Told he will die in a week, a young entrepreneur recalibrates his life. That premise, or ones just like it, has driven countless narratives of spiritual quests, from to Journey to the West to Ben-Hur to Dark Victory and Ikiru. In most versions adversity reduces the protagonist to abject id. Redemption is achieved only through empathy, selflessness, discovering new ways to look at life and the world.
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache brings that premise to Kathmandu, the fabled Tibetan gateway to Mount Everest. Tenzin (Tsering Tashi Gyalthang) is caught between worlds. His hair pulled back into a pony-tail, wearing a skinny black tie and white dress shirt, he could be a shooter in Reservoir Dogs. Tenzin wants to open Kathmandu’s first “modern” coffeeshop, one targeted at a young business culture. But he also studies traditional music with an elderly (and grouchy) master, a legacy from a mother who lives in the mountains a long bus ride outside town.
Tenzin rehearses with Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel), a surly singer who’s always texting on her smartphone, and Jachung (Tulku Kunzang), a devout Buddhist who believes in omens and curses. Although reluctant, Tenzin allows Jachung to bring him to a Monk (Tulku Ngawang Tenzin) who announces that he has a week to live.
The only way to defeat the curse is with a “dakini,” a woman spirit who may manifest with fangs, or a moustache, or maybe a third eye. Directions are vague, just like everything the Monk says. (Asked how to find a dakini, he recommends Google.)
It would be easy to dismiss the Monk if it weren’t for Tenzin’s troubling visions. A woman dancing in a field of flowers. The ghost of his sister washing dishes. A red-faced woman riding a scooter. Flower petals raining outside a window.
Tenzin’s journey proceeds in fits and starts, interrupted by hallucinatory dreams, concert rehearsals, business meetings, favors for friends. He visits another monk, an angry elder who contradicts himself. As the days pass, desperation seeps in. Increasingly caught up in a world of ancient rituals, Tenzin loses track of his partners, contracts, even his morals.
As the world he knows crumbles, Tenzin turns to dakinis for hope. Is she the woman who works in a tea shop, the one with the fearsome mother? Or maybe Kunsel herself? When Tenzin drops Kunsel at a shrine, he wonders if he might not be in love with her. Like all who are troubled by faith, he no longer knows what to believe, what to do, how to help himself.
A festival favorite for titles like The Cup and Travellers and Magicians, writer and director Khyentse Norbu is an astute filmmaker who can tap into an international indie sensibility without losing track of Nepalese culture. He does this partly through humor, like the monk who explains the boxes of Toasty Time! in his pantry by saying, “Cereal will be my last obstacle to enlightenment.”
His characters are curiously of their place but familiar with the world at large, which makes them real people and not figures representing a culture. But for a film that revolves around dakinis, women have almost no voice. (The only time Tenzin seems to let loose, laugh and enjoy himself, is with his mother.)
Kathmandu is a place of astonishing beauty, with structures so old they have lost their meaning, landscapes that catch the breath, places of mystery — like the stream that gushes out of steps into a river.
Mark Lee Ping-Bing, one of the world’s great cinematographers, presents a Kathmandu that’s a mix of old and new: trendy cocktail parties, crumbling shrines. Rooftop restaurants, open-air bazaars. Buses and scooters, but cattle in alleys, candles floating on canals, fields harvested by hand. His camera finds the best possible position to frame not only the world, but Tenzin’s wavering place within it.
Tenzin’s quest is confusing, at times repetitive, not always believable. He chooses poorly, rejects change, fails himself and his friends. The answers he seeks are true for everyone. Following his journey is a rich, fascinating experience. Seeing Kathmandu through the work of Mark Lee Ping-Bing will be reward enough for most viewers.
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache has played at several film festivals. its Virtual Live Premiere occurs on April 8, 2021, followed on April 9 by worldwide streaming at Watch Now@Home on April 9, 2021.
