Victor Fan. University of Minnesota Press, 2022
A new critical approach to cinema and media based on Buddhism as a philosophical discourse
Victor Fan’s dialogue between Buddhism and Euro-American philosophy is the first of its kind in film and media studies. From Chinese queer cinema to a reexamination of Japanese master Ozu’s work and its historical reception to Christian Petzold’s 2018 existential thriller Transit, Cinema Illuminating Reality forges a remarkable path between Buddhist studies and cinema studies, casting vital new light on both of these important subjects.
A stunning and provocative sequel to the invaluable Cinema Approaching Reality, this book is at once audacious and scrupulous, a Promethean leap of critical imagination as substantively grounded as Talmudic exegesis. Victor Fan deftly and relevantly engages thinkers from Nāgārjuna to Deleuze without reducing these inquiries to an Asian fusion buffet, maintaining lucid explications of Buddhist tenets while daring cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogues that will engage the philosopher and the cinephile. The readings of Marcel Carné’s Le jour se lève and Christian Petzhold’s Transit alone are worth the price of admission. A thrilling intellectual experience that demonstrates that inquiry can and should be an adventure. — Earl Jackson, Jr., Asia University
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