Product Description

The physical and spiritual struggles of a Zen Buddhist master, his disciple and an orphaned boy are transformed into poetry through recurring motifs of fire, wind and water.

DVD Details: South Korea, 1989, 145 minutes, Color, Region 1, NTSC, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 or Dolby Digital 5.1 DTS, Improved subtitles in English and Korean; other Special Features: 10 minutes of previously unseen footage; newly remastered for better picture and sound quality by the director; enhanced for 16x9 widescreen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57631 in DVD
• Brand: OSCILLOSCOPE PICTURES
• Released on: 2009-09-15
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, Widescreen, NTSC, Surround Sound
• Original language: Korean
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 145 minutes

Features

• WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST? (DVD MOVIE)

Review
"Ravishingly beautiful spellbinding stunning visionary as intense an experience of being in nature as one could hope to glean from a film In gazing into the physical world with fixity, clarity and depth rarely found in the cinema, WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST? goes about as far as a film can go." - --New York Times

Review
"An extraordinary film, it will repay you with beauty, an ethical imperative and a profound humanity." - --Boston Globe

Review
"A remarkable personal film... It evokes a contemplative experience in a compelling style reminiscent of Ozu and Tarkovsky. This is an ambitious expression of dharma art -- don't miss it!" - --Tricycle Magazine

Customer Reviews

A Zen Koan
As the item itself states, the movie's title is a Koan. A Koan is a riddle given by a Zen master to his disciple for him/her to meditate on it to go beyond intellectual thinking. This movie in itself is a Koan for anyone to appreciate and reflect upon. This is not a movie about Zen practice, but actually about the truth of human suffering. I strongly recommend this movie for anyone, but especially for Zen practitioners whom I believe will appreciate the deep message contained within this wonderful film.
Gassho.

One of the best
It is just one of the best movie ever made. Mr Bae Young seems to be the Tarkowski of the Est. All is beautifull: music, photography, in a very high philosophical concpet. When I saw "Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left the Est" I didn't ask what the cinema must be, but what cinema IS. The film of Bae Young is a very possible answer.

The Best is Now Better
A while back I wrote a review about this movie as it pertained to the older, previously released DVD. When this newer version came out, I was hesitant to purchase it because, of course, I already owned a copy. However I am glad I did. The enhanced audio and visual quality of this release made the purchase worthwhile. I even enjoy the added scenes that are not in the earlier version. For what it's worth here is my previous review:
"I was thinking (first mistake!) of saying, "Top Five." Then I realized that this is more than even "Top Three (or Two)" of all the movies I have in my collection, or have ever viewed, for that matter. The real perplexity is that I don't know why, exactly, except for the fact that it is the only movie that I think about and view more than any other DVD that I have. And so that is why it stands foremost (Doctor Zhivago has now been relegated to the silver podium, at least for these reasons) above of all the other DVD's in my assorted collection. True, as some have commented here, it is not astutely a portrayal of Zen Buddhism as it might be explicated in the truest sense of its dogmas. How would you depict and encapsulate the essence of Zen through the modality of a visual, i.e., movie experience anyway? Pretty tall order, even for The Buddha, I would imagine. This movie for me, however, is a catalyst for SOME things that are related to Zen Buddhism. But overall it leaves that stage and affords me with a visual, meditative experience, be it akin to Zen Buddhism or something other (even Christianity -- for me). Needless to say, this is not a film for everyone; it is not of the "Saturday Night at the Movies" genre; it just touches me in a deep, esoteric psychological and spiritual way. Perhaps this movie is something as to what Paul Valery stated: "To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees."