In 2006, the king of bhutan abdicated, and allowed a new form of democracy to exist. So the high lama asks tashi the monk to bring him two guns, "to make things right". At about the same time, an american antique collector is looking for a very old rifle, which he has heard is in the farmlands, and has made an offer on the rifle. But when the american returns with the money, he learns the farmer has already given the gun to the monk. When the murrican catches up with the monk, the negotiations begin. Who will win out? And what does the high lama want with guns? Election day will be on the full moon. But most of the villagers can't understand why the king would give up his power. And since they don't know the date of their birth, most of them can't vote anyway. The james bond movie or the theme song is playing in the background, in several scenes.... now that they have television. A fun story. And a lesson in humanity. Directed by pawo choyning dorji. Bhutan is next to tibet, between china and india. Based on the abdication of the king of bhutan, as described in wikipedia dot org. Good stuff.

I'm going to talk about my opinion on this film in three aspects: plot, cinematography, and characters.

Plot: The story seeks to display the difficulties of accepting a major change that comes to Bhutan in the form of democracy. The people aren't aware of what or why it exists. The transition from traditional way of life to a modern one creates a sense of angst that is depicted nicely. But sometimes it did feel like too many side stories were left without a semblance of a resolution which made the movie feel incomplete.

Cinematography: The cinematography was 10/10. Bhutan was depicted very beautifully. The stupas and the mountains really captured what Bhutan 'feels' like.

Characters: The actors did justice to the characters they were given to play. However, I did feel that the movie was trying too many things trying to depict the backstory of too many characters but we, as viewers, never really got to know more about them as people.

At surface level, I knew who the characters were and what their role was, but they didn't feel fully fleshed out in terms of what drove them to be who they were. Some of the characters were depicted but had no purpose in the story at all and it left me confused as to why the movie touched on 1/10th of their story and left them hanging with nothing beyond that.

I also noticed that the characters in the movie were depicted simply. I wish the story did more to play with the ambiguousness that comes with being human. The range of emotions weren't depicted very well and it felt a bit flat to be honest. When any story introduces a character, viewers feel a compulsion to side with the character. There were too many characters and the story didn't linger on any of them long enough to make me feel the need to root for them. I also feel that the movie needs some gray and morally ambiguous characters for the same reason. Benji was coming close to being that but the story didn't really dwell deep enough to flesh him out. Characterization needed a bit more work but actors did their parts brilliantly.

All in all, this movie (obviously) shows a lot of improvement in the step the entertainment industry is taking in Bhutan. Telling a story about human issues which not only affects individuals but impacts the nation as a whole is always a step in the right direction.