Incense

The film is shot from the Buddhist's perspective, emphasizing the modern lifestyle's emptiness and lack of spirituality. One main ideal of Buddhism is the elimination of all attachment to the material world in order to achieve enlightenment. The city dwellers replace enlightenment with material goods. Not only are they disspirited, but Buddhism itself becomes lost and empty. Ning Hao represents Buddhism in shots of a scarecrow in a cold, empty, snow-covered field. Later, the Buddha statue's head is placed on a scarecrow body, symbolizing the hollowness of the new Buddhism. In the capitalist economy, Buddhism is commercialized and becomes a hollow commodity produced for the paying masses, who buy it in a desperate need for spiritual fulfillment. The monk is reduced to selling himself and his religion, first as a fortuneteller, and then as a Feng Shui master, to get money for the new statue.