The Offering (1999)

• 64%
• 1999
• Drama
• Romance

"The Offering" is a short drama about the progression and the passing of life. Without dialogue and music, the story centers on the evolution of love and friendship between a Japanese monk and the young novice who has come into his life, from their initial encounter to their final parting. In rejecting his own faith and drowning in self-doubts, the novice leaves his life of unfulfilled potentials. The passing of life is demarcated by the progression of seasons. The only force that propels the narrative forward is the poetic seasonal variations in nature. The passing of life, in this film, is as natural a progression as the passing of seasons. The offering that passes repeatedly between the two men is metaphorical for love and affection, which, like life itself, are the most fragile yet powerful and tenuous link between any two human beings, at any point in any lifetime. Through the universal experience of death and of mourning, this elegiac meditation affirms the acceptance and the respect for what life, and nature, have to offer, regardless of the ideological and cultural differences that separate all of us.