Since the name Scorsese has cropped in a couple of recent reviews of mine I thought I'd go the whole hog and review one of the few films of his I hadn't seen . In many ways KUNDUN remains the unknown film by Scorsese . I remember it being released but I very much doubted if it played outside established art house cinemas in big cities . I also remember it being very difficult to get on VHS/DVD which led me to wonder if it was ever released on this format . Despite being made almost twenty years ago I can't recall it ever being broadcast on even the more obscure and unwatched TV channels . Therefore I was somewhat surprised to see it uploaded on perhaps the most obvious platform - youtube . After watching the movie all I can say is that it probably deserves much of its obscurity Now I've got to put my hand up here and say I have militantly atheist views . As Richard Dawkins is fond of pointing out "You're only one God away from being an atheist" and so it is with all religions . I have done a bit of travelling to exotic lands and I'm often amazed how Westerners are quick to reject the idea of the Abrahamic God but are extremely open to the suggestion of Eastern mysticism along the lines of Hinduism and Buddhism . It's understandable in many ways because people are superstitious by nature and a belief in karma is only a slight extension of this superstition . Bad things happen in life and they are as common as air . Good things happen and they are as rare as the most precious commodities and we're all wondering why this must be . I'm digressing but what I should point out is that the reason I disliked this movie was not down to it being a biopic about the 14th Dalai Lama but simply because it is a badly told story regardless of its subject matter Scorsese isn't really someone who cares much for plotting . You could never see him making a high concept plot movie along the lines of MOMENTO . Instead his movies are character driven with those characters trying to find an aim in life ( Often an illegal aim ) having it all , losing it and at the end being worse off than when they started . A story like KUNDUN should be easy for Marty to develop in theory . In practise however he doesn't even try and you never for a second get the feeling you're watching a film directed by America's greatest cinema auteur According to the trivia section on this page Melissa Mathison's screenplay went through fourteen different drafts . Some people might claim the story has been rewritten to death but it's impossible to think any of the drafts could have possibly been worse than the final product . It contains two distinctive parts of the Lama's life - his childhood and then his escape from Tibet which is annexed by Red China . Both parts contain a whole lot of nothing . The screenplay drags at a snail's pace which makes for a very boring and totally uninvolving film Scorsese seems unable to improve upon the very poor material as though his heart isn't in the story . The worst aspect is that he's made a film with a totally amateur cast . Worse than that despite being an obvious amateur cast it's an amateur cast who don't speak English as a first language which means they deliver their lines in an absolutely dreadful way . You've probably seen less wooden acting at a primary school play . To give the director his due he has given the cinematography gig to the legendary Roger Deakins so at least we have a good looking movie and the costume design is very impressive but at the end of the day KUNDUN is all about faith and our faith as a cinema audience is left unpaid regardless of our religious views

