The Ending Themes of The Silent Flute (aka Circle of Iron)

Having reviewed The Silent Flute, I wanted to discuss it in more depth, but couldn't due to spoilers. Because of that, I recommend you watch the film before reading this if it sounds like something that'd interest you, and you wanna go in blind.

The Silent Flute tells the story of Cord, a wanderer in search of Zetan, keeper of the book of enlightenment. As he journeys though the land of trials, he meets many strange residents, friends and enemies. Most notable is an enigmatic blind man, with fighting prowess that instantly humbles Cord. If this man fights so skillfully with such a disability, how strong must Zetan be?

Cord's first trial sees him against a monkey man, who fights dirty. Breaking through his tricks exposes his cowardice. The second trial is more of a lesson, as Cord puts it. He stumbles upon a travelling wagon in the desert, led by merchant Chang-Sha. He is a friendly man, offering wine and women, even one of his wives Tara, who shares a mutual attraction with Cord. A fight with Chang-Sha seems expected to win the next trial, but Cord instead wakes up alone, the wagons gone, and Tara crucified. Filled with hate and revenge, as well as sorrow for his lost love, Cord continues on through these lands, reuniting with the blind man.

After being shown a further series of lessons, Cord rejects them until being shown their true meaning, and parts ways with the blind man to go off on his own. He soon finds Chang-Sha again. Except this time he fights on his own terms. Not at night, not the next day, or after festivities-Right now. He fights Chang-Sha with a clear mind free of revenge (a little too bloody clear if you ask me!), and is victorious. Now he will be taken to the sacred island where Zetan dwells.

Cord is ready for a fight upon landing, and is confused when not only nobody challenges him, but Zetan himself is a kindly older man, only interested in teaching. Cord is shown all around the island, a harmonious place of wisdom and learning, before finally being taken to the book. He is give the choice to not look inside and be content with spending his days on the island, or open it, and see everything. Cord flings open the book...and sees only a mirror. Then another. And another, until the book ends. There is no inner truth that any book can tell or enlightenment it can give. It can only come from yourself, from each individual person.

Confused at first, Cord laughs happily as he understands. He gets up to leave, ignoring Zetan's increasingly desperate please to replace him as Keeper of the book. Zetan accepted his position without looking inside, which seems like the enlightened thing to do. Having all the information in the world at your grasp, yet choosing to only guard it, never look. However, since there is no special knowledge, and it simply teaches that everything comes from within, Zetan never learned this lesson, and instead of rejecting what he thought was not for man to know, he instead rejected true inner peace. Is Zetan to be punished on this island because he chose ignorance? In any case Cord doesn't seem too bothered by this, giggling like a schoolboy at Zetan's predicament.

Perhaps the movie is implying that life needs more purpose than simply being, and that it's a righteous person's duty to fulfill that rather than just sit in their own peaceful bubble forever. But then again, we're still left with the question of Zetan being unable to leave. Maybe he just happened to swear a vow to stay here until a new keeper came along, and he found the role a lot more boring and unfulfilling than he thought?

On the subject of prisoners, there's the status of Cord. It's implied that he will go back out into the land of trials, and become a guide for others just as the blind man once did. If so, is Cord as much a prisoner out there as Zetan is on the island? He may have more freedom to move, but he's still obligated by duty to stay where he is. But then again, despite being obligated to stay he might be satisfied because he actually is in a position to fight against injustice, and be a mentor to anyone else who wanders into these lands-A privilege lost to Zetan.

Given the book's message is so simple in a way, one wonders why the monks just print some bloody pamphlets, so avoid all the hassle of people getting themselves killed on a constant basis. But then again, even if they already have the answers the whole time without realising, perhaps they need the experiences of the journey getting there for the lesson to really take effect and have meaning.

I would doubt the monkey man has seen anything, except for who plays him. This suggests to me that while Chang-Sha understood what was in the book and disagreed with it, the monkey man full-on didn't understand it, reacting with impatience and anger to what he thought was a cheat. A message of enlightenment would hardly be expected to mean anything to a cowardly and egotistical killer, after all. Chang-Sha still seems to have taken the book's lesson negatively, and instead wants to kill all who seek it, feeling that death is a better way for them to know the secrets of life.

Cord is an open-minded guy and eager to learn, but also firm in his ways. He believes in going his own way no matter what the rules of others might say. He goes all this way only to find an ethos he already kinda lived by already. But perhaps he was unsure of himself,and if he was really going down the right path, but this journey gave him the confidence to be himself.

At three instances Cord is given a chance to reject the book, and seek enlightenment elsewhere. Even offered a position on the island of eternal bliss, yet he stays true to his quest to the end.

Another character Cord meets on his journey is an older man who grew so tired of his libido controlling him he's sat in a tub of oil for years, letting his lower half...genitals included, dissipate. His logic is people could be heavenly if only they didn't have their desires tying them to earth. But he doesn't seem to realise that being bound to earth is what makes us human, and all he's accomplishing is destroying all that is human about him. Hence Cord, despite himself making a mistake of the flesh (as per the film, not me!), instead takes the responsibility onto himself and moves beyond it, accepting what happened.

One observation on the island is when Zetan talks about the studies performed, where teacher and student work to produce the teaching together. Watching the film, this is in essence how Cord and the blind man's relationship works. He doesn't give actual lessons, but instead puts Cord in situations where he does the work himself.

The three big themes of the film, according to its creator (Bruce Lee), are Ego, Love, and Death. These are represented by the trials, where Cord must expose his opponent's ego for what it truly is, experience love for the first time, and confront death. In doing so he must defeat his fears of these three things, as they are all aspects of his subconscious. He never fights Zetan, only himself in a way. And when the fight with Chang-Sha is over, Cord doesn't kill him, but simply bests him and stops the fight. Because he doesn't need to destroy himself to win. There's also the question raised that if Cord won't confront Chang-Sha with hate why confront him at all.

When Cord meets these characters, he asks them all if they are Zetan, with Death replying that he is stronger. In Cord's fight with Chang-Sha, we see flashes of all previous characters played by Carradine, save for the blind man. Perhaps he represents Cord himself.

The Silent Flute is a far more fascinating film than you'd expect it to have any right to be. I think it really lives up to the vision Bruce Lee had, and while it's probably a bit cheesier and low-budget than he would've preferred, I think he'd have been very happy with how its themes were portrayed...