Zen Noir
by Marc Rosenbush
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DVD details
Director: Marc RosenbushBrand: Victor
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Surround Sound, THX, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 71 minutes
Published: 2006
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Magic Lamp Releasing/Zenmovie LLC
DVD Reviews of Zen Noir
DVD Review: A buddhist film noir fable...
Summary: 3 Stars
A nice attempt, using the conventions of noir-ish detective stories to illustrate across some aspects of the buddhist concept of impermanence, and living in & appreciating the present, despite the awareness of the imminent presence of death. I only wish that the production values were a bit higher, and the lead's performance a bit ... subtler, perhaps... for those are the only things keeping this film from getting a higher rating, least from me. Chicago theater actress Debra Miller won best actress for her role as the dedicated practitioner, 'Jane' in this film at Chicago's Indiefest in 2004.DVD Review: Not a good intro to Zen, but amazing in its own right.
Summary: 5 Stars
I've seen this film several times in class and have gotten a lot of student commentary on it. I show the film after reading Thich Nhat Hanh's "No Death, No Fear" which makes for a good preparation for the themes of this film. The vast majority of students enjoyed the movie but invariably a few don't care for it. I find the THE most important thing to keep in mind while watching this film is that it is entirely figurative. If you watch it as if it were a literal telling of a story, it will come off rather weak and cliche. But, if you look deeper, you will encounter the director's profound understanding of Zen. Sadly, I think that this figurative nature slips under the radar and may disappoint most viewers. I'll next list a few brief pros and cons and then address my understanding of the film's imagery in length, addressing the figurative themes of the film.
Pros:
-First an foremost, the symbolic representation of the western, logic-oriented mind is brilliant. The scene in which the detective is jotting down his notes on a cork board and running pieces of string between crucial points (in fast motion to chaotic music) is just perfect. This may be the most valuable lesson to take from this film. Also the detective's thought process as revealed through dialog wonderfully depicts how the rational processes should not dominate the mind at all times. There's a time and a place for such analysis, but as the film suggests, there are times when it needs to be set aside.
-The humor is also quite good. It's subtle and also topical which does a lot to keep the audience involved and attentive.
-The film is ultimately about accepting one's mortality and this film delivers, following Buddhist doctrine quite well... to a point.
The film is quite beautiful at times. The budget is clearly minimal, but camera work and use of lighting is exceptionally well done. Some have concerns with the down time and lack of dialog, but I find that it adds a dramatic depth which amplifies the themes of self-discovery and contemplation. These artistic digressions also allow for brief journeys into traditional Zen imagery.
Cons:
-The metaphors of the film often get jumbled up. What is "real" in the film? Any of it? Some of it? Are some scenes both figurative and literal? The message is still clear, but the delivery tends to become convoluted when analyzed. Is Jane real or is she some sort of archetype for women in general? It took me several viewings to piece it together. Maybe it took others less time.
-On the surface, Zen dialogue becomes little more than western cliches of avoidance and answering questions with questions. I do not believe that the further propagation of "oriental" stereotypes does much for Zen at all. Unless one is aware of the deeper metaphorical currents, this comes across as a bit cliche.
-The mixing of the sound is off, causing some music to become startlingly loud.
-My greatest concern is that the film does not end where Zen cultivation professes to end. The Great Death is never mentioned or even suggested. As mentioned below, this may have been a better decision for more of the movie-going attitude, but the bottom line is that the ending is not Zen-ish in the least bit.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
SPOILER ALERT!!!
I've discovered that the secret to understanding this film is found by keeping the following points in mind; 1.) Everything is figurative, nothing is literal and 2.) Pay attention to notable twists in the plot and note what changes.
Keeping in mind that all is figurative, I'll break down the movie's characters, keeping in mind that they are all representations of the lead character's psyche. I will then breakdown the imagery of the plot line.
Detective: The detective, when the movie begins, is characterized by sadness, loneliness and isolation (duhkha or suffering), literally sitting alone in his apartment drinking. Appropriate for his profession, he is characterized by a "who dunnit?" sort of attitude, not dissimilar to the methods used in western science. This discursive method is based staunchly upon either-or logic, or dualism in general (also notably upon cause and effect). He notes this when he shows up to solve the murder that there is always a victim and always a perpetrator (subject/object and cause/effect). The progression of the movie then details how he slowly sets aside this mode of thinking.
Wife: The wife symbolizes heartache and loss and may very well represent an actual experience from the detective's life. What is notable about her character is that she is never "real" and always a memory or his imagination. She is also clearly a representation of the detective's inability to emotionally engage anything that is impermanent. I contend that the majority of her character represents this inability to emotionally engage the world, rather than a specific moment from his past. This theme is made all the more obvious by the wife's grimly painted face and the Japanese character "shi," or "death" on her forehead.
