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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Buddhist Studies

Contemplative Absence: Sacred Experience In Abbas Kiarostami’S The Wind Will Carry Us And The Aesthetics Of Slow Cinema, Hessam Abedini Apr 2026

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 Oct 2025

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 Mar 2025

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 Oct 2024

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 Oct 2024

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 Jan 2024

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 Jan 2023

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 Apr 2022

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 Apr 2022

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 Mar 2020

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 Apr 2019

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.


Zen Noir Vis-À-Vis Myers-Briggs Personality Typology: Semiotic Multivalency As Grounds For Dialog, Edward J. Godfrey Oct 2016

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 …