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| ZEN IN THE WOODS |
The concluding section of Philip Cunningham's FUJIRAMA tells the story of a star-crossed couple who face the daunting challenge of an off-season climb of Mount Fuji. They arrive at Zen in the woods after losing almost everything in search of the true selves. It is the force of nature itself that makes them see through the illusory reality of their existence in the Tokyo television business.
The Zen theme of the adventure story blossoms after Japan residents Collin Long and Jianhong Huang arrive at a remote mountain temple where they are put under the guidance of a wise but eccentric abbot. They have been offered temporary shelter, rest and recuperation at a small mountain temple after an earthquake-triggered avalanche on Mount Fuji brings to an abrupt and devastating conclusion to a television documentary they had been working on with a team of Japanese colleagues from Tokyo
The Zen theme of the adventure story blossoms after Japan residents Collin Long and Jianhong Huang arrive at a remote mountain temple where they are put under the guidance of a wise but eccentric abbot. They have been offered temporary shelter, rest and recuperation at a small mountain temple after an earthquake-triggered avalanche on Mount Fuji brings to an abrupt and devastating conclusion to a television documentary they had been working on with a team of Japanese colleagues from Tokyo
Beijing-educated Jianhong can’t wait to get back to big city Tokyo, and not just because her job depends on it. Her American slacker friend Collin Long, is no less anxious to get back to the little pocket of hedonistic happiness he has created for himself in the midst of the vast Tokyo sprawl, but he cannot travel without risking arrest. Technically a fugitive from the law due to repeated flagrant violations of his visa status, he is forced to come to terms with being stuck in the woods indefinitely, or at least until his legal case can be quietly adjudicated.
The two friends enjoy an on-again off-again romance that brings much vexation and complicates their future plans. They are stuck in the woods to ponder the multiple twists of fate that pull them together even as they are being pushed apart. Thanks to the patience and humor of the abbot, they learn a thing or two about change and illusion, but even more to the point, living a simple life without electricity, computers, TV or even telephones gives them the luxury of time and space, tranquility and opportunities for reflection not readily available in frenetic Tokyo.
Tokyo itself is subsequently hit by disaster and ruptured transportation and communication lines leave Collin and Jianhong stranded and in the dark at a small, off-the-grid temple nestled in the verdant hills ringing Fuji, sick with worry about what might be happening elsewhere but unable to move on.
Even the most potent of natural disasters, the earthquake, is a reminder not just of the fragility of life, but of the resilience and persistence of life in all its beautiful manifestations.