Review of Enlightenment Guaranteed

"Enlightenment Guaranteed" is a German movie that was directed by Doris Dörrie. The genre of this film is drama and comedy. The main characters of this movie are two German brothers, Uwe and Gustav, who spend some time in the Japanese Buddhist monastery at Monzen. Prior to this trip one of the brothers, Gustav, was actually a follower of Buddhism and originally, he wanted to visit this monastery alone. However, his brother Uwe faced serious family problem when his wife left him and took all their 4 children with her. Being upset and angry at his wife, Uwe persuaded Gustav to take him to the trip to the Buddhist monastery and that is how their story began. First of all, we can clearly identify main Buddhist notion through this movie. All of their personal problems that they face in Germany along with the hardships faced in Japan, such as getting lost and losing all belongings, shows the Buddha's teaching that life is a suffering. Gustav as a person more familiar with this religion understands this idea and tries to comfort his brother during these hard times. All of the problems that they faced actually made it possible for them to better understand the Buddhist ideas. Furthermore, one of the good features of these movie is the detailed demonstration of the life of the monastic community, the sangha. Almost half of the movie is devoted to the life in the monastery of two brothers, where we can see the daily routine of all monks. When two main characters share their fears and problems with the monk viewers also are able to see some of the Buddhist ideas. The interesting point is that the advices given by the monk can actually relate to all people, even who are not familiar with Buddhism. With regard to the production of this movie one of the interesting features is that it looks like a documentary film. All of the actors in this movie play characters with their own name, that is why viewers have a feeling that everything happened is based on the real events. In addition, the montage of the movie resembles documentary, because some of the shots added were video fragments that two brothers have recorded during this trip. Some of the fragments resembles a personal diary or sometimes an interview, that makes the movie a little bit special. However, one of the things that may disappoint viewers is the duration of the movie. It seems like the story line was extended on purpose and some of the scenes included have no meaning in the movie, that is why viewers can get bored while watching this film. In conclusion, this movie can help people, who are not familiar with Buddhism, to become acquainted with it, as this movie introduces one of the main teachings of Buddha that life is a suffering and it successfully shows the life of the sangha in the monastery. This can be counted as a first step in learning about the religion. Even though the resemblance with documentary film makes "Enlightenment Guaranteed" unique for that time, the duration of the film and the development of the story line makes this movie less interesting. I evaluate this movie as 8/10.