Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
Joi Baba Felunath
- The Elephant God -
This Indian crime movie is pretty good, I am new at watching Indian movies, there are so many at Netflix and I am finding it difficult to keep searching past looking for Northeast Asian movies or Western movies. I even found myself asking someone at Dell or Verizon customer support "What's a good Indian movie?" There sure is a good selection at Netflix. This new trend goes well with another new trend of mine, that of looking for West Asian punk rock; I have got to budget money to buy The Kominas, out of Boston.
As far as I can tell, in Joi Baba Felunath, there is some kind of super religious artifact that a dacoit group needs to have. Dacoits are gangsters, more or less. A serious dacoit woman became the governor of a state of India during the 1980s and 90s, she was assassinated while her governorship was falling apart in the chaos of her regime. The dacoits in this movie are fascinated by getting some artifact while ignoring the drudgery that goes into actually managing an economy, or a company. To make matters worse, the man in charge of the big estate that the dacoit group has targeted seems to enjoy just sitting around the vacant estate, idylically, talking with his young son about philosophy and day-to-day poetic moments. It is a good backdrop for an icon pyramid scheme extortion scheme based on adherence to the ancient ways. It's not really a pyramid scheme as a criminal enterprise per se, it is a pyramid scheme in terms of the obsession with unusual artifacts and their empty appeal, presented to a 1978 audience that is mainly concerned with the new burgeoning high tech industrial future of India. This movie is directed by the great Satyajit Ray.
Perfect Blue
This is one of a group of Japanese movies that talks about the media in terms of media popstars and the various business dealings they have and the strange things they do. Dolls is another such movie that could be recommended. This one is an anime movie, the title might have something to do with the color blue as seen in NYPD Blue. Putting up very flashy popstars while being very intellectual and serious about them makes for pretty good movies that get a lot of attention from Western anime fans who are justifiably hooked on a certain blend of cheap appeal and metaphysical genius that they expect from Japan. Since this formula definitely seems to be working, this genre keeps expanding. The problems in this movie could also be seen as being part of a "sentiment pyramid scheme" in which a certain reliable percentage of the public pours their good will and attention into popstars, with disastrous results to follow. Entertainment is the opiate of the masses.
In Japanese movies, sexual exploitation is something that is near the top of the list of things that writers and producers grab by the horns, it is not easy to get away from this topic and audiences expect to see what is going on in this part of reality. It has a high priority and is a very non-negotiable part of the movie-going experience and the resulting product ranges from actual sexploitation to movie work that is on the Meryl Streep level. In American cinema (Woody Allen, Martin Scorcese, Clint Eastwood, et cetera), straight-up treatment of sexual exploitation is more of an option for the film makers and often takes a more subtextual role within the movie than it might in Japan, it is comparatively something that is talked about intstead of really seen. So be it. If one really wants to know, the idea of it is that one should sit, watch and struggle with it, and win, it's how one becomes a good Asian citizen. You are expected to be able to deal with it, sort of like how one is expected to explore the world that we live in. Sit watch and do nothing. It's difficult, and when one is successful one earns Buddhist merit, and one learns how to "be careful" in Asia.
If you feel the burn, it then really really pays to look very seriously into Buddhism as a kind of way to deal with all the very crappy emotions: link. I think the East-West media market gave up on trying to be ultrasincere about selling Buddhist books in the West and just decided to use difficult cinema tests to lead one along to being a good person, if one takes the time to figure out how to deal with them. Again, here is that link; Dharma Realm Buddhist Association. The bookstore is a good place to go. The Heart Sutra is concise and popular. The DRBA is based in California. It's authentic. Thoughtfulness is a quality that can be learned from a book. At least, everybody over there knows it that way. After watching Asian movies, Buddhism is like an aspirin. Don't feel bad. "What are the limits and parameters of successfully exploring the world while maintaining an open heart?" Ask a Buddhist expert.
It is possible to think of it this way: After seeing raw Western cinema product like The Excorcist, Shoah, Taxi Driver, heck, even The Eiger Sanction, Asian people definitely feed their need by going to church and buying and reading a bible.
Actually, here is the bookstore link: Buddhist Text Translation Society. The 10,000 Buddhas site is a little confusing. This group bought a very big, defunct, State of California mental asylum in the 70s and changed it to a Buddhist center; I think they may have moved again. IDK
The funny thing about Buddhism, is that in my contact with Asia I have learned that there is a difference between Buddhist fasting and Western fasting. These two Japanese guys, for example, went on a 2 month pilgrimmage in Thailand, totally sincere, absolutely faithful, quite a rugged experience, kind of gruelling actually, and the last scene in this 30 minute television documentary movie they made was them ending the pilgrimmage by sitting down at an outdoor restaurant cafe and drinking some beers, opening a pack of smokes and watching the Thai sunset. It's a great system. No worries, mate.
Another thing about Buddhism (and Daoism, Confucianism, et cetera) is that the knowlege is contained in the words.
Dead Leaves
Dead Leaves is a very crazy animated movie that provides a lagniappe to Perfect Blue.
The Hours
To continue, seeing a movie like the feminist The Hours, in which issues of sexual exploitation seem to make up 99% of the story, after seeing things in Buddhist perspective, one just isn't sure what to make of this. After two hours of the acclaimed film making, in which so many important ideas are exposited, one is very unsure at the end about the underlying reality of the film. Just what kind of world do the producers want people to live in? The Hours is a very powerful, efficacious drug for many women, and the film makers are of course, at this high level, very conscientious and deliberate, and have all the time in the world to try to say exactly what they think. At the Virginia Woolf level of things, it sure is a great movie but there are so many alarming things that happen in this movie, that are said in this movie, that it seems like a difficult thing to sell to someone who is watching the game. I found myself able to deal with this production, it produced a strong positively opiated feeling in me in spite of its incredible ambition and goals, some of which I would find it very difficult to sell as presented in this movie. I'm glad I saw it but it's a case of something being so thoughtfully presented as to gain merit in spite of how it might offend a sports fan. (Oops)
The Hours has something to do with Vassar College thought, which includes Meryl Streep and Phoebe Buffay on Friends.
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