People have grappled with suffering throughout the ages. Nietzsche wrote, "To live is to suffer". Shakespeare's Hamlet lamented about "the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to". And Horace stated that "suffering is but another name for the teaching of experience, which is the parent of instruction and the schoolmaster of life".

Much has been written about the universality and timelessness of suffering, but few explain how to find peace in the face of illness, misfortune, and death. In THE BUDDHA, David Grubin explores the life of one man who came to terms with life's fragility over 2,500 years ago, and whose teachings still lead followers to understanding, compassion, and contentment today.

Grubin (an American documentary filmmaker whose award-winning works include Truman, LBJ, The Jewish Americans, The Secret Life of the Brain, and Napoleon) wrote, d...Read the entire review

I recently read an article about an 11-year-old boy from Boston who moved to India after Buddhist monks there identified him to be the reincarnation of a Lama who died in Tibet nearly 800 years ago. This story begs the question: how are enlightened old souls discovered if they transmigrate? Director Nati Baratz helps provide some answers in the remarkable film Unmistaken Child.

This documentary follows the 4-year journey of Tenzin Zopa, a gentle 28-year-old monk tasked with finding the reincarnation of his renowned Tibetan master (Lama Konchog) who died in 2001. Tenzin is provided a variety of clues: there are signs in the cremation ashes and a Taiwanese astrologer predicts that Lama Konchog will return to a region with the letters TS and be born to a father whose name begins with an A. Equipped with these leads, Tenzin searches for his master throughout the astonishingly beautiful country...Read the entire review

A version of this ominous recital opened each episode of the outstanding re-imagined TV series Battlestar Galactica for five years beginning in 2004. Given that the show's bad guys (a sentient, cybernetic race known as Cylons) nuked the bejesus out of their human creators, it might appear obvious that 'the plan' was total annihilation of sinful humanity and the Twelve Colonies they inhabited. Except for one thing...plan = fail. There were survivors, about 50,000 or so, who escaped the cosmic holocaust to begin a search for safety on a fabled Thirteenth Colony - Earth.

So I wondered. How does a bioengineered race with robust d...Read the entire review

Wrapping up a beloved TV series with an enormous cult following is no easy task. Sci-Fi devotees like me can be tough to please since we're deeply invested in the characters and the final trajectories their lives take. Fortunately, thanks to the Gods (plus executive producers David Eick, Ronald D. Moore, and a top-notch cadre of actors, writers, directors, and production staff), ardent followers of the outstanding series, Battlestar Galactica, are provided satisfying closure with the must-see release of Season 4.5.

Based on the original series, created by Glen Larson and first aired in 1978, the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica (abbreviated as BSG or Galactica) began as a three-hour miniseries in 2003 and ran for four seasons ending in 2009. Its premise: a civilization of humans, who inhabit the Twelve Colonies, develop a cybernetic race (Cylons) to serve as wo...Read the entire review

Readers beware. There's a contagion and it's spreading.

At first I thought only TV executives in the U.S. were affected. The canceling of great shows after just one or two seasons (Freaks and Geeks, Wonderfalls, Firefly...etc.) was a clear indication that America had been overrun by some brain wasting menace. Sadly, I've come to learn that our northern neighbors have been infected as well.

In March of 2008, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) announced that the clever crime series Intelligence would be canceled after its second season. Noooooo! The decision-makers at CBC may have lost their minds, but fortunately the purveyors of gripping, character-driven dramas can find comfort in the release of Intelligence on DVD. Check out the review of Intelligence: Season One. ...Read the entire review

Remember the melodramatic, historical miniseries of the 1970's and 80's? Add to that a dash of Dynasty-catfight and saucy Pinku, and you've got The Geisha (Yokiro), directed by Hideo Gosha.

Based on Tomiko Miyao's original story and set in 1930s Kochi, Japan, the film centers on Yokiro - the region's most distinguished and powerful geisha house - and the turbulent lives that are drawn to it.

Momowaka (Kimiko Ikegami), sold to Yokiro at age 12, has bested over 200 competitors to become top geisha. Despite a glamorous façade, Momowaka's life is largely empty and unsatisfying, with her beauty, talent, and wit wasted entertaining licentious patrons three-times her age.

Read the entire review ]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.comwww.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/35957 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:00:42 UTC Highly Recommended Osama Bin Laden .... Robert Mugabe ... Bernard Madoff. If you could rid the world of them with a stroke of your pen, would you? This exceptional 20-episode box set of the anime series Death Note, a first of two volumes, explores one teenager's quest to rid all evil, and the devilish consequences that follow. Light Yagami is Japan's brightest high school student. Unchallenged and bored, Light's tedium is suspended when he finds a supernatural notebook - the Death Note, which has fallen from the sky. The Death Note contains a list of instructions and grants its owner the ability to kill anyone by simply picturing their face and writing down their name. Skeptical, but curious, Light seizes the opportunity to test the Death Note when a daycare center is taken hostage. After the captor's name and photograph are broadcast on the news, Light proceeds to scribble, and within seconds the cu...Read the entire review ]]>