When do worldly thieves become enlightened saints? When their gang name gets dramatically mistranslated into Chinese (which says ’11...

Interesting line from Pacino’s cop character in ‘Heat’. If we are nothing other than our shifting tendencies, may we aspire for Buddhahood, and align all our other aspirations accordingly. This is what mindfulness of Buddha is in essence too. 念佛是因，成佛是果。Mindfulness of...

A screenshot from ‘Okja’! ‘Translations are sacred.’ A line I agree entirely with due to sutra translation work. To know its significance in the context of the movie, catch...

Danny Rand of ‘Iron Fist’ sharing a Zen saying (in episode 1), so he claims. The closest Chinese equivalent I can think of is by 僧璨大师 (Great Master Sengcan) in his《信心銘》(Faith In Mind) – ‘至道无难，唯嫌拣择。但莫憎爱，洞然明白。 ‘ (The supreme path is without difficulties, only...

Weak twisted reasoning in a liner in ‘The Magnificent Seven (2016)’, when the robber baron said of those he bullied and killed – ‘If God didn’t want them sheared, he wouldn’t have made them sheep.’ Yes, it is the logic of delusional self-justifying...

It is a rule, as if, in horror movies and stories, that no matter how terrified the protagonists are, of whatever greater terrors possibly lurking in the dark, the sensible ones will pluck up their courage, hopefully prepared, to seek them out, to face and conquer their demons. The...

Translation: ‘Persistence does not definitely lead to success. Giving up definitely leads to failure.’ But of course, never persist to accomplish the worthless or it would be a failure even if you succeed! And some things are impossible to accomplish, though still worthy to do our...

From ‘Mockingjay Part 2’, Plutarch Heavensbee’s letter to Katniss says, ‘The war is over. We’ll enter that sweet period where everyone agrees not to repeat the recent horrors. Of course, we’re fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a gift for...

From ‘The Lady In The Van’… Alan: Shouldn’t you say sorry? Miss Shepherd: I’ve no time for sorry. Sorry is for God. Yet, Shepherd should had apologised to Alan for wrong done to him. Another opposite mistake is to thank God for humans’ help. What irony that many who...

Screenshot from the movie ‘军中乐园’ (Paradise In Service). It’s a scene of a kid being a Peeping Tom, grinning at some ladies washing up, while being scolded by them! The three subtitled words were pronounced as the infamous ‘SiGiNa’ in Hokkien, a term I use frequently and...