Japan Synopsis
禅
In the early 1200s, Dogen brought Chinese Zen philosophy to Japan, and established the Japanese Zen school of Buddhism. He taught that a person was capable of realizing Buddhahood within himself, by way of Zazen. Zazen is extended hours of sitting and meditating to achieve a state of “Mu” (nothingness, or empty existence).
Other Titles From KADOKAWA
Drama + History in Japan
82 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and History genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Zen itself).
The 2008–2010 Japan Window
Zen holds position #175 of 386 Japan films in the 2008–2010 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2000s in Japan, 1020 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Zen premiered alongside 123 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 123 other Japan films in 2009.
The 2153rd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
27 audience reviews — more than 47% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 27th percentile among Japan films.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Zen, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- 13th century · 3
- zen · 2
- dogen · 1
- kamakura period · 1
- buddhism · 22
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,383 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (48th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #1,056 of 1,933 (top 55%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Spoken Languages | Mandarin, Japanese |
| Production Companies | KADOKAWA |
| Runtime | 2h 7m |
| Release Date | January 10, 2009 |
| IMDb | tt1156470 |