Buddha's Lost Children

I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. It's about a retired Thai boxer who becomes a monk and opens The Golden Horse Monastery to take in poor and starving boys. He gives them each a horse, and teaches them how to care for it. He also teaches them boxing and how to be good people, living in the "now." At first, I got the impression that this guy was a bit righteous, not that he didn't have the right to be, but he still rubbed me the wrong way. As the movie progressed, however, I realized what a respectable person he is. He compared his popularity to a straw fire saying that it doesn't last very long, but you need to use that light and bring it to dark places.

One of my favorite parts was when they were on a long journey to rebuild a run-down temple and one of their horses gets sick. They stop everything, make a camp, and spend the next days successfully nursing the horse back to health. It's so refreshing seeing a non-Western perspective on animals. In America, that horse most likely would have been shot so things could be kept on schedule. It's a really great movie and in addition to it being a touching story, it's beautifully shot, capturing the gorgeous Thai jungle and villages.