Mandala (film)

Mandala is a 1981 South Korean film about Buddhist monks in Korea based on the novel of the same name by Kim Seong-dong, who spent 10 years as a Buddhist monk. This is considered by many critics to be director Im Kwon-taek's breakthrough as a cinematic artist.

Plot
A bus stops in front of a checkpoint and soldiers begin to check the passengers. Monk Ji-san is caught without proper ID, and the young monk Beop-woon follows him. Ji-san is released after chanting Buddha's name as ordered by the soldiers. z

Beop-woon meets Ji-san again while the latter drinks at a temple. Ji-san says Buddha is not found only at Buddhist temples, and Beop-woon realizes that he has achieved nothing after six years of practice. Beop-woon follows Ji-san as he sets off again. After repeatedly splitting up and reuniting again, they begin living together at a small hermitage in the mountains. Ji-san, who helps a shaman with the traditional Buddhist ritual of opening of the eyes, asks who will do the same for him, drinks alcohol, assumes a lotus position and freezes to death. Beop-woon cremates Ji-san in a ceremony and gives a Buddha statue that Ji-san had to Ok-sun, a woman the late monk could never forget. Beop-woon meets his mother, who abandoned him as a child, for the last time and embarks on the long road of suffering.

Awards

 * Best Director, 20th Grand Bell Awards (South Korea)
 * Grand Prix Hawaii Film Festival