Tezuka Osamu no Buddha: Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku

To me, this movie completely misses its (presumed) point.

SYNOPSIS: The creators try to get the viewer feeling nearly as bad about all the suffering in the world as Siddharta/Buddha does, they failed for 2 reasons:
- rushed simplification
- the use of a lot of violence to ENTERTAIN the viewers, which (out of complete paradox) contradicts the primary purpose

Being about the life and struggles of Buddha I just expected something completely different.

Before watching it I didn't know that the producers planned it to be the start of a series of films, I also do not know the manga. My expectations were nurtured by two books:
'Siddhartha' by Hermann Hesse
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'Old Path - White Clouds' by Thích Nhất Hạnh
Even with keeping these good books and my perception of Buddha out of mind this first movie is rather weak, misconceived and filled with... yeah, fillers that add nothing to the story of Buddha.

It doesn't go into philosophical depths, which it could at least try (while being about Buddha), but maybe I can free the makers of some of their debts here because most of the philosophising sure is supossed to happen in later phases of Siddharta's life.

By the end of the movie he makes a really strong and hard decision. But the way he asks himself questions about the world and its cruelty doesn't get me convinced about his decision at all (unlike the non-movie Siddharta - which is, by the way, annoyingly called SHIddharta throughout the movie)
His unsettlement seems rushed and WAAAAY too simplified to me.

Also, I feel like the movie character Siddhartha directs his questions/views just too much on the material world (war/sickness/dying) and too less on the suffering of mind+soul.
With all the violence in this movie the producers couldn't have aimed for an 'all-family' audience and therefore its depth, its philosophising could and SHOULD be more profound.

As I said above the side-stories don't add depth or entertainment to the story. One can clearly see why the creators included them into the movie: to give us a clue about the sorrows Siddharta is feeling, but because of their simplification and stereotypy that just didn't work out at all.

The art and music is pretty solid. What you'd expect from a Tezuka adaption: strong, sometimes even a little too loud colours, not even ONE more pencil or brush stroke than necessary to depict a character and solid animation (only with lots of animals and warriors in the picture the animation was somewhat jerking).

All in all...... a HUGE bummer! (that didn't get me interested in a continuation)
5/10

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"Man does not attain all his heart’s desires for the winds do not blow as the vessels wish"
— Al-Mutanabbi

This story talks about two boys who were born in different conditions. Chapra, is an ambitious slave. While Siddhartha is an aristocrat.

The movies starts with introducing the main characters; giving the viewer an idea of ​​the characters relations to each other, and also tells us about the current setting; which is a cruel world with a never-ending war between two nations; Shudra and Kosala. Also the movie acquaint us with the four-social class system people live with; where the worst of the four were the laborers and the slaves.

Since the other characters only support the story; i'm only going to review these two main characters who serve as core of this story.

The story begins with Chapra; a slave boy who couldn't bear the cruel life of being a slave. it will start with showing us how Chapra befriended with Tatta. Chapra's journey starts after he made a selfish request from his friend Tatta to help him in becoming a Kshatriya warrior; to make a better life for himself. And in order to achieve his goal, he goes through a mutually beneficial relationship with one of the well-known Kosalan generals.

The other boy Siddhartha, was born in a royal family. He was a child growing bored of the privileged life of a prince, and forced to learn military tactics and swordsmanship by his father; in order to become his successor. But unlike his father; he despises war, hates violence, and uninterested in glory; which resulted in making him inspired to seek the answers of the purpose of life, to seek a way to end the meaningless wars.

The movie was a bit too rushed at the beginning which was weak, making some of the character's decisions feels like...robotic, non-alive.

The Art/Animation was good overrall. However, I was expecting better animations for a movie.

Sound: Music wasn't prominent, but wasn't unfitting either. Voice acting was good overral except for young Siddhartha's voice which was like somebody was just reading from a paper without feelings.

Overrall: likeable themes such as the historical setting and good depiction of social issues even though it didn't focus on them that much. The movie was very well done overrall.

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" This was the moment Siddharta first pressed his hands together in prayer. " " Siddharta. one who has accomplished his goal. " " You, who can accept the burden of the suffering of others on your own shoulders...You will find the path you must take. It was only later that he became the Buddha, also know as the enlighted one "

Movie missed point. Well this movie was something on a different level, it was breath taking and unique.

Story: Well at first glance i expected it to be movie only about Buddha and not only his past, which was quite dissapointing. They basically only showed his past and event in that era when there was a lot of slaves trafficking, people living in poverty that had to steal to survive. Also story was very confusing from the beggining to the end and it was more focused on other characters than Buddha itself, or should we call him " prince " cause that fits more in this movie, cause they only showed a small glance at the ending about him becoming Buddha and going to search for the answer.Also it was very sad story, and characters struggling through poverty and prince enjoying his life, and he never saw life behind the wealthy life until somewhere aroung middle of the movie, where he meet Migaila ( minor character ), girl that grow up in poverty.She had a lot of inpact on his view on the world and other poor peoples.

Anyway it was very confusing but interesting story that was also depressive and sad for me, but kinda dissapointing ( and when i said kinda i mean just a little bit )

Animation: Now this was very good, it was way much better than i expected it to be. You could see how they put effort in every single detail but some scenes were a little bit rushed.

Sound: Well it was good. And also outro song is really nice.

Characters: This is where i felt kinda dissapointed.

Siddharta Gauitama aka " Budhha " is good guy from royal family that doesn't really fighting and seeing other people suffer. Pretty much you can describe him as good guy from rich family that isn't looking down on other poor people or people with weak social status.He doesn't care about other peoples opinion that he shouldn't talk to poor and weak people. Also his voice acting was kinda bad if you ask me, i mean you could get guy from the street and he would do it better.

Chapra aka " Best swordman in kingdom ", " General " is the character that was getting attention most of the time.You can describe him as goodbay guy ( really don't know how to describe it, it's unique ) which grow up in a poverty and saw a lot of people dead. There wasn't really much of his feels in this movie except him showing his love for his mother and reversed.

Tatta aka " Guy with mystical power " he is the character that i didn't really get much, he was basically once time with Chapra, and then Chapra went to become general and that's when all his trails are losing. But he isn't fully without feelings, he showed anger , chillness and i don't really know what much to say about him.. sorry :P

Overall: As i statead in beggining, this movie was capable of so much and confusing story and voice acting kinda bringed it down a little bit. Anyway it's enjoyable and decent movie that can be watched.They will probably show more in sequel to this movie ( Buezuka Osamu no Buddha: Owarinaki Tabi )

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