Plot
The story begins with a morose and brooding Detective (Duane Sharp) receiving a phone call from a local temple, saying someone is about to die. At the temple, a meditating monk (Howard Fong) is seen falling over, apparently dead. The Detective shows up moments afterwards and begins to question the other monks in the temple. He receives cryptic answers to all his queries from Ed (Ezra Buzzington), Jane (Debra Miller) and the Master (Kim Chan), to his rapidly growing frustration.
The Detective continues to treat the case as a murder, although both Jane and Ed insist that they did not kill the dead man. An agitated Ed directs the Detective to meet him at midnight for an unspecified purpose. In the meantime, the Detective rants at the Master, who remains unperturbed, before discovering that the Detective's gun is missing.
Ed meets with the Detective and commits suicide with the Detective's gun. The Detective, stunned by Ed's sudden death and haunted by visions of his deceased wife Nora (Jennifer Siebel), is comforted by Jane. The two eventually make love. Afterwards, the two talk, and the Detective is alarmed to realize that he cannot remember his own name.
Jane reveals that she is dying. Distressed, the Detective says he cannot go through the heartbreak of losing someone again, and goes to the Master for his insights on life and death. The master says that he doesn't know what happens when we die, because he's “not dead yet.” He does, though, calm the Detective with a lecture on interconnectedness.
The Detective sits with the Master, who after a time also falls over, dead. The Detective continues to sit alone, at first sobbing, then at peace as Nora's ghost leaves him.
The film ends with a shaven-headed Detective sitting with Jane, holding hands. He asks Jane how long she has to live, and she says she doesn't know. The Detective accepts this, and they continue to sit together quietly.
Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and is regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to a 17th-century apocryphal story found in a manual called Yijin Jing, he began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. He is known as Dámó in China and as Daruma in Japan. His name means "dharma of awakening (bodhi)" in Sanskrit.
Budai is a nickname given to the ancient Chinese monk Qici who is often identified with and venerated as Maitreya Buddha in Chan Buddhism. With the spread of Chan Buddhism, he also came to be venerated in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. He is said to have lived around the 10th century CE in the Wuyue kingdom.
Zhaozhou Congshen (778–897) was a Chán (Zen) Buddhist master especially known for his "paradoxical statements and strange deeds".
Yunmen Wenyan, was a major Chinese Chan master of the Tang dynasty. He was a dharma-heir of Xuefeng Yicun.
In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' (kechimyaku) theoretically traced back to the Buddha himself." The dharma lineage reflects the importance of family-structures in ancient China, and forms a symbolic and ritual recreation of this system for the monastical "family".
Jianzhi Sengcan is known as the Third Chinese Patriarch of Chán after Bodhidharma and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha.
Bak Mei is said to have been one of the legendary Five Elders—survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by the Qing dynasty (1644–1912)—who, according to some accounts, betrayed Shaolin to the imperial government. He shares his name with the South Chinese martial art attributed to him.
Shiwu (石屋, Wade–Giles: Shih2-Wu1, Pinyin: Shíwū) or Stonehouse (1272–1352) was a Chinese Chan poet and hermit who lived during the Yuan Dynasty. Shiwu was born in the town of Changshu, taking his name from the Shihwutung (Stonehouse cave) in Yushan. In 1292 Shiwu became a novice at Yushan's Hsingfu temple, a major monastic center at the time. He studied under master Yung-Wei and three years later was ordained and received the dharma name Ch'ing-hung.
Japanese Zen refers to the Japanese forms of Zen Buddhism, an originally Chinese Mahāyāna school of Buddhism that strongly emphasizes dhyāna, the meditative training of awareness and equanimity. This practice, according to Zen proponents, gives insight into one's true nature, or the emptiness of inherent existence, which opens the way to a liberated way of living.
Dayi Daoxin, who lived from 580 to 651, was the fourth Chán Buddhist Patriarch, following Jianzhi Sengcan and preceding Daman Hongren.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty, he embraced and promoted Buddhism. Several times he became a Buddhist monk and forced his court to purchase him back with substantial offerings to the sangha. In 517 he ordered the destruction of Taoist temples and forced Taoist priests to return to lay life. Some of his other reforms, such as the disallowing of capital punishment and of the animal sacrifices during ancestral ceremonies, conformed with his Buddhist convictions.
Wuzhun Shifan was a Chinese calligrapher, and Zen Buddhist monk who lived during the late Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Heze Shenhui was a Chinese Buddhist monk of the so-called "Southern School" of Zen, who "claimed to have studied under Huineng."
Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as the Chan School or the Buddha-mind school ," and later developed into various sub-schools and branches. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thiền, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, and east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen.
Chan, from Sanskrit dhyāna, is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and Song dynasties.
Yongming Yanshou (904–976) was a prominent Buddhist monk during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period and early Song Dynasty in China.
Someone's Knocking at the Door is a 2009 American comedy horror film co-written, directed and produced by Chad Ferrin. The film stars Noah Segan, Andrea Rueda, Ezra Buzzington, Jon Budinoff, Silvia Spross, Elina Madison, Ricardo Gray, Lew Temple, Vernon Wells, and Timothy Muskatell. The film follows a group of drug-addled medical school students, Justin, Meg, Sebastian, and Joe, who are targeted by John and Wilma Hopper, a married sexually sadistic serial killer couple from the 1970s who rape their victims to death.
Seon or Sŏn Buddhism is the Korean name for Chan Buddhism, a branch of Mahāyāna Buddhism commonly known in English as Zen Buddhism. Seon is the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chan an abbreviation of 禪那 (chánnà), which is a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word of dhyāna ("meditation"). Seon Buddhism, represented chiefly by the Jogye and Taego orders, is the most common type of Buddhism found in Korea.
Thiền Buddhism is the Vietnamese version of Zen Buddhism. Thiền is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (chán), an abbreviation of 禪那 (chánnà), which is a transliteration of the Sanskrit word dhyāna ("meditation").
Strange Impersonation is a 1946 American film noir drama film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Brenda Marshall, William Gargan and Hillary Brooke.
