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.

I took a change with my movie rental dollars when I grabbed ENLIGHTENMENT GAURANTEED at the video store and found it to be a delightful, low budget picture. It's a German PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMOBILES with spiritual overtones. The two main characters, who are brothers, make their way to a Japanese (Buddhist) Monastery to escape their lives and their troubles. The trip to the Monastery is great. However, once at the Monastery the film slows down too much. Too many shots of people banging drums in ritualistic bliss. Thankfully, the film soon picks up again with main characters gaining new perspectives on life. Throughout the film cemeteries, homeless people and ravens are referenced leaving the viewer to figure some things out on their own. If you like funny, semi-deep movies with no effects or explosions you may really dig this. Curiously, the actors used their real names for their characters which explians why Petra's kids look just like her.

I adored this movie; it was sweet, funny, honest, beautiful, and poetic; I was smitten. As a friend of mine (a film critic) wrote to me, "I've rarely seen anything that matches form to content in such an easy and really loving way."

"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.

Shown at the MIFF as 'The Bridge in the Rain' (why? I dunno).

I almost didn't see this film as it sounded as if it could easily have been another of those 'mundane' foreign films but no, it was excellent.

Gustav, who originally intended to go to the Tokyo monastery, is the type who gets lost in supermarkets. The other brother, Uwe, ends up going along after drowning his sorrows when his wife leaves him. Unfortunately, Uwe seems to fit right in with the strict monastery life, much to Gustav's torment! He even copes better than his brother when they get lost and separated in Tokyo. They both have personal torment and sibling rivalry which is equally engaging and funny.

The monastery is in quiet, idyll surroundings out of Tokyo. A memorable line which hits home if you live in a big city comes in the form of a saying about 'hate' and anger - but I won't give it away.

I thought that the story could have gone in any number of possible directions with equally enjoyable results.

I also think that filming this on video and using footage from the video camera in the film enhanced the realism. A very memorable film.