I think I am well versed in Buddhism to say that, contrary to the majority opinion, this is a superficial smattering of a wonderful practice. I don't know whose fault it is, certainly Scorsese's though he is an outsider so that is sort of to be expected. I suspect the Dalai Lama's circle were fine with a superficially romantic portrayal, so long as it generates awareness for their just cause.Why do I say this? The main narrative device that gives this any sort of shape (otherwise it is one long picture-pretty rambling), is the DL meditating in exile, possibly at that balcony at the Indian border, possibly at a much later time. This would be in line with the recurring motifs of prescient visions and the spyglass (looking from a distance) which is first introduced right after the screening of a silent film (the association is with memory, illusions and time gone - all things to purify the mind from in meditation).This would somewhat excuse the fragmentary nature of the narrative and quaint focus of it on young boy versus evil empire of millions, since it was all experienced from his end. Somewhat. It is still absolutely tepid as a historic film if we switch to the 'objective' pov. Now, this last segment of the crossing to India is accompanied by the one powerful visual meditation in the film, it is not mentioned but what you see is the Kalachakra initiation with the Great Sand Mandala being constructed and brushed away, a powerful and sacred occasion.Get it? This is it, this one moment. The DL is heartbroken and his courage waning, and lost in meditation, he finds peace in reminding himself of the transience of all things, which is what the ritual represents and a core Buddhist precept, the cosmos being washed away back into river-sand. The entire rest of the film is a pageant; oracles hiss, rituals go on, dances, ornate ceremonies, hushed whispers of banality.Scorsese mistakes here the theater of appearances (the religion) for the essence. He films the ritual as the thing-in-itself, as spectacle, instead of as the space that allows you to cultivate a compassionate mind. The postcard instead of the real spiritual landscape. How rich this would be if, for instance, we had contrasts between flows of remembered ordinary life and abstractions in three- and twodimensional space in the dances and mandala, and all of that (all the costumes, the ceremonies, the symbols and human suffering) understood as different sides of one image -empty- brushed away as the mind heals itself. I am in awe of the possibilities! No dice. Scorsese films operatic platitudes.Skip this if you want to know Buddhism. Go straight for Why Did Bodhidharma Left for the East? or even Herzog's Buddhist doc, which he also filmed around the Kalachakra. Blowup, if you want deep, incidentally Buddhist essaying on the roots of suffering.

This is quite a long movie, as most historical type movies tend to be. Kundun clearly has meaning for the Darli Lama and I have watched this movie for first time thirteen years after its original release, a filler in summer 2010 when there are no more good movies to watch at the moment. Watched it with my 12 year old son who turned to the net afterwards to check information about the Dar ly Lama and Tibet and also the Chinese invasion of Tibet. It is a beautiful film and the story is well told, if a little slow and tedious at times. this is in a different category of film making for Martin Scorsese and this will for me stay in the memory. A film for all ages, nothing graphically or verbally uncomfortable about this movie, it does the job of entertaining me one Sunday afternoon!

Yes,I am a Chinese, for now. the meaning of "for now" is that the day I woke up, my heart was not belong here anymore.I don't know what to say after I watched this movie, "I am sorry for all those f**king crazy people had done"? We are all criminals, We are all victims.I even don't care if Taiwan is a part of China,as it if Tibet is belong to China in history. The most important thing is,if they don't want to stay together with us ,why should we force them by violent just in the name of unity? people's life and will were so cheap?Why?I was born in Shanxi province of China, and still living in China. that means it's dangerous for me to talk about all of this. Yes, as you know, It's really dangerous here for speaking and thinking independent.It just can't breathe.I'm a collage student. as I know most of Chinese are still sleeping, they believe what the government want they to believe, they hate who the government want them to hate. I've tryed but I can't even change a little bit of the reality. they hate Jananese,Korean,even American...just as they educated and they got the information filtered by the government.Most of Chinese,they would agree to kill thousands of people in the name of "Nation",they think the nation's benefit is higher than anything else,so they will be agree to send the military to Tibet and even use nuclear weapon against Taiwan! Are they f**king out of their mind? No,this is called the mixture of communist and fascist.A friend of Korea said:"Peter,you are special...I mean...unique in the Chinese people I've seen."——that why I feel lonely here, nobody could understand me.I don't know How long I can live, but if there is only one thing I am sure, that will be: I don't love China anymore as they told I must do since I was a baby. The place with freedom,truth,justice, the place with the standards and values I agree from my heart, is my own "homeland" that I will love and guard it with my life.I will try but I don't know if I can get out of here and touch any civilized land of freedom before I die,disappear or assimilated.Sorry for the torture of reading this sh*t by my tough English.Go back to this movie, I am really sorry for what Chinese have done to Tibetan, seriously, I just can't do anything to change. Made the Buddha,his holiness be with you,Tibetans.In more three days will be the twentieth anniversary of the event of Tian'anmen square,we will never forget the students,I pray for them.Can God bless me when I'm not believe in him yet?watchzerg June 1st,2009