Review of Kundun (1997) by Chris W — 14 Nov 2012

I think this movie was Great! The plot summary of this movie: The Tibetans refer to their Dalai Lama are "Kundun". The name Kundun means "The Presence". In the beginning of the movie, a two year old boy was visited at his home by a man named Reting Rinpoche and seachers of the lama.

Reting gives the boy a variety of tests to confirm his identity as the reborn Buddha of Compassion. When the child passed the test they took him and his family to the Potala Palace in Lhasa. There is lives being trained for the day he becomes of age to be installed as the Dalai Lama.

Over a period of time the boy started to become homesick and frightend by everything going on around him. It was Reting who calmed him by telling him the story of the first Dalai Lama. When Reting was imprisioned and dies, the boy shocks everyone by stepping up and taking more action in their government and as their religious leader.

When he reached the age of fourteen, the Chinese invaded Tibet and he was forced into a weak coalition government. In the end he was left to stand alone. He continued to refuse to sacrifice his Buddhist principles and ideals of non-violence.

Kundun relates to world religions because it features Buddhism, and shows the struggles and faithfulness to the religion. There have been many religions judged and torn apart. My thought is you may be able to take away the location of where that religion practices their beliefs, but the true believers will keep believing and not fault on their beliefs.

Just about every religion has been through trial and error, but the ones that are still around today have stood strong and conquered their "enemies". This movie shows hoe dedication of a religion, whether it be Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.

, can make all the difference.