Lecture 3 - Journey to the West

Okay, welcome back to week three of Religion and Cinema. Nice to have you back. Last week we talked about Malcolm X which is of course about the real life Malcolm and his journey of becoming from a criminal into the Malcolm we know today as the revolutionary figure and that uh changed the landscape of civil rights in America.

And we talked about not only just his life story but the impulse within the movie to show this connection between religion and transformation that transformation is a working mode within the film and is a working mode within Malcolm's life and the narrative of his life and we see how religion is a integral part of this changing aspect this kind of transformative aspect in Malcolm he learned earns a deeper relationship with himself so that he can realize something true to him, something meaningful to him and realize a great purpose and serve many people as a result of that. Um so yes so and another thing that you know I was re-watching the lecture and realized that I kept using this uh the terms Malcolm the the name Malcolm interchangeably with Denzel and actually spoke to this the kind of really u interchangeable quality uh of their of their beings within the film. It's hard to take remove one from the other.

hard to remove Denzel from Malcolm and Malcolm from Denzel in this context of the film. And so we talked about the body being a vessel for the spirit and this being kind of embodied not only within the text of the film that the body of Malcolm throughout the film is the same but the spirit that lives within him changes but also from the performance from Denzel himself that we see that within him is a transformation um from being just Denzel Washington the actor into preparing his body is in a way so so that when the moment came to be on camera and perform, he could deliver something uh not only just close to Malcolm, but embodies him through and through. So, this is like something we want to kind of uh well, these were the things that we talked about for Malcolm X.

And now we're going on to Journey to the West uh by Siming Lang. uh journey to the west. Uh well, so you know the first lecture we talked closer to Christianity and Catholicism, this Abrahamic religion and then we talked about Islam, which is of course another Abrahamic religion.

And now we're going to the east and going to Buddhism. Of course, we cannot span all the religions, but I thought at least for the first three, we show some diversity. So yes, so Journey to the West um is uh the film for this week and this uh this is so that we can talk a bit about Buddhism.

Um so Journey to the West is part of Siming Lang's series called the Walker series. um which is about this monk who walks in this slow meditative gradual glacial pace and this one is one of the key entries to size Walker series inspired the title at least inspired by the 16th century Chinese literature classic of the same name and the old long overland journey that it describes journey to the West. So yes, um some of the actors here is Lee Kong who is uh one of the muses of Simang and also a uh this other man and uh accompanying him is Dennis Leavant uh Deni Levant.

uh he's a great French actor and trained mime and most noticeable for his performances in Leo Carrick's films and also Bavai by Cla Deni Saming Lang is um a figure of the Taiwanese new wave second wave of the Taiwanese new wave second generation um and is known for his meditative films that the films move at a pace that are slower than usual, slower than conventional, sometimes attributed to this idea of slow cinema. And so he moves at this slower pace, more meditative and and also very uh seldom with dialogue. Yeah.

So this is um kind of a shorter film by him and um one of his lesserk known films, but the Walker series in general is quite a famous one for him. So let's investigate this. Um so the thing about this film the kind of remarkable thing about this film is simply its pace the how slow basically everything is the he moves this monk moving within the frame moves at such a pace that is slow that is glacial that is uh unnaturally slow and we are there just to watch to witness this monk moving from one end of of the frame to the other uh stepping so slowly.

Yes. So I want to talk about how the Buddhist ideas have a relationship with some of the cinematic ideas. Uh so we will talk about attention, we will talk about time and maybe a little bit about narrative but mostly about attention and time.

So for instance uh you know we have this term paying attention to describe the relationship one has when engaging with the film the external action the spectator does when watching a movie. We hear this notion all the time that it is harder to keep your attention on something keeping your attention in this modern era of social media etc. So we we um see this notion uh put to the challenge a little bit in this film that attention is not being so we see this notion of attention being challenged here because it moves slower than than normal.

But what do we have to say about attention in this sense in simple terms we watch a movie when we watch a movie we pay attention to it to understand what is going on. we pay attention in order to watch the film. A conventional way of understanding attention in a movie is to consider that a movie takes your attention uh and a movie that takes your attention is more successful than a movie that causes your attention to drift.

