Product Details

• Actors: Dzigar Kongtrul, Godu Lama, Jamyang Lodro, Kunsang, Kunsang Nyima
• Directors: Khyentse Norbu
• Format: Import, PAL, Subtitled
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 4 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1.0
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AMLJQW
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #155,863 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Hindi ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ),English ( Subtitles ),SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s),SYNOPSIS: A group of Tibetan monks finds themselves torn between spiritual enlightenment and their love for soccer in the comedy Phorpa/The Cup. In Northern India near the Himalayas, a band of Buddhist monks from Tibet have set up a monastery in exile from their native land. Under the gaze of their leaders -- firm-handed Geko and the Khempo, a more easy-going sort -- new students are instructed in Buddhist practices as the monks educate young children, who are usually fidgety and prefer to discuss football rather than spiritual matters. Two of the novice monks, Lodo and Orgyens, are also avid soccer fans, and they eventually find themselves punished for watching a match on television without permission. However, the tiny wave of soccermania sparked by the new arrivals begins to grow, and when the young monks ask permission to watch the upcoming World Cup Final between France and Brazil, Geko and the Khempo say yes. However, now the monks have to figure out how to pay for the satellite dish they'll need to pull in the broadcast. First-time director Khyentse Norbu was himself a Buddhist monk, lending an authenticity to the proceedings. Phorpa/The Cup was shown as part of the Directors Fortnight series at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Awards, Toronto International Film Festival,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why no USA format???, October 9, 2006

By	AJ "Never believe in anything until it has be... (Midwest USA) - See all my reviews

Good movie, you see kids will be kids no matter where they grow up. Kinda funny though I heard on the radio not long ago that the monks now get to watch the games, as long as they don't get too excited lol...

5.0 out of 5 stars Soccer, Buddhism and globalization, October 28, 2006

By	Magalini Sabina "sabina" (Rome Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kyentse Norbu alias Dzongsar Jamyang Kyentse Rinpoche is a noble Bhutanese monk incarnation of Jamyang Kyentse Wangpo a saint of Tibet's Dzongsar Monastery, but he is also a talented director that has trained in India and in the West (England, USA) with the best such as Bernardo Bertolucci. Actually he assisted BB during the Bhutanese scenes of "Little Buddha", where he also played a small part. Film making has become his destiny and recognizing this great passion, like all great Authors, he has started writing and filming what he knows best. Monastery life is at the base of "The Cup" (1998-1999) and all the non professional actors are actually monks of his monastery reciting their own roles. The story narrates a real fact and was filmed exactly in the same locations it depicts (Think of "Seven Years in Tibet" filmed in Argentina and other Tibetan movies sadly reconstructed in studios !). Maybe these are one of the elements of the beauty of this serene and funny movie.

The Cup (World Cup 1988) is a semi-biographical tale about a young monk's obsession with soccer in our globalized era of satellite-TV. Orgyen must be around 13-14 years old and like all kids (Italians at least!) his age he cut out picture of his heroes (Zidane and Ronaldo) from sports magazines to plaster his room. He has an older friend with similar enthusiasm and manages to drag in his obsession anyone he comes in contact with. Naturally the Abbot and the Supervisor are worried about him ( and here I remembered the nuns in the Sound of Music worried about Maria), but the Monastery now living in exile in India also has other problems. Two novices are secretly conducted from Tibet because their family wants them raised in a religious habitat. This is a pretext to inform us of the terrible conditions of modern Tibet, were there is no freedom of religion and the natural inhabitants live in a culturally and physically violent climate. Reality suddenly budges into the apparently pastoral setting of the Monastery.
Orgyen and Lodo, his friend, help the two novices adapt the monastic life, but Orygen sometimes goes on to brainwash them into his soccermania. A group of monks flees in the night to watch the matches on the only local TV, but due to their unquenchable "tifo" (as we call it in Italy) they get kicked out and won't have occasion to watch the finals. With great determination Orgyen convinces the Abbot to give his permission to rent an antenna, but money is a problem and the solution to this is not completely ethical.... Buddhist compassion gets run over by the soccer fever. However, during the difficultly conquered game, reason comes back into the frenzied Orygen and after a few days, when routine steps back again everyone is transformed.... Only the Chinese are still serving rice in Tibet.

The Cup is a delightful, intense, peaceful and deep movie. It juxtaposes modern and ancient culture, the East and the West, global myths such a soccer and Buddhist thought, telling at the same time the story of the Tibetan diaspora and showing the great elasticity of this ethnicity. This movie not only looks good and smells good, it is also very well shot. There are no moments of fall of attention and the beauty of some scenes is breathtaking.

This movie is very appropriate for adults and adolescents. If you can also watch Norbu's successive "Travellers and Magicians".