Director: Katsuya Tomita
Country: Japan
Year: 2021
What role should monks and nuns play in modern society? How can communities heal in the wake of disaster? Chiken and Ryugyo, two classmates, grapple with the trauma of Japan’s post-Fukushima socio-economic crisis while trying to lead their respective communities. The ten years that have passed since their Zen training find the friends on different paths in life. Chiken leads a well-established temple, volunteers on a suicide hotline, and struggles to find work-life balace as a young father; Ryugyo lost his coastal temple in the tsunami and spends his days counseling neighbors and cleaning debris while coping with flashbacks and grief. Tenzo freely blends fact and fiction in a genre-bending experimental tale based on real Soto Zen monks.
This film will be available to stream until midnight EST on Friday, August 6.
Learn more about the film at sousei.gr.jp/tenzo.