Life of Pi (2012) and the Journey of Spirituality

My Tibetan Buddhist name is Tsering Lhamo, my Hindi name is Savita, my Christian name is Beverly, and my Chinese name is Yuen. I am not writing this as a movie review, but from the perspective of a Buddhist-turned-Christian who practiced Yoga under a Hindu Swami and who loves to contemplate on the writings by Sufi Master Rumi. I believe that all religions lead to the Truth. If the common denominator of all religions is all-encompassing compassion and love, then Pi’s and my act of embracing all religions should not be seen as a controversial act.  

Based on the novel of the same name by Yann Martel, Life of Pi is an adventurous story centering on Pi Patel, the son of a zoo keeper who decides to move to Canada. The film starts with a novelist who approaches Pi, an immigrant from India who resides in Canada for an incredible story. Pi narrates to him the stories of his childhood in India, how his dad decides to sell all their zoo animals to North America and move the whole family to Canada, and the shipwreck in which his family dies. Detailed and vivid description of his life stranded in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat together with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger named Richard Parker is narrated. However, towards the end of the film, he offers another version of the story of his adventure on the sea to the novelist—a story without a floating carnivorous island that no one has seen, without surprises, without the orangutan that floats on a bundle of bananas and without the animals. The first story about the tiger Richard Parker and the animals is one that the insurance agents for the Japanese freighter reject as they want the "truth" and not a report that comprises things that people have never known of. In the end they accept Pi's second story which is based on conflicts and struggles of humans on the lifeboat as the "truth" for their official report.

I especially enjoyed the beginning and ending of Life of Pi where the notions of "God" and "faith" were presented and questioned. Pi is raised a Hindu but is introduced to Christianity and Islam as a teenager. He decides to believe in all the three religions, and yet not without any doubt. He says to the writer, "Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested". As in Buddhism, the Buddha said to his disciples, "Do not believe what I say simply out of respect for me. Discover from your own lives the truth of what I am teaching you". Buddhism teaches that one should explore, test and examine all teachings delivered by the Buddha, and one should not accept all teachings blindly without doubt.  However, does having doubt equate to not having faith? 

Can faith coexist with doubt? To me, the answer is yes. Without doubt, I would not embark on the path of spirituality. Doubts occur, followed by the need to search for answers, which leads to a search of religion(s) and way of life. With doubt, faith arises when we have the answers or when we have glimpses of truth. It is when one's doubts are cleared that the faith gets stronger. However, in my view, one should not stick to one way of understanding the mystery of religion. If one only relies on logical thinking to prove a religion or the existence of "God", that is limited. There are affective and even mysterious ways that can aid one in the understanding of a religion. While Pi's dad advises him that "Believing in everything is the same as believing in nothing", his mother counters this rationale with "science can teach us more about what is out there, but not about what is in here (the heart)". Logically, believing in diverse religions may lead one to nowhere, as one can only choose one path to reach a destination in daily life. However, it is important that one goes with what the heart tells one to do. While our inner experiences may not be proven empirically, we cannot conclude that such experiences do not exist.  An Hindu, Pi is unable to get the image of Jesus out of his mind after his first meeting with the Christ figure in a local church—"But this son (Jesus Christ), I couldn't get him out of my head". After becoming a Hindu-Christian, he encounters Islam which gives him a sense of bliss—"The sound and feel of the words of the prayers to Allah gave peace and serenity".

While religions have their doctrines and precepts for followers to adhere to, the society or the circumstances that we are in may require us to "twist" our beliefs. For instance, in the film, there is no vegetarian food served on the ship that Pi and his family are taking to Canada. Pi and his family are vegetarians and they are served with just plain rice after futile request for vegetables. A Japanese man on board tells them that he is "a happy Buddhist" who eats "rice mix with gravy" (meat gravy) as "on ship, gravy is not meat, but taste". This could be rather controversial for orthodox believers. But the story poses a question here: doctrines or survival? If a religion is to aid one to live life more meaningfully and blissfully, is there a need to stick to doctrines at the risk of one’s survival? Another scene in the film that depicts such circumstance of life is when Pi loses all his food supply (biscuits) at the sea, he has to feed himself with raw fishes in order to stay alive. At the same time, not all disciples within the same religion are followers of the same sect or tradition, as different sects or traditions within a religion could have different beliefs. We can never tell which tradition represents the "best" belief. For instance, in Thailand and Tibet, Buddhist monks are not necessarily vegetarians, while in Singapore and Malaysia, most Buddhist monks are vegetarians. Thus, though Life of Pi touches on religions, it is not religious. Ultimately, we may have to twist our beliefs or rules slightly to meet the various life situations presented to us.

