Zen Noir (2004)

This is simply an amazing film. Here are my thoughts on breaking down the film's themes... I've discovered that the secret to understanding this film is found by keeping the following points in mind; 1.) Everything is figurative, nothing is literal and 2.) Pay attention to notable twists in the plot and note what changes. Keeping in mind that all is figurative, I'll break down the movie's characters, keeping in mind that they are all representations of the lead character's psyche. I will then breakdown the imagery of the plot line. Detective: The detective, when the movie begins, is characterized by sadness, loneliness and isolation (duhkha or suffering), literally sitting alone in his apartment drinking. Appropriate for his profession, he is characterized by a "who dunnit?" sort of attitude, not dissimilar to the methods used in western science. This discursive method is based staunchly upon either-or logic, or dualism in general (also notably upon cause and effect). He notes this when he shows up to solve the murder that there is always a victim and always a perpetrator (subject/object and cause/effect). The progression of the movie then details how he slowly sets aside this mode of thinking. Wife: The wife symbolizes heartache and loss and may very well represent an actual experience from the detective's life. What is notable about her character is that she is never "real" and always a memory or his imagination. She is also clearly a representation of the detective's inability to emotionally engage anything that is impermanent. I contend that the majority of her character represents this inability to emotionally engage the world, rather than a specific moment from his past. This theme is made all the more obvious by the wife's grimly painted face and the Japanese character "shi," or "death" on her forehead. First Murder Victim / Dead Monk: This first monk symbolizes the detective's entry into self-exploration. I believe the imagery here is that some part of the detective's psyche that was resistant to confronting the truth about his psychological constitution died, thus he shows up at the monastery. Regardless of the role this dead monk plays, it represents that which first lures the detective into contemplation. Articulate Lotus Flowing from the Source / Ed: Ed, to me, represents the mechanical adherence to monastic life; the lip service method of cultivation. His is annoying, illusive and distracts the detective with circular conversation. I find that Ed really has no idea as to what he's doing at the monastery, but he knows for sure that he should not be caught up in the material world (like the detective), so he is only slightly "better" off. I find it evident that Ed symbolizes confusion, yet also the stubborn routine adherence to Zen protocol. His death then symbolizes the detective's overcoming of this stage where he begins to take the idea of practice seriously. Jane: Jane is a little bit tough for me as I find her character distracts from the message of Zen a bit, as I will explain later. She also seems to play two roles; one of the object of the detective's desire to re-attach to the fleeting world, but also in the role of Jung's anima. She clearly plays an external role, counter to the roll of the deceased wife of the detective, but also perhaps the role of the detective's own mortality and sensitivity. I believe that the latter may be my own reading into the film, as mentioned later. Master: The master represents the detective's Buddha nature, his non-dual, already enlightened nature. This is very evident by the way the master at first comes across as completely nonsensical. But, as the movie progresses, he becomes more engaging in proportion to the detective's willingness to let go of his previously established dualistic methodology. Their relationship becomes less and less challenged until he finally reveals the secret about the orange. When the detective accepts this element of his psyche, the master is subsumed and thus dies. Orange: The orange is a symbol of pratityasamutpada, or interdependent arising. The master reveals why he is infatuated with the orange near the end of the film where he explains how the entire universe comes together to become the orange. The master also recounts a tale where he ate the best orange of his entire life by eating it in mindfulness in the midst of overwhelming sorrow and pain. My understanding of the movie follows the notion that every time someone dies, it is actually a symbol of the detective's mind expanding, where each person who dies defines a portion of the detective's mind-body with which he at first didn't want to identify. This figurative death then is more so the death of his own artificially created boundaries. The story begins with the detective alone in his room, routinely doing his job and then presumably drinking himself to sleep, day after day. The first death symbolizes the death of this dreary lifestyle and the awakening of the motivation to spiritual cultivation. If Kakuan's ox-herding paintings had a zeroth frame where the boy would leave the city and set out for the forest, this would be it. Getting to the monastery is then planting his feet in the forest, beginning his quest. The detective is a bit confused as nothing seems to work the way he would like it. The monks are dismissive and confusing, especially when it comes to the master and his bewildering orange! This stage represents his method's usefulness and even applicability coming to an end. This is beautifully depicted by the scene in which the detective is chaotically trying to patch together his ideas on a corkboard with post-it notes and string, ultimately concluding with the detective bashing the board over his head in frustration. The next "death" is the death of Ed, who represents a person who straddles the world of the detective and the monastic life. Ed's final words are along the line of assuring the detective that the answer is far greater than the detective can even imagine. This transition is made all the more meaningful by the next scene in which the detective has his first non-absurd conversation with the master. He is demonstrating here that he can set aside his discursive thinking, at least partially, which is exactly the state that Ed had achieved. It is also important to note that Ed kills himself with the detective's gun. The following expression illuminates this symbol quite well. "Use a thorn to remove a thorn and then throw both away." The detective has a slight relapse here by trying to fit all of this new information into some sort of system, which ultimately collapses. "F*** it, I'm outta here!" he proclaims only to find himself running in and out of Scooby Doo-esque doors and encountering both chaos and madness. Apparently, there's no way out of one's mind. Coming back to the monastery, he has his first encounter with Jane. I do not think I understand their sexual union, but working on my anima theory, it may have something to do with the union of Shakti and Shiva through the awakening of Kundalini, but that may be reading way to deeply into this. Their union does mark a very pronounced intimacy here, which is why I want to say that they may be the same being, thus symbolizing both the detective's fear of external thing's impermanence as well as his own. Jane also strikes me as the detective's anima as she is point-for-point his opposite. This encounter is followed by his first attempts at meditation as well as his first cutting up of his own orange. Jane then reveals her sorrow to him and tells the detective that she is dying. Later in the film we find out that she doesn't know when she will die, which I take as clear evidence of Jane's figurative nature. Also, Jane's dual role as external and internal impermanence is expressed when the detective cries out, "I can't do this," when confronted with the possibility of becoming involved with someone who will die. In the Zen sense, the meditative journey is overtly the overcoming of the fear of one's own death, and not just the death of others. I think this self-death is not emphasized nearly enough in this film. The master then reveals the secrets of pratityasamutpada, marking the detective's awakening and likewise, the master's death. The detective is then in a far more calm state of mind and openly accepts Jane, mortality and all. Now, according to the Zen tradition, this is a terrible place to end as the movie does not address the theme of self-annihilation, or "the great death." I suspect that the film ended here primarily for the reason that self-annihilation would be pretty hard to depict onscreen and because sticking to the human element of personal relationships and romantic love seems to cater to a wider audience. Why not end with a love story? I do have to wonder if this was a deliberate concession of the filmmaker or perhaps the limitation of his own understanding of Zen? I will presume the former for now. Either way, keeping the film entirely within the realm of personal identity, in my opinion, doesn't really make this film about Zen at all as it excludes its most notable characteristic, but I'm just being critical. Overall, I love this film. It only took me about six times to get it! I still have to work on Jane though. I'm not entirely certain about her role as potential anima. Hope this helps.