Wisdom of Happiness 2025 Movie Review
The message of His Holiness was clear and heartwarming. The way the filmmakers approached it is doubtful to say the least. Most importantly, there was a non-stop barrage of sentimental Americanistic music, often accompanied by similar Americanistic imaging. Does anyone really believe there is anything Americanistic about Tibetan culture or the Dalai Lama? As if Tibetan music doesn’t exist. The conflict between his words and the rest of the movie couldn’t be greater. I left the theater exhausted by this struggle.
In his first few sentences, he mentioned not to expect any kind of ‘miracle’ and that he is human like anyone else, in other words, he requested a minimal level of serenity, a request I felt was immediately violated. At the same time, he apologized for his broken English, then why not let him speak in his own language? Subtitles exist for a reason. It would have made the film so much richer to listen to him speak in his own language, a language that carries the depth and history of this culture.
On a positive note, besides the barrage of “modern world” images, we saw plenty of historical images of his personal life and the Tibetan colonization. It gave a more demystifying insight into his personality and did not avoid being confrontational about this historical disaster.
Still, I’m curious if his words weren’t cut short anywhere in the movie, especially when mentioning the ongoing cultural genocide. It makes me wonder if this film isn’t Zionist funded, it would explain its Americanistic nature, which is of course no (much) less cultural genocidal than the Chinese. I believe Zionist funded movies should be labeled as such, so viewers could at least tell psyop from honest movies.
I understand about tolerance and resilience, but that doesn’t mean denying your inner and outer enemies, so much contrast and conflict in this film that should have been avoided.
The words of His Holiness made this film plentiful, though I would have welcomed some reading of, or at least some reference to, Tibetan literature by the filmmakers. A missed opportunity. They made it seem like Tibetan Buddhism is centered around the Dalai Lama only.
Most importantly, it was heartwarming to hear Him speak, moments to cherish and feel pleased about having Him still with us in our lives.