So, a movie that is not so entertaining might have your attention drift away and making you more distracted and engaged. And the movie that is entertaining, it might make you lose yourself in the movie. For instance, losing track of time, losing sense of self, losing sense of where you are.

You become your attention is no longer kind of a self-conscious one, but you kind of enter the frame. You enter the world of the movie. So see this kind of a notion about attention in a film is that it takes you it captures your attention it holds your attention and so that one is not distracted thinking other thoughts or being conscious about themselves and their body or even their own problems but it's being taken away.

It's being p put p pulled to another place. The world of the movie for instance, right? Uh yes, but a movie like this is asking something different uh from your attention.

It's asking you to curb your attention's need to be satisfied so that a different faculty comes into presence. But one has to is not being constantly entertained or barrageed by images and movement and and the sensations and feelings and ideas. Instead, the movie is much more plain.

It has a more observational strategy. But also the subject of the film is this person, this monk who walks very slowly. And so, not only just slowly, but such an unnatural pace.

The way he moves is so gradual, so slow, it's hard to um it's hard to maybe pay attention to it. Yes. Because we're so used to a certain kind of pace, a certain kind of dynamism within a within a film.

So that it becomes hard to sit with the film. But this is exactly a part of the challenge that this film is presenting. It doesn't want to satisfy your attention.

In some sense, it wants to challenge your attention. It is inviting you to pay attention in a new way, in a more engaged way, a more active way. So the film can be frustrating.

Yeah. Because the in some ways the film is not giving you things to look at, but it rather presents something in a less overt way and doesn't satisfy the mind's need to be engaged constantly. Paying attention implies that there's a price to pay.

And what is this price of attention? Um, you could say that in a film that's maybe more actionbased, more kind of entertaining, you give up your agency in some sense. You become kind of like a rider on a roller coaster.

You're just sitting there in for the ride and it's happening to you. But for instance in a movie like this you have to kind of enter the frame. You have to activate your attention.

You have to become an active viewer so that you become more attentive to other things. Yes. So in Siming Nang's film our attention is not satisfied but rather has to reorient itself.

Attention is not gratified every second popping itself out of the frame to elicit our engagement. Rather, the frame operates as a on a calmness. It operates on calmness, on stillness, on a gradual pace that asks us to put down our need to be engaged and entertained to allow for another way of engaging with the movie.

We start to pay attention to what is happening outside of just the main character's actions. Our attention drifts to the surrounding environment and the miscellaneous people that populate the frame. We start to imbue meaning onto what we see.

The two characters on the right, for instance, on the bottom right, what are they talking about? The woman on the bottom left, why is she watching him? Is she moved?

Does she want to become a monk too? Uh, our sensitivity heightens and we become attentive sensitively. Our eyes move across the screen making inferences becoming attuned in a more intricate and detail oriented way.

Our attention is allowed to drift into our own thoughts, daydream, etc. without quote unquote losing the plot. We are no longer following a sequential narrative about cause and effect, action and reaction, but rather a more momentto- moment basis that isn't about the accumulation of events, but the wholeness of each moment.

So, this is kind of close to this idea of presence within Buddhism. Yes, to be present, to be here now. Um, and so I thought one thing we could do is do a quick guided meditation.

Yes. So everyone um if you don't mind we'll do quick five minute guided meditation to consider this notion of attention and presence. Okay.

Okay. So let's do a quick guided meditation. So there's many techniques for meditation.

There's counting technique, breathing technique, uh chanting technique, uh but every technique is a way for us to concentrate on this moment being present. Yes. Uh but so you know we're trying to stay present and there's this moment always where we start to drift thinking something else.

Uh and then there is a moment where we realize that ah I'm thinking something else um you know my mind is over here. Uh so in this moment of becoming aware we simply just bring ourselves back to this moment. Uh sometimes we concentrate nerve become aware and then we judge ourselves.

Oh I'm so bad at meditating. Why is it so hard for me to stay present? etc etc etc.

We let these thoughts come as they will but gently kindly let it go. Uh so these thoughts we try not to hold on to them and just simply watch them come and let them go. Same with a judgment.

So we don't have to do this part or invest in this part. We just concentrate on this moment. mind will drift, realize and come back.

