임권택 영화와 불교적 세계관 ―<만다라>와 <아제아제 바라아제>를 중심으로

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to examine Im Kwon-Taek’s cinematic representation of the Buddhist Worldview in Come, Come, Come Upward(1989) and Mandala(1980) and to analyze its specific aspects in an intimate correlation between theme and form. The central topic of this text analysis revisits the theoretical tension relationship between the Small Vehicle and the Great Vehicle characterizing Im Kwon-Taek’s Buddhist films. In the analysis of theme, form and style most existing research is focusing on Im Kwon-Taek’s Buddhist Worldview in general but insufficient in tackling deeply from a thematic and aesthetic point of view the fundamental reason why Im Kwon-Taek prefers the Great Vehicle to the Small Vehicle in matter of practice. The lack of a systematic attempt at immanent criticism in terms of cinematic text with regard to this question is, in our view, the primary cause of this phenomena. The issue of what Buddhist philosophical problem consciousness is to be overcome and what aesthetic concept of cinema is to be mobilized concurrently in the cinematic representation of the enlightenment of all sentient beings, which is the central doctrine of the Great Vehicle, has not yet been fully argued in terms of cinematic text. In the first step, textual analysis in the present paper is devoted to examining the dramatic structure deployed in Come, Come, Come Upward(1989) and Mandala(1980) from the point of view of practice and breaking the Buddhist precepts. As a matter of fact, the protagonists who do not hesitate to violate the precepts are pursuing a spiritual alternative (the Great Vehicle) to the self-benefit (自利) of practitioners focusing on observing the Buddhist rules and seeking enlightenment for their own benefit. This dialectical practice, as contrasted dramatically with other protagonists inspired by the Small Vehicle, can be interpreted as seeking in a human manner the possibility of the benefit of others. The next step of the textual analysis is focusing on the self-reflective, slow movement of all-embracing practice(萬行) manifested by Beopun the monk in Mandala(1980) in terms of the cinematic expression of the theoretical tension relationship inherent to meditation on voidness(空觀) in the Great Vehicle. Although the meditation on voidness in the Great Vehicle is not hereby theoretically grounded at all, emptiness of self(我空) can be considered to be represented convincingly to a certain extent through the detours of cinematic aesthetics. The final step of the textual analysis is making an attempt at the critical analysis of Come, Come, Come Upward(1989) in terms of the spiritual growth of Sun Nyo from the point of view of the Great Vehicle. As seen from the point of view of the composition of character and event, Sun Nyo the protagonist seems to be a character embodying the awakening(覺) promoted by the Great Vehicle, but her spiritual practice turns out to be void and empty, at least, from the standpoint of the Buddhist Worldview if we make an attempt at immanent criticism taking into consideration basic doctrines of the Great Vehicle.