Dharmaga tongjoguro kan kkadalgun (1989)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Yong-Kyun Bae

Writer:

Yong-Kyun Bae (writer)

Release Date:

23 September 1989 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan...

Plot Keywords:

Monastery | Teacher | Monk | Child | Buddhist

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Myeong-deok Choi
Hae-Jin Huang	...	Haejin (the little monk)
Hui-yeong Kim
Su-Myong Ko	...	abbot
Eun-yeong Lee
Seon-hye Lee
Yi Pan-Yong	...	Hyegok (the old monk)
Sin Won-Sop	...	Kibong (the young monk)
Byeong-hui Yun	...	Ki-bong's mother

Directed by
Yong-Kyun Bae

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Yong-Kyun Bae		writer

Original Music by
Gyu-yeong Jin

Cinematography by
Yong-Kyun Bae

Film Editing by
Yong-Kyun Bae

Sound Department
Gyeong-il Kim	....	sound

Special Effects by
Dai-ho Yang	....	special effects

Production Companies

• Bae Yong-Kyun Productions

Distributors

• Creative Exposure (1994) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (laserdisc)
• Milestone Film & Video (1993) (USA) (subtitled)
• trigon-film (2004) (Switzerland) (DVD) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

Why Did Bodhi-Dharma Leave for the East?
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?: A Zen Fable (International: English title)

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

South Korea:All | Sweden:7 | West Germany:o.Al.

Company:

Bae Yong-Kyun Productions

Trivia:

Film took seven years to complete, using a single camera, and was edited entirely by hand.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Hyegok: Haejin! Haejin! There is no beginning and no end. Nothing is immutable, everything changes. That thing which does not come into being does not die.

A meditative picture

I first saw this movie back in 1990, being played in Switzerland. to understand and appreciate this movie, you need to face the fact that western and eastern story-telling differ a lot. And since Bodhi-Dharma, who never appears in the picture, is the first patriarch of Ch'an Buddhism in China, meditation is not only a subject of the movie but also became an inspiration for the makers. The story is therefore told in an extremely slow manner, including several flashbacks. It's a perfect introduction to Zen, but also a relaxing and beautiful movie to enjoy alone.