This Transient Life
This Transient Life
7.6
Near a remote Buddhist monastery, a young man falls in love with his sister and gets her pregnant. After a monk finds out, the young man becomes an assistant to a master sculptor, only to proceed to complicate matters with his affairs.
Varun reviewedOctober 19, 2024
The cinematography in this film is off the charts, it’s really unique, seductive and dreamlike. This was a great character study following the individual Masao whose hedonistic tendencies clash with societal norms. My favourite scene was his argument with the monk on nihilism/existentialism versus Buddhism. The movie is filled with lots of transgressive uncomfortable scenes. Some of them I personally didn’t like or think was relevant, while others were really effective in dealing with the topic of taboos, rich people having a proclivity towards depravity as they live idle lives, the clash of individual vs collective desires, sexual attraction, morality and the consequences of selfish actions. The visuals of religious iconography juxtaposed with regular and salacious life moments worked really well. Definitely not a movie for everyone but I thought it was an interesting endeavour that did not delve into pulpy or exploitative territory.