Little Buddha [Blu-ray]

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci’s English-language feature is about the prince Siddhartha of ancient India, which goes parallel to the narrative of the search for a Buddhist monk’s reincarnation in the metropolis of Seattle. The story might seem improbable at several points. Well, as Lama Norbu’s (Ying Ruocheng) determination to search remains intact, I gradually got hooked onto his and young Jesse’s (Alex Wiesendanger) journey. Prince Siddhartha’s life is narrated parallelly, while Jesse reads an illustrated book called The Little Buddha, gifted to him by Lama Norbu.

Prince Siddhartha realizes that enlightenment could come from choosing the Middle Path, between the extreme renouncement of everything and a slight meditative mind. That could be having a bowl of rice along with a stranger at the banks of a river, as Prince Siddhartha, after having this self-realization, tries to convince the other supposedly sages, in the film.

Keanu Reeves is mainly unrecognizable as the young prince Siddhartha, with ignorance to adore to and eventually enlightenment to ponder upon. Supported with a pleasing background score which likely highlights an ancient Indian atmosphere.

I noticed that The Little Buddha’s scenes involving the present-day Seattle included a blue colour-tint throughout. While scenes that of in ancient India were that in yellowish – a warm colour scheme. Which perhaps helped the narrative in starkly distinguishing the two different time periods.