Sacrilege In Entertainment?

In the first ‘Gantz’ movie (see trailer below at around 46 seconds), a Vajrakumara (Dharma Protector guardian diety), a thousand arm Guanyin Bodhisattva and a Buddha statue in a museum were revealed to be aliens in disguise, who were disturbed by the Gantz corps, leading to a bloody battle to the death. Now this might be just for creative entertainment, but an adult Buddhist friend who saw the movie did leave a little shakened… especially when she saw similar images in temples later! It’s as if the images will never be as sacred any more?

As such, I don’t think the scenes featured were appropriate – in demonising what represents the most holy. In Singapore, due to the violent scenes, the movie is rated for those above 16. But look at what happened to my friend above 16! I dread how the anti-Buddhist image scenes will affect non-Buddhists, especially those who already habitually demonise them due to ‘religious’ reasons. And surely, it won’t do free-thinkers much good either. Would anyone ‘spoof’ other religious characters to such effect on the big screen without fear of stepping on sensitive toes? Unlikely. The tolerance of Buddhists is sometimes a good thing, but sometimes it means they are easily bullied too.

In case you are wondering if the movie is worth the ticket, it’s in a sense a mix of Ghostbusters, Men In Black and The Matrix, while not being as good or original as any of them. At least, clearly not to me!

3 thoughts on “Sacrilege In Entertainment?

  1. As if the world is not disturbing enough..ah!
    need not disturb myself than am already lah!
    not everyone can self-inspire..feeling good is definitely better than feeling disturbed..amitabha!

  2. The human mind is weak. Those who do not know the dharma being always looking at superficials and formulating impressions are just the right candidates for the devil/Mara to hookwinked. All evil need to do is to come right at them with the most beautiful face, heart and verbal sophistry. If evil is indeed that clear cut. Good is good looking. Bad is ugly looking. I am sure it is definitely very easy to see evil just by looking at superficial. The Buddha and his Dharma is the only way to liberation. If by building deviant views based on the impetus of looking at a fictional character would help one ascend the higher planes of existence and not that of the lower realms, sentient beings simply dunno what they are in for when the real monsters finally revealed itself in the depths of the pitless abyss. I am always amazed by the depth and breath of Dharma teachings. Sometimes I can’t help feeling that the Buddha was beyond wat a normal human is and beyond where even the gods could not reach. Let us remember for those who seek the Buddha in form will not see him.

    Evil concealed behind a beautiful face, a pretentious good heart and verbal sophistry will always end up with double standards. The aim of evil will always be evil. No matter how it speaks, look like or even sound, it will still aim where it is supposed to hit. Demons are not outside us. It is inside us. The moment we give in to it by demonizing, we are already the demon. It’s our inner demons that we have to exorcise. Come to think of it. Since we have led countless lives and even as a demon before, nothing too surprising. Maybe you should check see what the faith of the movie director was. But no fear. This world is like what we see in The Chronicles of Narnia or even lords of the rings. There is always a nemesis for every being even though they may belong to the same class of sentient beings. It’s the path you are on that makes the difference.

  3. Of course the Buddha is beyond humans and gods. He defined himself as so in the Dona Sutta.

    Out of skilful means, the Buddhas wil manifest forms to teach, even if their essence is beyond the limitations of form.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.