Throne of Blood and Ran
Two characters driven by power, money and ambition
Bending the worldly winds in one’s favour by force
Caught in fixed identities
Abstractions about who they are and who they should be
Both try to secure control over their fate
– through murder, division of land, alliances –
but events spiral out of control

Saddhaloka sits beside me on the sofa at Adhisthana
A humble man
70 years old
With a quiet presence
He murmurs with a kind of poignant empathic sigh at one point
He knows that human identities and plans are fragile
He knows in his bones that it’s important to hold them lightly
He knows that accepting instability and uncertainty – is the stability

Rashomon; Ikiru; Seven Samurai
He is the Beethoven of directors!
While Beethoven had fullness in sound, Kurosowa had fullness in vision

Saddhaloka has fullness in presence

Movement runs through his films
The movement of the elements:
A world much greater than ourselves
Eternal movement – impermanence – move with the flow, roll with it
Like a rolling stone – the good kind

His central question: why can’t people be happy together?
But prior to that : why can’t be people be happy?

That’s a question which resonates with me!
Why can’t I be happy?

Can I smile, and mean it?
That’s my aim in life