THE CUP (PHORPA)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten Fine Line Features/Palm Pictures Director: Khyentse Norbu Writer: Khyentse Norbu Cast: Orgyen Tobgyal, Jamyang Lodro, Neten Chokling, Kunzang Nyima, Lama Chonjor, Godu Lama
We all know by now--from the movies if from nowhere else- -that priests, ministers and rabbis can be as human as the rest of us. We're not that surprised to find highly religious people interested in sports. In the intriguing documentary by Aviva Kempner released this year, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg," we learn that the great baseball player's rabbi encouraged him to play an important game on the Jewish New Year, the second-holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The cantor even interrupted his singing at the synagogue to inquire how Greenberg was doing. The rabbi and the cantor were modern adults living in the New York City of the 1930s and 1940s. Would you expect Buddhist monks, the fellas who live in secluded areas in the Himalayan mountains, to be human as well?
Here's a movie that insists they are. In Khyentse Norbu's film "The Cup," the sports-addicted monastics in question, though, are Buddhist monks from Tibet who, having fled from the hated Chinese regime in that province, took up residence in a monastery in Northern India, praying for the day they can return to a Tibet free from Chinese rule. "The Cup" is a slight film, hardly the sort of work that you'd expect to be nominated by its country of origin for Oscar consideration, but this is exactly what has happened as the 38-year-old Bhutanese director, who is himself a high ranking lama in the Buddhist faith, convinced his little nation to enter the competition for the very first time. The movie premiered last May at the Cannes Film Festival and will officially open in the U.S. in January 2000 after a screening at the Sundance festival in Utah.
With Khyentse Norbu at the helm, "The Cup," which is based on a true story, is at base a one-joke comedy which becomes repetitive even at its modest 93 minutes. If this were a Hollywood production it would be considered naive indeed, barely fit for pre-prime time TV. Consider, though, that it involves non-professional actors--actual monks residing in Northern India who were handed their lines on a day-by- day basis and used their discipline and powers of concentration to pull off a believable story. The devotees of Buddhism had to get out of bed at 4 each morning to conduct their prayers so that they could be ready for Norbu's camera during the remainder of the day.
The opening scenes exist largely to acquaint a western audience with the daily routine of the monastery as the Buddhists, dressed in ocher robes, sit in the main hall to chant their litany in the Tibetan language. The story gets under way as Geko (Orgyen Tobgyal) and his boss, the abbot, or Khempo (Lama Chonjor), welcome two new young people sent out of Tibet by their mother to get a Buddhist education. We note that some of the regularly-ordained younger members, particularly the volatile Orgyen (Jamyang Lodro) and his best friend Lodo (Neten Chokling), horse around during the prayers, passing notes, making paper planes, and in one case waking up an older monk who customarily sleeps through the prayer services. Norbu's camera generally makes the point that the monastery is a microcosm of any civilian society, with one of its members, the aging Godu Lama, acting in what Geko describes as a loony manner and smelling terrible. "He stinks," is the way the second-in-command discusses the fellow with his superior.
The big question, hardly one that has the audience holding its breath, is: will the abbot allow the monastery to rent a TV and satellite dish so that sports enthusiasts in the cloistered halls can watch the championship World Cup soccer game between Brazil and France? Obviously the film's transcendent point is: can a traditional society make room for the modern world?
The second half is the more involving one as the adherents prove that the Buddhist ideal of giving up all attachment is one that they are far from ready to effect. As the happy troupe drive down the road to the local Indian with the dish- rental business, they must figure out a way to come up with the 350 rupees needed to haul the monastery's first TV up the hill. "The Cup" is a far cry from Martin Scorsese's "Kundum," which portrayed the saga of a two-year-old boy who finds out that he is the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama. Though Scorsese's 1997 film also uses nonprofessional actors who are as remarkable as Norbu's, "Kundun"'s monks are up in the clouds while Norbu's are as earthy as their present digs at the foot of the Himalayas. Jamyang Lodro is especially convincing as the vibrant 14- year-old who brings his housing unit another step toward our just-past century.
Not Rated. Running Time: 93 minutes. (C) 2000 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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