Little Buddha

In many ways Little Buddha is a companion piece to Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. A beautiful travelogue and history lesson unfolds in the two parts of this film: a historical text of Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves) and the contemporary quest of Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng), who believes he has found the reincarnation of his former teacher in a Seattle child. The ancient, magical tales sweep away the blasé contemporary action. Ruocheng's presence drives the story of discovery as the child learns about the teachings of Buddhism. A visual feast that will dazzle both young and old. In fact, were it not a religious icon, the youngsters might want Siddhartha dolls after viewing his magical on-screen adventures. Beautiful cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. --Doug Thomas

Finally, i managed to lay my hands on a copy of this film! It was a number of years ago when i first read about this picture. Since then, i have been asking around the local shops if they have a copy of this dvd. Apparently being a pretty old film, released in 1993 and coupled with the fact that this is not a mainstream film, i couldn't find it despite trying numerous places. Even so, i kept a lookout for the film whenever i go into a dvd shop.

Sunday was my lucky day - on the way home, i dropped into Gramophone (Cathay) after my classes. Didn't really have anything in mind but just ahead to browse around for awhile (since its on the way) and see if i might chance on a lucky find and boy did i get lucky!

What should i say about this film? Stunning, beautiful, breathtaking, emotions and thoughts provoking, magical, simplistic? Apologies for the limited vocab but i have really no idea how best to describe this film except that it really connects. All i can say, its really in a class of its own. =) Haha, on a note, Keanu Reeves sounds really trying with that indian accent, dubbing might have been a better option.