Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the east?

Duration: 135 mi

Year Published: 1989

Creator: Milestone Film & Video

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This was the first Korean film to be released theatrically in the United States. Why did the Indian monk Bodhi-Dharma, the originator of Zen Buddhism, leave home for China and the far Orient? The title is a Zen koan, an unanswerable riddle that is both a challenge and an encouragement on the path to enlightenment. The plot concerns the physical and spiritual struggles of an old Buddhist master, his young disciple and an orphaned boy in a remote monastery in the mountains of Korea. As the master faces death, he must lead his followers in resolving their memories of the outside world and point them toward spiritual freedom.Bae's recurring motifs of fire, wind, and water transform the eternal cycles of birth, death and regeneration into visual poetry. (Circulates).