Little Buddha (New Restoration)

Drawing on Buddhist history to weave a metaphor about the tragedy of Tibetans in exile, Little Buddha is Bernardo Bertolucci’s stunning follow-up to The Sheltering Sky.

In this religious tour-de-force, a Buddhist monk, Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng), believes that a 10-year-old American boy, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger), is the reincarnation of his spiritual teacher, Lama Dorje. Jesse’s father, Dean (Chris Isaak), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda), are skeptical, but following his business partner’s suicide, a transformed Dean relents and allows his son to travel to Bhutan. However, there are two other children whom the monk thinks may also be the reincarnation of Lama Dorje.

Featuring Keanu Reeves as Siddhartha.

“A gorgeous, grandly presumptuous spectacle that really deserves to be seen… A crazily mesmerizing pop artifact.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

Co-presented by Bay Area Chinese Culture Salon

Part of A Keanu Summer.