KŪKAI is an award-winning documentary that brings to life the remarkable journey of the 9th-century Buddhist monk whose travels from Japan to Tang China helped shape the spiritual, artistic, and cultural landscape of East Asia for generations. Combining meticulous historical research with cinematic storytelling, the film explores enduring themes of faith, compassion, and cultural exchange, offering a fresh perspective on a legacy that continues to resonate today. Following a successful international film festival run, KŪKAI is currently screening in select cities. Director Yue Ye was interviewed about this extraordinary film and the process of bringing it to the screen.
What inspired you to revisit Kūkai’s life and philosophy through the medium of documentary at this particular moment in time?
Making a documentary about Master Kūkai grew out of my lifelong search for the meaning of life. Since adolescence, I often felt confused about my purpose. Even when I was with close friends, I still carried a sense of emptiness I could not explain.
As I grew older, I became determined to pursue journalism and eventually entered a major national media organization. Although I had achieved the career goal I once set for myself, I still could not answer the questions that troubled me within. I began reading biographies, hoping to find answers through the lives of others. By chance, I came across the biography of Master Kūkai, and it profoundly moved me.
For the first time, I realized there truly was someone who devoted his entire life to benefiting others without seeking anything in return. Master Kūkai’s selflessness and purity moved me to tears. I wanted to live with that same sense of purpose, and I felt he had become a role model for me.
Later, I shared Kūkai’s story with like-minded friends, and they were also moved by his spirit of selfless devotion, compassion and boundless practice. We felt that Kūkai’s spirit, inherited from his master, the Great Tang preceptor Huiguo of Qinglong Temple, belongs not only to one country or one era, but to the whole world.
At a time when compassion, dedication and altruism can feel scarce, his life asks a question that remains deeply relevant today: how should one live for life to be genuinely valuable and meaningful? That is why we chose documentary as the form to reconstruct Kūkai’s life, philosophy and enduring spirit.
Kūkai was both a historical figure and a spiritual master whose influence transcends China and Japan. During the creative process, what would you say was the greatest challenge?
The greatest challenge was finding a way to approach and recreate the spiritual world of such a sage. Master Kūkai was so pure, so selfless, and so deeply compassionate. How do you express that truth on screen in a way that feels sincere?
In 2019, we began location filming and traveled to Japan several times over the course of a year, visiting Kūkai’s birthplace, the sites connected to his journey to Tang China, the places where he spread the Dharma after returning to Japan, and Kōyasan, where he entered eternal meditation. Standing in those places, we could feel the meaning of compassion more deeply.
During that process, Master Kūkai’s compassion and selflessness became a mirror for me. I began to see my own restlessness and attachments more clearly. What started as a creative challenge slowly became an inner journey as well.
The project also grew far beyond what we first imagined. It began as a television documentary, but as we went deeper, we realized that to truly honor Kūkai’s spiritual world, we needed to recreate the history and atmosphere on a cinematic scale. We had no major connections, limited funding, and no easy path forward, but many people believed in the film and gave what they could.
There were moments when production nearly came to a halt, and the pressure felt overwhelming. But through meditation and reflection, I realized the first thing that needed to change was myself. I had to let go of fear, stop focusing on the difficulty, and return to the purpose of the film: to express the spiritual core of Master Kūkai as faithfully as possible.
After this shift in mindset, I became much more focused and clear-hearted. More than a decade of creative experience in mainstream media began to flow into my work and merge with the filmmaking process. Soon after, the crew found its rhythm again, the delayed shots were completed, and everyone began to feel renewed confidence in the film we were making. When the mind truly quiets, many problems that once seemed unsolvable gradually find solutions.
Looking back, the greatest harvest of these five years was not simply completing a film. Through KŪKAI, Master Kūkai helped me transcend my former self. It became a turning point in my life.
In reconstructing Kūkai’s life journey and historical contributions, how did you strike a balance between historical authenticity and cinematic storytelling?
From the very beginning, we knew the documentary had to be grounded in historical authenticity. Master Kūkai’s life and spiritual world were powerful enough on their own, so we did not want to add drama at the expense of truth.
To support that approach, we assembled a team of expert consultants and studied extensive historical materials from both China and Japan. During the creative process, we often encountered stories that would have been very dramatic on screen, but if there was not enough historical evidence to support them, we chose to let them go. We would never sacrifice authenticity for drama.
At the same time, we wanted today’s audiences to feel emotionally connected to Kūkai, a figure who lived more than 1,200 years ago. One of the most technically challenging parts of the film was the digital recreation of Kūkai’s face, using historical statues and portraits as references. In creating the digital face, we were especially inspired by a statue at Reihōkan on Kōyasan, known as the “Ten-Thousand-Day Master” image, and we felt connected to that earlier sculptor across time in the same effort to recreate the true Kūkai. This was not done to create a visual spectacle, but to help audiences enter his spiritual world in a more intimate way.
That process alone took five years of careful handcrafting and refinement. Every detail had to be handled with great care. Too much expression could diminish the solemnity of the image, while too little detail could make it feel distant or artificial. In the end, our goal was to create an image that felt serene, dignified and spiritually present.
Over the course of your long study of Kūkai, were there any little-known historical details or new discoveries that particularly surprised you?
From the moment I first received the script, I was deeply shaken by Master Kūkai’s story. What surprised me most was not one single historical detail, but the pattern of choices he made throughout his life. Again and again, he chose truth, duty and the benefit of others over personal comfort or safety.
Born into a noble family, Kūkai risked his life to cross the sea in search of the highest truth of the universe and human existence. Later, to honor the charge of his master, the Great Tang preceptor Huiguo of Qinglong Temple, he returned to Japan ahead of schedule, even at personal risk, so he could serve his country, spread the Dharma and benefit all beings.
What moved me most was how completely he lived for that mission. He brought Esoteric Buddhism to Japan, earned the respect of the Emperor, founded a new school of Buddhism and spent his life fulfilling his master’s charge. Through one transcendent choice after another, Kūkai’s spirit crossed borders, cultures and centuries.
That realization gave me a deep sense of mission. His spirit is not limited to one nation or one era. It is something I believe still deserves to be shared with the contemporary world.
What do you hope today’s audiences will take away from Kūkai’s life and philosophy after watching KŪKAI?
After one of our screenings, an audience member told me, “The meaning of life lies not in achieving for oneself, but in benefiting others. That is the true source of all happiness.” I was deeply moved by that response.
I hope more audiences will leave the film reflecting on the meaning of life in their own way. We live in an era of rapid change, where AI is transforming how we work, learn and create. California, home to both Hollywood and Silicon Valley, is one of the clearest symbols of that change, a place where humanity imagines the future and then works to build it.
Humanity is exploring the outer world at an unprecedented pace. But at the same time, perhaps we should also set aside a little time to explore our inner selves.
When machines become increasingly capable of thinking, calculating and creating, what makes human beings irreplaceable may not be intelligence alone. It may be our capacity for compassion, responsibility, love and devotion.
Master Kūkai explored the inner world of humanity more than 1,200 years ago. I hope this film reminds audiences that as we continue creating the future, we must not forget to cultivate the human heart. What determines the direction of the future is not technology alone, but the direction of the human heart.