Abstract
Māra, the prime adversary of the Buddha and multifaceted Buddhist symbol of evil, has attracted academic discussion on his significance as presented in Buddhist literature, art, and popular culture (e.g., Boyd 1975; Patricia Karetzky 1982; Nichols 2019). While the recent scholarship demonstrates this demonic figure’s complexity and its development, Buddhist film remains an underexplored medium to consider contemporary reinterpretations of this villain, with a few exceptions. Through investigating how Buddhist film reflect and adapt the longstanding teaching on Māra, this paper shows the alignment and differences between film and texts. I examine Māra and his retinue through six international works. The first three are: Hark Tsui’s 1993 Green Snake (Cantonese), Pan Nalin’s 2001 Samsara (Tibetan), and Kim Ki-duk’s 2003 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . .and Spring (Korean). I argue that Green Snake and Samsara challenge the negative depiction of Māra’s daughters, who distract and obstruct men’s pursuit of enlightenment as portrayed in Kim Ki-duk’s work and Buddhist texts. The other three films examined are: Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1993 Little Buddha (English), Doris Dörrie’s 1999 Enlightenment Guaranteed (German), and Johnnie To’s and Ka-Fai Wai’s 2003 Running on Karma (Cantonese). This paper identifies the characters who directly and indirectly represent Māra in these films. I then analyze how the conflict with those characters allude to Māra as personal psychological impediments that a Buddhist practitioner must overcome during their spiritual journey. This analysis contends that Māra’s multivalent forms in cinema show how films reimagine this ancient Buddhist figure and reflect Buddhist philosophy.
Presenters
Gloria I Ling ChienAssociate Professor, Religious Studies, Gonzaga University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
BUDDHISM, BUDDHIST FILM, MARA