At the end of the film, Pi lands on a shore and is rescued by a group of people. Pi tells the novelist about the Japanese insurance agents who refuse to believe in the story of his adventure with a tiger on a lifeboat:

Insurance Agent:

We need a simpler story for our report. One that our company can understand. A story we can all believe.

Pi:

So a story without things you've never seen before.

Insurance Agent:

That's right.

Pi:

Without surprises, without animals or islands.

Insurance Agent:

Yes. The truth. 

Novelist:
So... what did you do?

Pi:

I told them another story.

To survive through the incident of shipwreck together with a tiger on a lifeboat for 227 days at sea is an unbelievable story. To Pi, it is through the blessing of God that he manages to survive miraculously. However, it is hard for people to believe in miracles. The insurance agents represent those who do not believe in the limitless capacity of God. They choose to believe in a “human story”, a story alike soap opera presented to viewers on TV everyday. For those who believe in miracles- “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

 

 

 

Ah Boys to Men Part 1 (2012)

If you are looking for local flavored lame jokes, this movie is not for you; if you are looking for insightful stimulation, this movie is not for you too. Ah Boys to Men (Part 1) touches on the journey of a group of youngsters who are enlisted to the National Service (mandatory military service) in Singapore.  While the director Jack Neo is well known for his excellent comic timing and humorous treatment of local social phenomena, this movie does not fully explore these aspects. Nevertheless, one can still see that Neo continues to create within his forte by dealing with local stories and characters, though with a superficial treatment. Thus, if you are looking for mockeries of social issues that are similar to those portrayed in Neo's previous Money Not Enough or I Not Stupid (Part 1 and Part 2), this movie does not delve deeply into the social context too.

If I go to the McDonald's, I want a hearty fast food meal; if I go to an Italian restaurant, I am looking for refined delicacy; if I go to a hawker centre for local delights such as laksa or bak kut teh, I am expecting a rich local flavor that the food can offer. However, if I am served a bite of the Big Mac and a sip of the bak kut teh, followed by a spoonful of tiramisu to complete my meal, my palate is not fully satisfied. Ah Boys to Men is neither a comedy, nor a social commentary, nor an emotionally moving drama, just because it has not fully realized its potential in any of the above capacities. I would appreciate it more if it is "lame", and is "lame" to the fullest; or if it is socially critical; or if it is humorous, funny and filled with mockeries and local jokes. Sadly, it just comes across as a superficial portrayal of NS life, though I could see the director’s attempt at infusing a philosophical thought to conclude Ah Boys to Men Part 1- "There is war in everybody, and your enemy is yourself".

Rating: 4/10

Good to have memories. BUT- don’t trust them. ~ Thoughts and resonances after watching "Viennese Pork Chop"

Theatre Event: Viennese Pork Chop
Date & Time: 23 August 2012, 8pm

Venue: The Substation Theatre

Performers: Yap Sun Sun (Singapore), Andreas Pamperl (Austria) and Apollo Valentin Ye Yi Pamperl (Singapore and Austria)

I would not call this post a "review". While the performance was definitely a well-researched and crafted piece, I find that I will be doing injustice to it by classifying this post as a "review", as it is beyond a theatre piece that should be labeled with a grade or to be "marked" with a number (such as 9/10 or 6/10). This piece is beyond theatre though IT IS theatre.

If it is beyond theatre, then what is it to me?

It is a pulse, a beating heart, a musical note, a breath. Everything in the piece is so real and yet it is so theatrical.

The whole piece is constructed by memories. Performers Yap Sun Sun (protagonist) and Andreas Pamperl (musician and multimedia artist) created stories, multimedia images, songs and music based on their lives and the memories of their mothers (a Hakka Singaporean and a Steirisch Austrian). In short, it is an autobiographical performance which brings to life the stories of the performers and their son, as well as the stories of their mothers who never met each other but shared and enjoyed the same cuisine in each of their country-- pork. Yes, the piece does sound personal. However, from their individual memories, as an audience member, I was transported to a realm of collective memories. In that experience, it was as if we had a shared memory. The notion of shared memory in the black box space despite our diverse backgrounds was facilitated by the intimate performance setting. Audience members were seated at both sides of a long table on which Sun Sun performed. Most of the time, Andreas was at one end of the table providing multimedia projections and music to the performance. At times, he made comments and remarks as himself (a father and a son).

