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I recommend Walt Disney's Mary Poppins (see Mary Poppins: A Classical Taoist World). PL Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, was herself a Zen Buddhist. Zen includes Taoism. The Walt Disney movie (not necessarily the books) can be read as the story of a Taoist messiah who descends from the skies (just like Taoist immortals who ride the wind) into a Christian world to help heal the dysfunction and disorder. Mary Poppins teaches classical Taoism: balance, spontaneity and wu-wei (the mystical form of wu-wei in the sequence "A Spoonful Of Sugar"). The rooftop sequence is a trip to see Great Yin/Great Yang.

 

There are other movies with elements of Taoist mysticism and philosophy, such as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the Wachowski's Matrix series, and perhaps some lesser known foreign language movies, but none can really match Mary Poppins for an excellent story that explains the concepts simply and comprehensively.

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There are a lot, as least what I could remember growing up in Hong Kong some 30+ years ago. Most likely, they are all in Chinese/Cantonese. Some of them are actually TV series too.

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The Mary Poppins' author hated the Disney's version and used to send strong worded letters to him.

 

Yes, PL Travers did hate the Disney version, BUT the Disney movie only (I have not read the books) can be interpreted as classical Taoist. Mary Poppins even has its own yin-yang symbol - the tuppence shown here in obverse and reverse:

 

mp2.jpg

 

mp_yy1.jpg

Edited by silas
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Thanks for the answers : ) I guess you can have a taoist interpretation of many movies and some fit more of less. One day or another I'll watch it again and will enjoy to understand what you mean, but for now I just can't bear with the songs :unsure:

 

Anyway thank you very much for letting me enjoy this movie with my futur kids (the time will come) !

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A taoist immortal who looks like a pretty female, is a perfect house wife, can sing and has awesome super powers???

I WANT TO MARRY HER!!! drool_cloud.gif

 

She doesn't have real jing though Dorian.

 

I'm amazed... and just checked out the toaist wizard. Watching soon :o!

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There is the k-dorama Jeon Woo Chi. It is very entertaining with lots of qi battles.

About daoism in movies there are the classics as the Mr. Vampire saga with Ching Yim Lam (the first and last movies are the best, I think). I think that these can be found even in videoshops.

Besides, there are some that has no occidental subtitles like The Legend of Wong Tai Sin. Another one (with subs available) is 8 Avatar, this is actually about the 8 immortals.

If I remember more titles I'll post later.

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Check out Bruce Lees; The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way Of The Dragon, Game Of Death (Original Footage) and Enter The Dragon, they all have Taoist themes as well as other themes like Confucian, Buddhist and Krishminurti thought. Bruce really used alot of Taoist philosophy in his rare interviews, tv series and of course his posthumous The Tao of Jeet Kune Do...

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Check out Bruce Lees; The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, The Way Of The Dragon, Game Of Death (Original Footage) and Enter The Dragon, they all have Taoist themes as well as other themes like Confucian, Buddhist and Krishminurti thought. Bruce really used alot of Taoist philosophy in his rare interviews, tv series and of course his posthumous The Tao of Jeet Kune Do...

No offense to the legend but his movies are really bad with the story line. They are often very cruel. I would prefer to watch any kung fu films dealing with the Chinese antiquity. They all have some mythical themes. The heroes aren't often obsessed with the idea of fighting against the Japanese or the "foreign devils." :)

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