The plot : The manager and cook at a doriyaki shop (doriyaki = two pancakes with a filling between them) seems stuck in a rut, trapped by debt. A kindly old woman shows up with a homemade bean recipe that will surely boost sales. A young student whose closest friend is a canary finds refuge at the shop with the strange woman as a surrogate mother. The woman will offer them both a new way to look at life.
This film is like a cherry blossom, small, simple, delicate, gorgeous, uplifting.
I love discovering Buddhist movies– they’re a little tricky to find. So here’s my list if you are interested. Please let me know if you have some to recommend as well!
I love this movie, but it isn’t for everyone. This is not a movie you watch for plot–the plot is illusive. It got fairly awful reviews, despite winning several indie movie awards. It has jarring music and it seems to be longer than necessary.
The premise: a detective is investigating a death at a temple…but really, it is Everyman investigating the meaning of life. He tries to analyze it but gets confused. Message: left brain vs. right brain, logic vs. instinct… you can’t understand the essence of life by studying it like a math problem. You have to experience it. I love this movie even though I hate the music. Why? IF you have a basic understanding of Zen Buddhism, this movie is funny and explains the essence of Zen well.
Actor Kim Chan who plays the wise old monk had me convinced the studio had hired a real monk. He’s hilarious and delightful. This movie is rich and funny, sad, weird and wonderful–about life and death and being in the moment… it is one that I need to watch again every once in a while.
Zen Noir gets FIVE MONKEYS from me for its ambitious and daring approach to explaining zen. Is it the best movie I’ve ever seen? No, but it sure lingers and you can’t say, “Oh yeah, it’s like… I don’t think there’s anything quite like it.
I have to mention this movie because it is, hands down, the simplest and yet oddest movie I’ve ever seen. This Taiwanese film is listed as a comedy and a drama. I rented it back when we had movie rental places; I had selected it because it was described as a “valentine for movie lovers”.
It also won a bunch of awards and got a great review in the New Yorker:
The plot, if you can call it that, is that it is the last night before a Chinese movie theatre closes down. It is showing an old kung fun movie. There are a handful of patrons in the seats. Some may be ghosts.
That’s it!
There is more action on the screen than in the theatre. There are exactly 14 words spoken in the entire film. The biggest action sequence is watching the ticket taker with a bad limp, walk up the stairs to give a sticky bun to the projectionist. It is obvious that she does this with great care and love and significant effort–all lost on the projectionist who barely notices her. She then walks back the way she came.
90 some odd minutes of film, folks, and I’ve just told you all you need to know.
And yet, this movie won awards… so I must not have received the valentine… For me, this movie is like watching paint dry…and perhaps that is its essence… the final moments of a theatre in its death throws…
If you have time to kill and are curious, this movie is oddly memorable for being so very slow and uneventful… perhaps you’ll love it. If you do get it, and do enjoy it, please let me know why!!
I really have no idea how to rate this film. I am quite sure that I just don’t get it as others obviously rave about it. Perhaps I’ll watch it again in ten years and see how it goes. I may rave then, too. I’ll give it three for totally bucking the norm, having virtually no dialog or plot, it is all symbolic and whatever you bring to it. I’m going to call this a Buddhist as we are ever present in the moment, with NOWHERE to go, it’s just the experience.
The plot : The manager and cook at a doriyaki shop (doriyaki = two pancakes with a filling between them) seems stuck in a rut, trapped by debt. A kindly old woman shows up with a homemade bean recipe that will surely boost sales. A young student whose closest friend is a canary finds refuge at the shop with the strange woman as a surrogate mother. The woman will offer them both a new way to look at life. 
Haint's Retreat 