Okay. So, let's try. So, please sit up straight and relax and breathe in.

Breathe out. Breathe in. You are already here.

You are already in this moment. Just be here. Breathing in.

Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out.

Just be here. If you're thinking that's okay. Just come back to this moment.

Just come back to this moment. This moment is your life. Just be here.

Breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in.

Breathing out. Just be here. Just be here.

If you're thinking that's okay. Just come back to this moment. Breathing in.

Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out.

Okay. Slowly come out. Okay.

Thank you. Is that okay? So, let's watch this scene.

with maybe this calmer state of mind. Yes. So if you watch the scene first of course probably your eyes are being drawn to the monk and we are watching this monk move very slowly.

moving at a pla pace that maybe it looks like maybe he's not even walking but we know slowly walking and then maybe you can start to look at other parts of the frame. Maybe you start to look at the water rippling and notice this kind of unnatural way that the water ends. And then looking at maybe some of the people, we see the people walking across.

We see the two people sitting on the side, the woman watching. Can we become attuned to the other people's behaviors? The woman on the bottom left is very earnestly looking, watching.

Some people are chatting and also if you notice it's maybe you realize it's a reflection. Ah, there's something strange and distorted about the image. Ah, there's panels of glass of lines going across diagonally.

Maybe. And this is a mirror. So, this movie is not trying to necessarily entertain you, but it is offering us something to look at.

Yes. Offering us a certain movement. Um, offering us many characters, uh, personalities.

Um, yeah. One thing to notice too is how the light subtly changes from warm to cool to light to darker. So another thing to consider is time and duration.

Uh the movie's run time relatively compared to other feature films most feature films uh this film is short barely reaching the run time of an hour. Yet the conventional idea about the film is that the pace is slower than usual and can feel longer than a movie that's an hour and a half long. Even a movie that's 2 hours long.

It becomes apparent in this example that the experience of the length of a film has less to do with its runtime, the actual length, but more to do with its pace. In one breath, the the monk is moving at an unnatural pace. Yes, he's walking at a norm not normal pace rather slower than normal.

And this ritual of the walking is a ritual of slowing down is to become mindful of every step, every centimeter of the foot that touches the ground. Uh so there is a kind of a parallel between the monk's gesture and then the gesture of the film that is offering us a moment to pause and slow down but not just that but to do it in a kind of unnatural way and this monk is of course not explained why he's doing this or what he's doing it for but we can kind of uh infer that it is some kind of exercise of discipline of dedication a kind exercise for him and what could he you know for instance learn from this experience when it's an internal experience he can slow down he can you know be more present and becomes much more aware of his foot of every step that he takes. uh he also is uh putting his head down and has his hands in a certain mudra and you can see that he is in some kind of a dedication towards something doing it for a purpose.

It's not just um you know a kind of whimsical exercise. There's a level of devotion within it. And so we can think of him, you know, this kind of role of the monastic who does something kind of extreme, out of the ordinary, outside of the realm of the natural world, but doing something kind of uh maybe you can say unnatural so that they can become attuned to something more than just the kind of uh reverberations of a normal life or a habitual life that they are entering some kind of different state of mind so that they can get closer to something.

And for a Christian or a Muslim or for a Jewish person, they are trying to get close to God. And in this in this practice is getting closer to yourself, getting closer to one's own relationship with their self and in turn with the world. And so we see this kind of kind of something we infer or kind of project onto the monk.

And so we can do the same for ourselves. Um this film of course is the kind of uh intention of the film is not part of how we necessarily uh see the film in the sense that the director doesn't say it within the film. But um we can imagine at least that there is a such a challenge being put to us that it does go against convention.

I think it it's aware of this and uh and as part of what the strategy of the film is is that to show this gesture of dedication of slowness of presence as a way to kind of inspire our own and not only just for our personal spiritual gain but also because of uh kind of uh recon contextualizing cinema and the possibilities of cinema. I mean this is kind of a a concern for Siming Lang and is being exemplified within this film. Yes, we can see that one notion within cinema is about time is about duration and that a movie should be for instance a certain amount of length or move at a certain amount a certain pace.

