Enlightenment Guaranteed

If you want to see a little of the real Japan then watch this movie rather than "Lost in Translation" (which would have been better if it was filmed in New York so the director knew what she was talking about). Yes, it is a bit slow in some parts but anyone who has been on a self-finding journey will relate, and laugh even more at the funny situations they get into. Germans and Japanese have a lot in common so that makes the misunderstandings real rather than the usual "foreigners in Japan trying to make the Japanese seem like savage aliens".

In this time of reality TV and home-movies being used on various TV shows, the hand-held camera shots are very real. Also interesting is that the characters names are the actors real names so it adds to the effect.

Loved this movie, can't find a copy of it at this point. Rented it on VHS way back. But I'd love to see it again. A heartfelt movie, a beautiful glimpse of zen life in/ and japan, a movie about brotherhood, a movie about being human. wish i could get my brother to watch it with me! -rm

This movie is really quite a feast. It shows two German brothers on a trip to Japan to visit a Zen monastery. Both brothers face personal questions: one has just been left by his wife, and the other, well, that comes too late in the film for me to discuss here.

Upon arriving in Tokyo, they settle in a comfortable hotel and go out for a night on the town. Problem: where is the hotel? At first this seems comical, but it quickly becomes a serious crisis.

They sleep in cardboard boxes on the street.

The brothers' ability to deal with these problems and their other problems are examined in the light of the daily mundane tasks they take upon themselves when they arrive at the monastery.

The movie handles religion very well. It shows the value of their meditation without getting overly preachy. It shows the brothers, especially Uwe, the one whose wife left him, trying very hard to find a meaning in what they do.

The movie is about people and the deep problems people have. Some viewers might find this boring, but I found it compelling. There is no one thing I can point to, but the whole feel of the movie and the characters seemed right.

"To live is to suffer," says brother Gustav, blissfully. "Buddha's first noble truth."

Enlightenment Guaranteed, a German Zen comedy is an amazing film that succeeds on several levels: as an insight into Buddhist philosophy and practice, as the maturing process of two brothers, and as a look at the hectic world of Tokyo, Japan. I won't guarantee you'll be enlightened but I'm sure you'll be entertained.

Shot with digital video, the film revolves around two brothers, Gustav, (Gustav Peter Wöhler), a single Feng Shui consultant, and Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht), a salesman whose wife and children have just left him. After his brother's marital breakup, Gustav reluctantly takes Uwe with him to the Sojiji Soin Father Temple (a Zen monastery) in Monzen, outside of Tokyo.

Their adventures in Tokyo are funny and touching. One time they get lost and cannot find their way back to their hotel. Another time they run out of money and are bilked by a singing ATM machine in a hilarious sequence. Finally, they end up sleeping in cardboard boxes, then in a tent next to a railroad train. The two are thoroughly spent when they finally arrive at Monzen. There is a stunning contrast between the frenetic pace of Tokyo and the serene setting of the monastery.

The brothers have to get used to getting up at 4:30 A.M., taking cold baths, running cleaning rags across the floor and the elaborate unwrapping of eating utensils. Roles are reversed to a certain extent as Gustav buckles under pressure, while the uninitiated Uwe, merely along for the ride, proves surprisingly adaptable to the rigors of monastery life. The two brothers gradually lose "control" of their lives and learn to live in the present. As the Abbot of Monzen explains, enlightenment is not the achievement of something, but the absence of something. In Uwe's case, it might be the absence of attachment to the circumstances of his life.

Enlightenment Guaranteed is a celebration of the act of looking within ourselves to unravel the mysteries of who we really are. The clanging of the various chimes and gongs, the beating of the drums, and the meditation rituals of the Buddhist monks create an atmosphere of calm and spirituality that left me with a feeling of joy.

Enlightenment Guaranteed may seem funny at first but in fact it's very serious and explicitly Buddhist, since it involves two German brothers and their adventures in getting into and out of Japan's Monzen Buddhist monastery. Unfortunately the only format in which it has been released in North America is German VHS with English Subtitled which is somehow disappointing but the beauty of the movie almost makes you forget this little problem, The more interesting fact is that the actors actually had to live the monastery life during the shooting: for two weeks they and the crew never left the Monzen grounds!