Source

Couple days ago we used some loose Amazon credits to buy a movie that we had heard good things about. The Great Buddha+ won quite a few awards as well. I think that's about all we knew about. Wife was looking for a light movie which I guess she saw a trailer or just assumed from the name what kind of movie it would be. Let that be a lesson to all of us: don't trust the name. Or the cover. Hahaha....

"Ooh an award winning movie about the Buddha!"

I fell under the same assumption with no information other than the above. Buddha comes in because in the movie there's a workshop that had been commissioned to construct a large Buddha statue for the monks. The movie centers on the owner of the factory, who is a well known public figure with a rather promiscuous private life. So right away you see some great contrasts making it ripe for conflict.

The style of the movie is very interesting and well, as most of it is black and white with some select areas providing color. This isn't a new technique of course, but it's fun to see what is chosen for contrast.

Nicknames

Another point of interest is that the setting is in Taiwan, where you hear Taiwanese (Chinese dialect) and Mandarin. Reminds me of my visits to Taiwan to see family where they speak Taiwanese and I have no idea what they are saying.

But one of the first things you'll notice as well are how people are nicknamed. You'll meet early on a fellow called Pickle (radish) and a fellow called Belly Bottom (referring to a part of a pig?). I asked my wife about this curious habit, and she told me it's a custom for people in the poorer, rural areas to name after very common and abundant things. Contrasting with the a affluent Western names like the main character Kevin. A very obvious separation of class from names. I wonder if it's nicknames that the rich give to the poor or how that even came about.

I think they are pretty endearing though, so I asked what she would call me. "Pickle" is a good fit. Maybe because I am sour a lot. Ha!

She said at one point she used to be called A-hua, or "Crazy Flower" as a kid. I like that one. I was surprised she wasn't called "Dried Seaweed" since she loved to eat that so much as a kid.

It sounds better on the native language though. "Pickle" in Taiwanese is Tsai-bo.

To digress completely from the movie, I wonder what kind of nicknames you would give to yourself or others :)

More on the Movie

I really enjoyed the movie. Actually I wasn't really paying too much attention in the beginning and was just distracting myself with the phone, but it soon captured my attention away.

The last detail I will say about it, and you really can imagine the fun to be had, is that the movie reveals information about the scandalous lifestyle of the factory owner Kevin through the dash cam of his car. Let that also be a reminder to us all: if you are doing naughty stuff in the car, make sure there's no audio recording!

The movie has some interesting twists and turns, so I won't reveal anything further. If you watch it, let me know what you think about the movie in private :)

Nope, not a light movie at all! Exciting at times.

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