Japan

Taiwan Premiere

The documentary Carving the Divine offers a rare and intimate look into the life and artistic process of modern-day Busshi – practitioners of a 1400 year lineage of woodcarving that’s at the heart of Japanese, Mahayana Buddhism.

The story opens as Master Koun Seki, the former apprentice of renowned Busshi, Kourin Saito, interviews a candidate applying to be Master Seki’s new apprentice. Quickly though, we discover this apprenticeship and the Būshi’s life in general to be far more austere, and far less glamorous, than we (or the Candidate) would’ve likely imagined.

Once Master Seki makes his selection, we’re taken on a trip through a guild culture unlike anything existing today in The West: From the growing pains of a novice apprentice, to the entire guild working together as one body to create breathtaking works of art, to the monkish practice of the famed, Grand Master Saito himself, alone on his quest to “leave nothing but great works behind.”

The robots are at our doorstep. Scientists as well as tech-visionaries are certain that in a few years robots will be an integral part of our everyday life. But humanoid robots are more than just another gadget. Bearing a resemblance to living creatures in their conduct and looks, they are more like new beings on our planet. We are the Robots, shows robots interacting with humans in everyday-environments already today.

What will we gain from this new technology? And what will we lose?

Humanoid robots are like new creatures on our planet. They work at reception desks, in shopping malls or as chefs. And they are coming into our private lives…

„With an A.I., you have to keep your sentences short and to the point.“

This piece of advice is given to Chuck as he’s picking up his new robot partner Harmony fresh from the factory. Together they go on a road trip through California. As it turns out at a second glancing, the sex robot Harmony likes books and can ad lib quote Ray Kurzweil.

In Tokyo, Grandma Sakurai is introduced to the cute robot Pepper, a present from her son, so she has someone to keep her company. But soon Pepper turns out to be quite capricious, fnding the old lady’s conversation topics of little interest.

While Harmony and Chuck are searching for love, and Pepper and Grandma are killing time, pressing questions arise: How will robots and artifcial intelligence change our lives? What will we win, what will we lose? And, who will be the main actors in the future world? The documentary shows us tomorrow’s world today.

Eighteen months after the nuclear meltdown, children in Fukushima are suffering from severe nose bleeds and are developing skin rashes and thyroid cysts. Citing a lack of transparency in the official medical testing of their children and the ineffectiveness of the decontamination of their homes and schools, the children’s mothers take radiation monitoring into their own hands.

During deeply intimate conversations with the filmmaker after she learns she is going to die, Kazuko challenges cultural and social norms speaking candidly about her own life and death while she grapples with what it means to be honest and live happily. As she nears the end of her life, through observations about love, money, marriage and death, Kazuko develops a deeper intimacy both with herself and the filmmaker, while inviting the viewer to deeply consider their own life. And death.

In the evacuated zone around the nuclear plant of Fukushima, five years after the “catastrophe,” a few rare individuals still live on this land burning with radiation. The seemingly irrational yet peaceful existence of these diehards reminds us that, as a last resort, a patch of land is our strongest bond to the world.