Saturday, July 28, 2007

Talking about Tea

In our class for elderhostel we viewed a film from Japan of the original production of Tea. It was all done in a very abstract style with white on white, one of the alternatives of minimalism. Tea is as much about philosophy and the meaning of life as it is about the plot. A very busy, naturalistic production smothers this abstraction.

What is the meaning of drinking from an empty bowl? Is it to take in emptiness? The spareness of the music would be better wedded to spareness in production values. Time could be left to contemplate the universe. Perhaps just listening would be enough.

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