The intimacy of the setting in which audience members were positioned around a long dining table reminded me of Theatre Master Jerzy Grotowski's Dr Faustus (1963). The intimacy of the setting allowed the audience members to be closely linked to each other, not just physically but psychologically and emotionally in a collective manner. At the long table, though I did not know the other audience members, I felt that I was part of a large family. The sense of familial intimacy was heightened when the aromatic smell emitted from the pork chop filled the theatre, and when we were served with drinks and small slices of pork chop (we were each given a wooden food picker before the performance). As a big "family", stories of the actors and their mothers were narrated to us. Somehow, their stories became part of our own stories. I could identify with various issues presented by the performers-- how Chinese are being viewed as "dangerous" or second-class citizens in Europe (as I stayed in Italy for a year); the relationship between a mother and a child; and how I have been haunted by my own memories in the forms of dreams, desires and recollections.

Several humorous moments made me laugh and yet moved me to tears and resonated deeply in me. For instance, the exaggeration of the taste of Singaporean foods in Sun Sun's memories when she was in Vienna was humorous and at the same time reflected how we tend to amplify various sensations in our memories. Singaporean foods such as Mee Rebus, chilli crabs and chicken rice were all magnified in her memories when she was away from Singapore. However, when she is back in Singapore, these dishes do not taste as nice as what she had in her memories. While Sun Sun was in her monologue expressing her desire for Singaporean foods when she was in Vienna, Andreas threw in a highly meaningful and humorous statement- "You can have your memories, but don't trust them". Yes, memories are always larger than life. We tend to add in more imagination to our memories. Memories are beyond factual descriptions of life. Memories include our longings, dreams, desires and nostalgia. Dark humour was also seen in the scene where Sun Sun narrated about Andreas' experience of accidents in his family with exaggeration. This episode of story ended with audience's participation in the chanting of "so much blood" together with the performers. Ironically, audience members were holding the piece of pork chop for consumption while chanting "so much blood". I interpreted the pork chop (a dead animal) as "blood" in our hands.

Other moments that touched me was Sun Sun's search for the meaning of "home" and her search for one "happy moment" that she had shared with her mother. As an immigrant in Vienna, Sun Sun questioned the notion of "home" to her. Where is her home? Is it where she grew up? Is it where she lives now? Is it where her family is? Which part of her family? Or -- is it the mother's womb? When Sun Sun was back in Singapore after years of being away from her mother, she realized that the mother with dementia has no longer recognized her. She was trying to look for a happy memory that she had with her mother so that she could help her mother to recall something. And yet, she could not find any. Then she realized that the "happiest moment" that she has with her mother existed in "present". She rebuilt her memories with her mother in "present". The happiest memory that she has with her mother was the moment she held onto her hands for a long time after all futile search for a happy moment between them. Through her excellent acting and with her versatile way of handling different genres of songs—from popular songs to folk songs, Sun Sun managed to bring us along on her search journey in a manner that moved us emotionally.

While Sun Sun and Andreas were the main performers in the piece, their 10 years old son Apollo was involved in the performance too, as the chef of Viennese Pork Chop in the mini cooking show within the piece. Apollo's role in the piece though small, was highly commendable. He was attentive to the development of plot in theatre and was responsive to every movement and expression emanated from both the performers and the audience. He executed every moment of his action with precision and natural aliveness. At the scene where he was tapping the meat, the rhythmic sounds of tapping added to the musicality of the piece when the sounds fused in together with the theatrical music. Andreas has also made good use of different multimedia and live music to create this space of collective memory for both the performers and the audience.

Overall, I laughed and I teared in Viennese Pork Chop, which is to me humorous and sad at the same time. It was a black comedy with 4-D experience to me. My five senses, as well as my conscious and subconscious minds were engaged in the performance. The performers have excellent sense of managing rhythm within each individual action as well as in the development of the plot. There is no one boring moment in the piece, maybe because I was busy during the performance too. I was busy with connecting and disconnecting with memories that were being provoked by the piece. Some of them were pleasant, some were not. Some of them appeared by surprise to me, just like this blog post. This post itself is a surprise to me too, as I did not plan to write a post on this performance as I entered the theatre.