Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left For The East?
Director : Bae Yong-kyun
Starring : Lee Pan-yong, Shin Won-seob
Location Sites : Bongjeong Temple, Andong, Kyeongsangbuk Province
Film Information
 This film was directed by Bae Yonggyun, a painter and art professor, and depicts Buddhist discipline and the process of achieving enlightenment by three generations of characters living in the deep mountainside. It is a film that features stunningly beautiful images. The process of making the film was itself a truth-seeking journey for the director who undertook eight different roles in the film, such as producing, filming, editing, lighting and so on. The film, which took a total of nine years to complete, earned the Best Film award at the 42nd Locarno International Film Festival, and was reviewed well at Cannes, France in May of the same year. The film was also the first ever Korean DVD to be released in America.
Synopsis
Haejin happens to kill a bird that had a partner, an event in which he comes to face the dichotomy of life and death in this world for the first time in his life. He consequently falls into fundamental questions of life: death and frailty, attachment and agony, sin and fear. The film deals deeply with human experiences of life and death, good and evil, and creation and suffering. Ultimately, the film holds to the Buddhist teaching that life itself is emptiness: since the world was never born, it also never dies.
Location of Shooting
 The movie <Why Did Bodhi-Dharma Leave for the East?> (Dalmaga dongjjok-euro gan kkadakeun?) is famous for its three-year long shooting schedule. Major filming sites were Bongjeongsa, Woljeongsa and some mountainsides in Kangweon Province. Bongjeongsa is the place where the old monk, Kibong, and Haejin live. The temple, possessing a pure image of an old secluded temple, remains just as it was at the time of filming. In particular, Yeongsoenam, a small cottage belonging to the temple where the old monk stayed in the film, is a representative hermitage of Korea, which conveys the sense of calmness of a deep mountainside as well as the ascetic beauty of traditional Korean architecture. To get there, cross the ford flowing along the left side of the temple and climb up a few stairs to reach the hermitage. Uwharu, an arbor at the entrance, greets visitors. It is the place where Haejin watches Kibong leaving.
General Information
Bongjeongsa, located on Cheondeung Mountain, is said to have been built by the venerable monk Uisang in 682, the second year of King Sinmun. Legend has it that Uisang, who built Buseoksa, flew a paper phoenix which landed on the site where the temple was later built and thus named after the incident.
Geukrakjeon, or Paradise Hall, is said to have been called Daejangjeon. It is estimated to have been built sometime in the middle of the Goryeo Dynasty (935-1392 A.D.), but definitely before 1363 because a record was discovered during its renovation in 1972 that notes a repair to the roof in 1363 (the 12th year of King Gongmin).
 With the size of 3 X 4 k'an (a k'an is a unit of counting the number of rooms), the side of the roof looks like the Chinese character "ren" (人), or "human." The pillar is of an entasis style, which makes the central part of the pillar slightly swell out; it also exhibits the "Jusimpo" style, a Korean architectural technique, which has wooden brackets placed only at the top of the pillar to support the eaves of the roof. In the middle of the front of the building is a door and on both sides are the windows. At the center of the interior is a statue of the Buddha, above which is a beautiful canopy to add a sense of serenity to the statue. Both sides of the altar are carved in the same tendril patterns that are found on pottery of the time. Geukrakjeon at Bongjeongsa is known as the oldest, existing wooden architecture in Korea, built in the Goryeo Dynasty which inherited the architectural styles of Unified Silla.
Directions
Go toward downtown Andong from Jungang Expressway Seoan-dong I.C. There's a bridge past Andong Science College. Turn left along the river instead of going toward downtown. There's a road sign to Bongjeong Temple past the Seohu-myeon Office.
Nearby Attractions
Andong is famous for preserving traditional beauty. The famous Andong Hahoe Village and Dosanseowon are within 40 minutes from Andong Station. You can meet across Icheondong Stone Image of Buddha in Sannok Jebiwon, Taehwa Mountain on the way to Bongjeong Temple.
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