The Monk and the Gun: Democracy Delight

Release Date：Feb/9/2024

Genre：Comedy/Drama

Director：Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cast：Tandin Wangchuk、Tandin Phubz、Kelsang Choejay、Tandin Sonam、Choeying Jatsho

Viola's Rating：8.2

As one of the last countries in the world to introduce the internet and television, Bhutan has been one of the most mysterious countries on earth. Once considered the happiest country, Bhutan has experienced a lot since its democratization and modernization. Pawo Choyning Dorji, the director of Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, released his latest feature film The Monk and the Gun on Feb 9, 2024, focusing on Bhutanese democracy.

Selected as the Bhutanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards, this comedy tells the story of an American traveling to Bhutan looking for a valuable antique rifle and encountering a young monk who wanders through the peaceful mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.

As one of the protagonists is an American, the audience looks at the Bhutanese life through the eyes of an outsider, especially from the Western perspective. While laughing at some absurd remarks in The Monk and the Gun, moviegoers get to reflect on how we look at other cultures with our own cultural lens.

Guns are not only an emblem of modernization but also a representation of power. It’s difficult to imagine the gun and the monk being put together, and it’s this contrast that The Monk and the Gun gives the audience an ambiance of unreal. However, most of the events described in the film except the plot of looking for guns for both the American and the monk are actually real. 

Through funny lines and unimaginable plots, The Monk and the Gun asks philosophical questions like “What is happiness?” Bhutanese in the flick don’t understand why bother to introduce democratization and modernization to them since they’re already very happy. Being a Bhutanese growing up outside the country, Director Dorji invites moviegoers to ponder over this period of history his country went through.

In order to deploy democratization, politics is inevitably introduced. While we all know that in most, if not all, countries, politics is one of the most obvious reasons for disagreement and dispute, The Monk and the Gun points out the stark issue many of us know but choose to ignore in our daily lives. 

Aside from politics, religious topic is also brought up in The Monk and the Gun. Bhutanese value Tantric Buddhism, the official religion of their country, very much. Therefore, whenever there’s something related to the religion, Bhutanese will support it no matter what, and this is also the reason why the crazy idea of linking the monk and the gun could make this motion picture so interesting.

Although discussing issues that are controversial and serious, The Monk and the Gun successfully delivers them in a very clever and relaxing way. 

Picture Credit: atmovies