I mean this is kind of for instance in like uh what you call a more blockbuster conventional Hollywood film they have something called test screenings. So they invite an audience to come and uh watch a film and they give their opinion and part of what they are trying to see is when the audience gets bored or not, you know. So if the audience was to get bored in this section, they they go into the cutting room and try to change it.

You know, it's a kind of oversimplified version of this. But in some sense, it's trying to understand what the audience that likes and dislikes and try to cater towards their likes. But you know maybe some of you guys are very frustrated with this film for instance like oh why did the professor sign such a boring slow film but this is kind of precisely the point not that it's boring I don't necessarily find the film boring but can understand why one might feel bored but it's precisely to challenge this notion that a film is supposed to be strictly entertaining uh that a film is strictly supposed to be a certain way supposed to capture your attention in a certain way or have its relationship with time in a certain way.

And so we see that time here is being kind of bended to the will of the director's uh discipline and in some sense kind of their strict vision for challenging conventions within film. So the time is bending in this way that of course it's not even an hour long but what we are witnessing here is something very slow gradual very glacial and we become attuned to this and pace and or we resist against it but within the the the film the frame is a certain resistance to to entertain to move quickly to be hurried or rushed. It has a calmness.

It has a tranquility that is part of the method of film. And this tranquility, this space, this slowness, this presence, this idea of time is not just a challenge to you as a spiritual person, but a challenge to the medium of cinema. And so that we see that time for instance is a malleable uh object that that time is not just kind of of course set in stone on an objective plane that there is a there is a relative quality to it.

So you know the idea that a movie that's 5 minutes for instance feels like five minutes um startly uh relative and subjective idea or experience or experience of time becomes uh becomes put on full display as a relative experience. uh this film feels longer in relative to a different film that might be the same length but at a different pace. And so we see this the relativity of time that time is experienced differently uh based on who you are, where you are, what you're going through and also of course the film itself.

And this is kind of a put this concept as well. this kind of relativity that everyone's experiences are different and to impose an objective one is um is kind of a fabrication a construct uh and in this case we can see that this construct of time the way time is dealt with in film is being challenged here uh film is not just a kind of a monolith of of of time there's no kind of monolith of how to deal with time that film can deal with time however they want to and for instance this is an example could be provocative, could be combative, could be unpleasant but has the right to exist and uh and also within its existence within its kind of method can become a you know can produce a new experience that is is quite maybe helpful productive interesting to some. So that's why we're presenting this from here.

Uh so yeah, let's look at the scene from um the monk going from the top to the bottom of the frame. So I mean the kind of immediate thing we notice is the difference between his pace and the other people's pace is that he's going very slowly and the others are you know moving more quickly. And of course this this is doesn't introduce it but this is a kind of marker of the docu fiction element of the film you know the film is not just about the monk moving slowly.

It is about this monk in in a place a place where there are people and so you know we can make you know draw the illusion to the title jour journey to the west. um you know this movie takes place in France in Marseilles in France and um and the people around this monk is are French people uh but the actor is Taiwanese the religion is Buddhism from the east and and the director is also Taiwanese. So we have this east meets west situationship and and of course is an illusion to the title journey to the west which is a very kind of renowned and regarded legendary story of uh eastern tradition this great epic and so we see this kind of um relationship between east and west but not only just east and west but between the monastic and and the lay people.

Uh and so we see this for instance in the flowers of St. Francis and even a little bit in Malcolm X. I mean even though Malcolm X is not a monastic he definitely has a kind of extreme more extreme sensibility of religion and than a casual person.

And so so we see this relationship uh between them that the presence of this person moving so slowly has a kind of um you know has a kind of dynamic to it. It's not to say that there's tension or friction or something like this but there is a sort sort of dynamic that is is a count that creates some sort of dissonance actually. Yes.

that the people are maybe on their phones or maybe a children a child is kind of fascinated by the monk or they think it's funny or they think it's annoying. We see the kind of myriad of reactions to this. And so in some sense the monk elicits the human nature to come out in a certain way at their kind at the sight you know of of slowness of a of a monastic of maybe even something holy or sacrosanct.

uh we see this kind of um dissonance of people not living or sharing this lifestyle and so the presence is um making some kind of a kind of reaction like a rock in a stream. People are going around it. Maybe even some are trying to go through it.

