Complexities and the good of 'Little Buddha'

By Sean Cole

JAKARTA (JP): Little Buddha is an extremely complex film encompassing many levels.

It is, simultaneously, an educational and entertaining tale "for the whole family;" a moralistic venture into the question of reincarnation; an exotic view of cross-cultural experience; an originally-filmed project using techniques not often seen in major-market productions.

All of these elements usually meld smoothly, and the different aspects of the story itself usually come together quite well.

However, beneath all the splendor and subtlety of Little Buddha, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, there is an, albeit thin, undercurrent of blockages, and jarring moments.

And in a film that is so dependent on its audience suspending its disbelief, anything that leaps up and betrays the illusion can be quite disturbing.

As opposed to Buddhist teachings and fables, which find complexity within simplicity, Little Buddha does the opposite.

The film is actually a counter-balance of two stories. The first, the central plot, revolves around a Buddhist Lama's search for the reincarnation of his teacher, the revered, legendary Lama Dorje.

One of the finest aspects of the film is how well its elements, on their own and with each other, fit together. The prologue to the film is an ancient Buddhist fable, telling of a high priest on the verge of sacrificing a goat.

The goat talks to the high priest, telling him that for 499 incarnations it has returned to Earth as a goat.

Then in its 500th incarnation it will return to Earth as a human being.

The goat begins to cry, and says in reply to the priest, "I am crying for you."

For 499 lives ago, the goat too was a high priest sacrificing goats to the heavens.

Finally, we are inside the monastery where the fable is being taught by a Tibetan Lama who is later to search for Lama Dorje.

We hear that the moral of the fable is "That no living creature ever be sacrificed."

Reborn in U.S.

Though one might wonder at the reaction of the audience, as the sacrificing of goats is a requirement for Saturday's Idul Adha Islamic festival, the prologue is an excellent introduction to the central theme of the film, reincarnation.

It also introduces a secondary aspect of the film, learning through fables.

The quest of Lama Norbu (Ying Roucheng) takes him to Seattle, United States, where it is rumored that Lama Dorje's spirit is residing in the body of a little boy, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger).

Here again, the levels of fable and reality fit together with ultimate precision.

Lama Norbu's guide in Seattle, Kenpo Tenzin, is the one who first suspected that Jesse is Lama Dorje's reincarnation.

Many fables describe its characters' dreams and, in fact, the presence of dreams in Little Buddha looms quite large.

Tenzin tells of a dream in which Lama Dorje visited him, leading him to the house where Jesse and his parents reside.

The cloudy and distant quality of dreams is formed from extreme lighting, angled camera work and even a slight blur at the edges of the frame.

Finally, it is here in the American northwest that the second story begins.

When Lama Norbu first meets Jesse he offers him a very fateful gift: a book telling the story of Buddha as a young lad, when his name was Siddhartha Gautama (Keanu Reeves).

For the rest of the film we mostly follow Siddhartha's gradual progress into becoming Buddha woven in and out of the story of Jesse, his parents, Lama Dorje and the monks.

Siddhartha's story continues only when it is either read or told to Jesse by his mother (Bridget Fonda) or Lama Norbu. Thus the ebb and flow of both plots co-mingle to keep the audience consumed.

In the fable sequences we are able to gauge the difference between fable and reality as much by the cinematography as anything else.

It is with these sequences that the film breaks, at last, into truly epic proportions: something, until now, only foreshadowed and promised.

There is the connection of the question of reincarnation, the ambivalence of Jesse's father Dean (Chris Isaak) on the subject, Siddhartha's awakening into the realm of pain and death and, thus, compassion and finally the question of whether or not Jesse really is a reincarnated Lama.

There even is some implication that Lama Dorje is a reincarnation of Buddha himself.

Technique

At the outset the audience swoops through the open fields and intricate monastery courtyards of Bhutan and India. From there, with Lama Norbu, we go swooping through the speeding freeways, ocean and mountain landscapes of Seattle.

In every frame of the reality sequences, the use of lighting hints at the fantastical, teaching tale, simplicity and lessons.

The light of early evening -- which can only be described as "blue-window" -- throws the scene immediately into the melancholy, contemplative mood that surrounds many of the Seattle scenes.

Casting

But if Little Buddha is not a standard major-market picture, one may ask why it has chosen a standard major-market tactic of drawing audiences.

For instance, "Why Keanu Reeves?" This is not a scourge on the performances of any of the actors. But with such an impressive story and cinematic approach, why must we be startled out of it by names and faces we know so well.

When Reeves' face first appears on the screen as Siddhartha's, the choice seems ridiculous.

His distinctively protruding nose and chin sticks out jarringly among all the Indian faces, his brown, full-body make- up seems forced and his tall, Californian body and posture, at first, don't match the setting.

When he opens his mouth, though, things get better (though, once or twice, his accent slips a bit to become cartoonish).

There are also times when Reeves's face and qualities serve the character well.

But still - why not one of the hundreds of Indian actors who could have given a much more authentic performance?

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