Samsara (2001)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Pan Nalin

Writers:

Tim Baker (writer)
Pan Nalin (screenplay)

Release Date:

30 April 2002 (France)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

What is more important: satisfying one thousand desires or conquering just one...

Plot:

A spiritual love-story set in the majestic landscape of Ladakh, Himalayas. Samsara is a quest; one man's...

Plot Keywords:

Himalayas | Infidelity | Fire | Love | Buddhist

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Shawn Ku	...	Tashi
Christy Chung	...	Pema
Neelesha BaVora	...	Sujata
Lhakpa Tsering	...	Dawa
Tenzin Tashi	...	Karma
Jamayang Jinpa	...	Sonam
Sherab Sangey	...	Apo
Kelsang Tashi	...	Jamayang
Tsepak Tsangpo	...	Chen Tulku
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jampa Kalsang Tamang	...	Wedding Singer

Also Known As:

Samsara (France) (Italy)
Samsara - Geist und Leidenschaft (Germany) (DVD title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality and some nudity.

Runtime:

Germany:145 min | USA:138 min | Argentina:138 min

Country:

Italy | France | India | Germany

Language:

Tibetan | Ladakhi

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

India:A | Iceland:L | Argentina:16 | Singapore:R21 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:III | Netherlands:12 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, India

Company:

Fandango

Goofs:

Factual errors: Tashi blows up a stick of wood he is using to light butterlamps. Tibetan people don't blow on flames, since this is regarded as damaging to your health.

Quotes:

Apo: [his last letter to Tashi] I realize now that my task is not over, and so I will be returning to Samsara. I know that we shall meet again. Perhaps when we do you will be able to tell me what is more important: satisfying one thousand desires or conquering just one.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Ricordati di me (2003)

Soundtrack:

Bumblebee

Different way of interpretation of Buddism

I found this movie, a very interesting and meaningful. There were not more than 100 words went on in this movie but the picture itself, gave the viewer many things to think about. What Tashi really did was reversing the Buddha path. Buddha was the one normal human being before he realize the need to discover what life is all about, what he discovered was suffering in living one life. He tried to find the ways to settle with all the suffering, not by avoiding but realize that there are suffering and and he faced it in the noble way.

Tashi, however, live his life in the monastery, believe in something he was told to believe not something that he discovered himself. Every human has the feeling of sexual awakening at one point of time, what Tashi did was that he quit the monk-hood, partly because the guiltiness of having such feeling but at the same time desire to discovered the reality for himself. HE entered into the life and began to discover with all the truth in the world, full with desire, anger, jealously, deception etc. but at the same time he discover love, caring, warmth, and happiness. The decision he chose, for me, he was running away from suffering by going back to peace and serenity of being monastery. What he did was not totally right or totally wrong but it does suggesting something. HE is avoiding all the desire that always backfire him throughout the movie. Pema came to him and enlighten him with her thought. Enlightenment does not mean that you have to quit all the normal life and being alone in the temple to cut all the desires. Maybe what make you enlightened is the fact that you stay in life and faced the suffering in the acceptable noble ways. Maybe it is satisfy most of the need but at the same time conquer your own self.