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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Contemplative Absence: Sacred Experience In Abbas Kiarostami’S The Wind Will Carry Us And The Aesthetics Of Slow Cinema, Hessam Abedini
Contemplative Absence: Sacred Experience In Abbas Kiarostami’S The Wind Will Carry Us And The Aesthetics Of Slow Cinema, Hessam Abedini
Journal of Religion & Film
This article examines how Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) creates sacred experience through systematic absence within contemporary slow cinema aesthetics. While previous scholarship has focused on religious content in spiritual cinema, this analysis demonstrates how formal techniques—particularly strategic concealment and extended duration—generate contemplative states without explicit religious references. Drawing on Paul Schrader’s transcendental style theory and recent slow cinema scholarship, the article traces how Kiarostami adapts Persian poetic traditions, particularly concepts of pardeh (veiling) and the interplay between bāṭin (hidden) and ẓāhir (manifest), to create meaning through what remains unseen. The dying woman who never appears, the …
Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy Through Buddhism, Teng-Kuan Ng
Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy Through Buddhism, Teng-Kuan Ng
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a book review of Victor Fan, Cinema Illuminating Reality: Media Philosophy through Buddhism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2022)
Mola: A Tibetan Tale Of Love And Loss, Dereck Daschke
Mola: A Tibetan Tale Of Love And Loss, Dereck Daschke
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Mola: A Tibetan Tale of Love and Loss (2025), dir. Martin and Yangzom Brauen.
The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon: A Buddhist Reimagination Of The Classic Tale Of Zhou Chu, Henry C.H. Shiu
The Pig, The Snake And The Pigeon: A Buddhist Reimagination Of The Classic Tale Of Zhou Chu, Henry C.H. Shiu
Journal of Religion & Film
This article examines the Buddhist inspirations underlying the contemporary reinterpretation of the classic, Zhou Chu Chu Sanhai (Zhou Chu Eliminates the Three Scourges) in the Taiwanese film entitled The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon. Beyond the obvious reinterpretation of the “three scourges” in the original tale as the “three poisons” of greed, hatred, and delusion in the film, one also finds a deeper connection with the notion of “skillful means” (upāya-kauśalya) and the Parable of the Burning House in the Lotus Sūtra as well as the tension between established religious beliefs and new religious …
Zeami's Buddhism And Noh In Kurosawa's Ikiru, Ronald S. Green
Zeami's Buddhism And Noh In Kurosawa's Ikiru, Ronald S. Green
Journal of Religion & Film
This paper explores the influences of Noh drama theorist Zeami Motokiyo on Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film Ikiru. While Kurosawa's adaptations of traditional Japanese arts are well documented, this study uniquely demonstrates how specific Noh aesthetics shaped this film. It analyzes how Kurosawa's direction of actor Takashi Shimura embodies Zeami's aesthetic principles of awareness of impermanence (mujō), profound mystery (yūgen), and no-mind (mushin), which are performative expressions of Buddhist philosophies. Kurosawa employs four methods developed by Zeami: the use of masks, sparseness in settings and costumes, singing, and the application of an …
Agent Of Happiness, John C. Lyden
Agent Of Happiness, John C. Lyden
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Agent of Happiness (2024), directed by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó.
Bad Behaviour, Christopher R. Deacy
Bad Behaviour, Christopher R. Deacy
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Bad Behaviour (2023), directed by Alice Englert.
Turning Red, Micah Dunwoody
Turning Red, Micah Dunwoody
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Turning Red (2022) directed by Domee Shi.
Midwives, Sheila J. Nayar
Midwives, Sheila J. Nayar
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Midwives (2022), directed by Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing.
The Moving Image And The Time Of Prophecy: Trauma And Precognition In L. Von Trier’S Melancholia (2011) And D. Villeneuve’S Arrival (2016), Luca Zanchi
Journal of Religion & Film
Both the deferred recurrence of post-traumatic symptoms and the foresight granted by prophetic vision bring about a disruption of temporality and generate a chronological discontinuity which is often formally rendered as narrative discontinuity. This similarity produces an interpretive ambiguity that is central to the films, Melancholia (2011) by Von Trier and Arrival (2016) by Denis Villeneuve. Both movies begin by hinting at the post-traumatic origin of visions and then gradually shift towards a prophetic explanation. In addressing these two case studies, this article approaches prophecy and its temporality from a narratological perspective, integrating the critical parameters of trauma-theory with the …
Seeing Like The Buddha: Enlightenment Through Film, Skyler Osburn
Seeing Like The Buddha: Enlightenment Through Film, Skyler Osburn
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a book review of Francisca Cho's Seeing Like the Buddha: Enlightenment through Film.
Description, Prescription, And Value In The Study Of Religion, Bharat Ranganathan
Description, Prescription, And Value In The Study Of Religion, Bharat Ranganathan
Religion Faculty Publications
The study of religion is commonly divided into two sides. On the one side is the descriptive approach, including social scientific and historical scholars who seek to account for religion as it has been practiced. On the other side is the prescriptive approach, including religious ethicists, philosophers of religion, and theologians who seek to evaluate and prescribe religious practices and beliefs. But is this divide desirable or even tenable? Some scholars believe so, holding that the proper aim of religious studies ought to be delimited to the analysis and description of religious phenomena. Such a view, however, excludes those who …
Zen Noir Vis-À-Vis Myers-Briggs Personality Typology: Semiotic Multivalency As Grounds For Dialog, Edward J. Godfrey
Zen Noir Vis-À-Vis Myers-Briggs Personality Typology: Semiotic Multivalency As Grounds For Dialog, Edward J. Godfrey
Journal of Religion & Film
Marc Rosenbush’s film, Zen Noir (2004) is at first glance a Buddhist film wherein a troubled detective finds himself at a Zen temple with a murder to solve. But upon further investigation, it becomes evident that the film can also be understood in terms of Myers-Briggs personality typology, which is an extension of the personology and depth psychology of C.G. Jung. This suggests a multivalency which allows the imagery of the film to be interpreted in two different ways; as both suggesting Zen enlightenment and Jungian individuation. To assist with this comparison, this paper introduces the Ten Ox-Herding Paintings of …
Shinto And Buddhist Metaphors In Departures, Yoshiko Okuyama
Shinto And Buddhist Metaphors In Departures, Yoshiko Okuyama
Journal of Religion & Film
Cinematic language is rich in examples of religious metaphors. One Japanese film that contains religious “tropes” (figurative language) is the 2008 human drama, Departures. This paper focuses on the analysis of religious metaphors encoded in select film shots, using semiotics as the theoretical framework for film analysis. The specific metaphors discussed in the paper are the Shinto view of death as defilement and Buddhist practices associated with the metaphor of the journey to the afterlife. The purpose of this paper is to augment the previous reviews of Departures by explicating these religious signs hidden in the film.
The Emotional Lives Of Buddhist Monks In Modern Thai Film, Justin Mcdaniel
The Emotional Lives Of Buddhist Monks In Modern Thai Film, Justin Mcdaniel
Journal of Religion & Film
As Phra Tham, a forest monk from Southern Thailand, traveled by train from his monastery to his home town for his younger sister’s cremation, he is tormented by visions of Muslim passengers wanting to kill him and the site of his sister being blown apart by a terrorist bomb. He is on the verge of tears the entire trip. This early scene in Nonzee Nimibutr’s film, OK Baytong, is one of many in recent Thai films which depict Southeast Asian Buddhist monks exhibiting extreme emotional joy, anger, or distress. Other films depict monks laughing hysterically, lashing out violently, sobbing uncontrollably, …