First Murder Victim / Dead Monk: This first monk symbolizes death itself and in context to the frazzled detective, it is coupled with feelings of dread. The detective's entry into the monastery for self-exploration seems coupled with a willingness to confront this topic (or figuratively, solve this problem). I believe the imagery here is that the detective's psyche was resistant to confronting the truth about death, thus he sat in his room, isolated in denial, drinking himself into oblivion. I do not think it to be a coincidence that after the detective faces death/ looks into this murder mystery, he doesn't have another drink.
Articulate Lotus Flowing from the Source / Ed: Ed, to me, represents the mechanical adherence to monastic life; the lip service method of cultivation. His is annoying, illusive and distracts the detective with circular conversation. I find that Ed really has no idea as to what he's doing at the monastery, but he knows for sure that he should not be caught up in the material world (like the detective), so he is only slightly "better" off. I find it evident that Ed symbolizes confusion, yet also the stubborn routine adherence to Zen protocol. His death then symbolizes the detective's overcoming of this stage where he begins to take the idea of practice seriously.
Jane: Jane is a little bit tough for me as I find her character distracts from the message of Zen a bit, as I will explain later. She also seems to play two roles; one of the object of the detective's desire to re-attach to the fleeting world, but also in the role of Jung's anima. She clearly plays an external role, counter to the roll of the deceased wife of the detective, but also perhaps the role of the detective's own mortality and sensitivity. I believe that the latter may be my own reading into the film, as mentioned later.
Master: The master represents the detective's Buddha nature, his non-dual, already enlightened nature. This is very evident by the way the master at first comes across as completely nonsensical. But, as the movie progresses, he becomes more engaging in proportion to the detective's willingness to let go of his previously established dualistic methodology. Their relationship becomes less and less challenged until he finally reveals the secret about the orange. When the detective accepts this element of his psyche, the master is subsumed and thus dies.
Orange: The orange is a symbol of pratityasamutpada, or interdependent arising. The master reveals why he is infatuated with the orange near the end of the film where he explains how the entire universe comes together to become the orange. The master also recounts a tale where he ate the best orange of his entire life by eating it in mindfulness in the midst of overwhelming sorrow and pain.
My understanding of the movie follows the notion that every time someone dies, it is actually a symbol of the detective's mind expanding, where each person who dies defines a portion of the detective's mind-body with which he at first didn't want to identify. This figurative death then is more so the death of his own artificially created boundaries. The story begins with the detective alone in his room, routinely doing his job and then presumably drinking himself to sleep, day after day. The first death symbolizes the death of this dreary lifestyle and the awakening of the motivation to spiritual cultivation. If Kakuan's ox-herding paintings had a zeroth frame where the boy would leave the city and set out for the forest, this would be it. Getting to the monastery is then planting his feet in the forest, beginning his quest.
The detective is a bit confused as nothing seems to work the way he would like it. The monks are dismissive and confusing, especially when it comes to the master and his bewildering orange! This stage represents his method's usefulness and even applicability coming to an end. This is beautifully depicted by the scene in which the detective is chaotically trying to patch together his ideas on a corkboard with post-it notes and string, ultimately concluding with the detective bashing the board over his head in frustration.
The next "death" is the death of Ed, who represents a person who straddles the world of the detective and the monastic life. Ed's final words are along the line of assuring the detective that the answer is far greater than the detective can even imagine. This transition is made all the more meaningful by the next scene in which the detective has his first non-absurd conversation with the master. He is demonstrating here that he can set aside his discursive thinking, at least partially, which is exactly the state that Ed had achieved. It is also important to note that Ed kills himself with the detective's gun. The following expression illuminates this symbol quite well. "Use a thorn to remove a thorn and then throw both away."
The detective has a slight relapse here by trying to fit all of this new information into some sort of system, which ultimately collapses. "F*** it, I'm outta here!" he proclaims only to find himself running in and out of Scooby Doo-esque doors and encountering both chaos and madness. Apparently, there's no way out of one's mind.
