Tenzo

Ok maybe the note of 10 is too much, i merely reacted to the awfully low note that movie got. It's a good movie ! It's also an advertising movie for the "zen" monks in Japan (the movie was produced partly by the syndicate of young zen monks, and created on their request). It's slow, but the zen practice has kind of a love for that slowness, so the slowness is on point. It is a blend of documentary parts and fiction parts, it's hard to tell what is the fiction and what is the documentary, since most of the actors play the role they have in real life (like the elder lady monk who is illuminating, and the dialogue with the young monk was real, it's dialogue times she does daily with monks, that time it was just shot, other than that it was day-to-day life for them). It gives some rare and interesting insight on what life means for a zen monk in contemporary japan, and especially after the Fukushima events. It's beautifully shot. However, there is not much more than that. That's enough to make a good movie ; not fast paced or anything, but contemplative and enlightening piece of art, makes you think about a lot of stuff, if you are so inclined.

Documentaries are usually not my cup of tea. And the story of a man who was a monk during four years and who cooks today according to the allergies of his entourage, including his son, that's definitely not thrilling. I had forgotten my pillow. Therefore, I left the movie theater after 20 minutes. Sorry...