"Everyone who lives should realize how to live. That is compassion." (Shinran) From the disorder of late twelfth-century Japan, when the brutal rise of the military class put death, and thus paradise, on the mind, Zenshin, or Shinran, emerged as the leader of the most important of the Pure Land sects, Shinshu. Shinran is portrayed by the popular actor Junkyu Moriyama as a very human protagonist and a questioning hero, which is fitting for the preacher who inaugurated marriage into the priesthood and devoted his life to making Buddhism the religion of the masses. His "path to purity" was also one of pursuit and exile. Shinran's brooding intuitiveness and visionary approach are conveyed in the film's qualities: exquisite photography and the odd contemplative angle, an elliptical sense of time and the seasons, the modern sounds of YAS-KAZ, all creating the impression of transcendence within this earthly realm. The first directorial effort by the actor Rentaro Mikuni (Rikyu), Shinran won the Jury Prize at Cannes.