Coming back to the monastery, he has his first encounter with Jane. I do not think I understand their sexual union, but working on my anima theory, it may have something to do with the union of Shakti and Shiva through the awakening of Kundalini, but that may be reading way to deeply into this. Their union does mark a very pronounced intimacy here, which is why I want to say that they may be the same being, thus symbolizing both the detective's fear of external thing's impermanence as well as his own. Jane also strikes me as the detective's anima as she is point-for-point his opposite. This encounter is followed by his first attempts at meditation as well as his first cutting up of his own orange. Jane then reveals her sorrow to him and tells the detective that she is dying. Later in the film we find out that she doesn't know when she will die, which I take as clear evidence of Jane's figurative nature. Also, Jane's dual role as external and internal impermanence is expressed when the detective cries out, "I can't do this," when confronted with the possibility of becoming involved with someone who will die. In the Zen sense, the meditative journey is overtly the overcoming of the fear of one's own death, and not just the death of others. I think this self-death is not emphasized nearly enough in this film.
The master then reveals the secrets of pratityasamutpada, marking the detective's awakening and likewise, the master's death. The detective is then in a far more calm state of mind and openly accepts Jane, mortality and all. Now, according to the Zen tradition, this is a terrible place to end as the movie does not address the theme of self-annihilation, or "the great death." I suspect that the film ended here primarily for the reason that self-annihilation would be pretty hard to depict onscreen and because sticking to the human element of personal relationships and romantic love seems to cater to a wider audience. Why not end with a love story? I do have to wonder if this was a deliberate concession of the filmmaker or perhaps the limitation of his own understanding of Zen? I will presume the former for now. Either way, keeping the film entirely within the realm of personal identity, in my opinion, doesn't really make this film about Zen at all as it excludes its most notable characteristic, but I'm just being critical.
Overall, I love this film. It only took me about six times to get it! I still have to work on Jane though. I'm not entirely certain about her role as potential anima. Hope this helps.
DVD Review: Time better spent meditating
Summary: 2 Stars
If you have no interest in Zen or Buddhism, its unlikely you'll find anything exceptional in Zen Noir, except perhaps for Debra Miller's boobs. While these were remarkably firm, the film is unbearably flat.
Dressing his project out in 1940's hard-boiled detective genre, first-time American director Marc Rosenbush attempts with minimal set and plot to play both high camp and high philosophy. Neither really work. Ostensibly a murder mystery, the film is not so much about murder as it is life, not about who did it, but what it all means. To get to the big scene, though, you'll have to sit through an hour of trite jokes, a string of non-sequiturs to test the patience of even seasoned practitioners. "Where were you at the time of the murder?" the detective asks. "What do you mean by time?" the monk rejoins. To the wizened master the detective pleads, "Help me still my mind." Zen students know what line comes next - "Ok, give me your mind."
The acting isn't bad, and the music seems fairly interesting, though nothing you'd seek out on CD. But even if you're interested in Zen or Buddhism, about the only reason to watch Zen Noir is much the same reason I had. I was too tired to read a book, too tired to meditate, not yet ready for bed, and had nothing else to watch.
#
DVD Review: Maybe it's camp.
Summary: 1 Stars
Possibly I just didn't get it. It reminded me of the very camp "Batman" series on TV. That series was so bad that it became good in a camp sort of way. I think this was a failed attempt to be in the "so bad it is good" genre. DVD Review: what else to watch
Summary: 5 Stars
I knew a film maker who died very suddenly and I remember thinking: "What does a film maker leave behind?" This thought was the seed that sprouted the movie: Beatific Vision.
I found myself thinking of a secret film that a character would leave behind when he dies. Not one he wished not to be found but one he planned to be found. More than a final will and testament this film was a "Beatific Vision", a view into the future of all characters and a clear mapping of the coincidences that would occur.
As I began to write the screenplay the voice of the Angel started to speak softly and occasionally. Upon many re-writes the Angel voice was vieing for main character status. I tried to reel in the angel but he (Angel Chad) wrestled control away from me.
When another close friend was passing to the other side, she added a strong dose of acceleration to the writing process. There now are so many Angels (most recently my Mother) involved, I feel I am at best the living hands to this project.
When I was a small boy my parents used to call me: Angel Michael when they wanted my behavior to change. I actually grew up thinking I was an angel including my sprouting scapula wings. Today, I do not think I am an angel but I surely believe that I am their vehicle for expression on earth.
Thank-you angels for this "angels on earth" experience!
[...]
Description of Zen Noir
If David Lynch, the Buddha and Woody Allen all took acid and made a surrealist art film, this would be it. ZEN NOIR is a hilarious award-winning independent film that explores zen buddhism, meditation, life, death and spiritual enlightenment.A nameless 'noir' detective still mourning the loss of his wife investigates a mysterious death in a Buddhist temple but his logical left-brained crime-solving skills are useless in the intuitive non-linear world of Zen.
Grand Jury Award for Best Feature - DC Independent Film Festival
Audience Award for Best Feature - Rhode Island Intl. Film Festival
Best Feature - Moondance Film Festival
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