under-educated and unable to think about things beyond the simple rule of putting food in their mouths and surviving. But at one point in our country’s history, a group of men, educated in Western countries, overthrew the government and embraced a system called democracy, thinking that it would make Thailand as civilized as those countries they were educated from – a form of inferiority complex, I think. And it’s been downhill ever since.
 

No matter what Tul does, violence always seems to catch up with him. How much do you think this has to do with fate as opposed to karma?

[rhetorically] What’s the difference between fate and karma?

But do you think of the upside-down vision as Tul’s karmic retribution?

It may be, it may not be. But for sure, it’s something that enlightens him. Having this upside-down vision means that Tul is forced to look at the world, and life, from a different perspective, both physically and psychologically. And this is what makes him quit his profession. But as Buddhists, we believe that you get what you give. If we give kindness unto others, we get kindness back from others. In Tul’s case, he did wrong. And his most obvious wrong is killing, so there is only one way he can find redemption.

This is your second film in a row with Nopachai Jayanama (not counting your short with him in Sawasdee Bangkok). Has he in some ways become a muse for you?

In my past 14 years of filmmaking, I have yet to find a Thai actor with Nopachai’s intelligence, instinct and commitment. And since our last outing, Nymph, we’ve become good friends. This helps him to understand more about where I’m going with this film and it helps me to know what he needs from me to do his job well.

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Trudy, a heartbroken girl, threw down her bag in a community garden, squashing a dandelion in the process. The events that followed seemed surreal – three elderly ladies appeared out of nowhere, taking her for an afternoon tea with a twist.

With alcohol (which emerged from a lunchbox and the inner side of a vest) and spiked brownies, the three ladies shared about their wilder days. It was akin to grandmothers telling their granddaughters about stories of their youth.

But in this case, it was no-holds-barred, complete with exciting flashbacks about SSMs (Simulated Soul Mates), served up with a dose of humour. Trudy accurately pointed out that “that’s one hell of a story”. At the end of the afternoon, one of the ladies held up a dandelion and blew it, delivering a simple yet impactful Dharma message to Trudy and the viewer.

I enjoyed the film; the message is short and sweet, yet serves as a good reminder about deeper Buddhist philosophies, such as the cyclical nature and impermanence of one’s life/lives. The flashbacks were dramatically funny with appropriate background music and exotic locations. Anyone who has gone through heartbreak will be able to feel for Trudy, and hopefully emerge all the better, just as she did, at the end of the film. I recommend this film to anyone who’s up for some boisterous laughter and hilarious anecdotes!

This film will be screened with Tulku on Sat 29 Sep, 3.15pm

Shot with excellent cinematography mainly in Ladakh and Delhi, this thought-provoking documentary takes a unique and radical look at the western education followed around the world today. The message it delivers is very clear, that while the intent of the “white men” of Britain and later on America, was to civilize the “backward and primitive people” and deliver them from poverty, western education is destroying native cultures, our children clueless and inept in their own culture, ecosystem and language and still not creating the affluence that it is supposed to provide.

Throughout the movie, there is a sharp juxtaposition of the happy and carefree villagers in Ladakh against the jaded, disillusioned and decadent city dwellers in the city of Delhi and in the cities of America. The film also displays the jarring difference between the beauty of the country with clean clear waters, lush fields and trees and the terribly polluted, noisy and ugly cities.

Many well chosen quotes from prominent educators, politicians and writers about western education are placed strategically at different sections of the film to discuss the ideas that 1) the western education was designed to indoctrinate and create molded individuals, destroying cultures and stifling creativity, 2) its main purpose is to manufacture “products” to serve the government and economy.

There are interviews with western and Indian educators, the representative of the World Bank, as well as the Ladakhi village women and the Ladakhi students who have been through the western schooling system. The value of the unique local culture and traditional education and the problems brought by western education and modernization is clearly shown. The students have lost the ability to speak their own languages and are useless when they return to their villages. The wide-spread view of the elitism of education is making the elderly feel ashamed of themselves, when they used to be proud of their own contributions to society. The students feel ashamed of their own culture and look down on it. Most of the graduates of the western education system are still unable to find jobs in the cities and end up frustrated and lost.

The pertinent questions we have to ask ourselves are: “What is True Wealth?” and “What is True Poverty?”

All in all, this documentary is well executed with a good pace and cleverly orchestrated to illustrate the point it wants to bring across. Quotations, music, interviews are all put to good use and there are no irrelevant material used. It is thoroughly absorbing and engaging. While one may seek to differ in opinion from the makers of this documentary, there is no doubting that western education is not the magical solution to end poverty and create a utopia; there are real issues to resolve on its impact on culture, on the environment and morality. I would highly recommend everyone to watch this documentary.

Mon 24 Sep | 7.30pm