Some are stopping to say hello. But you see that this rock is changing the gravity of the pa place. So this is a kind of interesting part of it and this is maybe you can say the role of a monastic in some ways and that their presence changes and in their sense for for the good but just the presence of them.

The fact that there are monastics nearby or the monastics exist in a tradition implies that there is an aspiration to get to that the lay person can aspire to this level of spirituality or this level of spirituality exists or there are people embodying this level of spirituality at your disposal in some sense that they are here to help us. Right? So this kind of level of hope this level of kind of a model of something.

So we can see this also imbued within the text of the film the relationship between the monastic and the real uh not the real world but the living kind of more uh worldly world. Yes. And then we can see this scene where um Denil Levant is um you know imitating the monk and of course we can imbue all sorts of meaning to their relationship.

Well, one could be that uh he's inspired. I mean we you know he is actually Daniel Levant is you know in the first shot and he looks kind of concerned or something is disturbing him in some way. um he's you know of course stoic and still like the monk but in just in a different way more disturbed and you could say that this level of devotion and maybe even tranquility or peace or whatever is more a part of the the monk character.

Yes. But in this we see that they are following each other or he is following him. Um also we see this relationship of east and west of what we say of monastic and lay person.

Um but but the film actually does plainly doesn't tell you what to think or makes really any strong illusion one way or the other. Or you know maybe he is making fun of him. We never know that the intention the intentions are high hidden a bit.

It really leaves the room for us to kind of uh contemplate, to think, to wonder, to fill in the blank between our experience and what is going on. And so this is maybe kind of one of the not benefits but one of the possibilities of the the reframing of attention here and also the reframing of time that it gives you space that the space that's given uh because it's not trying to capture you or take your attention or move at a pace where you're not thinking about it. You know without this it leaves this kind of more calmness you can say a more relaxed sense.

It could be even more agitating, but we get to fill in the space because there's so much of it. Yeah, there's so much space to be filled in. The pace is so slow.

Um, you know, your brain is working. You you want to make a conclusion. You want to make an idea.

You want to have this kind of a engagement. This more kind of prevalent prominent uh engagement. Yes.

So, so that's that scene. Yes. So, we could talk a little bit about this idea of awareness.

We spoke a little bit about this moment of being aware during meditation. So, this awareness means that we get to become aware or see seeing. And this is kind of an idea that both cinema and religion share is this uh notion of seeing that in awareness for instance it's kind of a word to describe our the presence of mind to see a larger situation outside of just your internal one but to not just like going through your internal experience but to see it you know if you you're angry you're being angry and then you become aware of it you know watching yourself being aware of it or being angry you know becoming aware of you being angry you be you're watching it you're seeing it and in some sense a film is also about seeing in this way for instance you know you don't live the life of the person in the in the film so sometimes their actions are recontextualized and can make you reflect in a larger sense sometimes I get this sense when watching a movie that oh I have to be kinder I have to be nicer and I have to be more earnest in my life because I see uh out, you know, see see outside of myself and and that being produced by the experience of watching another person struggle and and and suffer uh because of their own kind of selfish relationship with themselves.

I can see them either overcome something or see them their inability to to makes me aware of my own condition. And also cinema is also just a way of seeing that there's a rhetoric within cinema about uh learning to see. uh one of the great filmmaker Stro um talks about how um Jean Mary Stro talks about how you know I it took me 15 years to be able to see a movie really see a movie to learn how to see a movie.

So in some ways cinema is teaching us how to see just like a religion is teaching us how to see. Um see in a certain way of course but a cinema tells you the stories of people that maybe you would have never met or the stories of a time that you don't live in anymore or uh talks about a time that's incoming to talk about the tendencies anxieties live that live within the condition of of people. And same with religion helps us see our situation, see the purpose of our life, see our relationship with others.

It gives you a philosophy, a kind of morality, a perspective on it. Yes. And so to see is also a big part of both these uh traditions.

I like to make the claim. Uh yes. Okay.

So anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this week's lecture, Journey to the West. Um, yes. Enjoy the movie if you haven't seen it already.

Um, I'm sorry for those who had trouble with it, but uh I hope you guys don't mind the challenge. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.