Buddhism in Ran

When we were talking about trying to find Buddhism in Kurosawa's Ran on Monday, something was a little confusing to me. In class you had used "detachment" as the main point of Buddhism to take home for our chart. You had us looking for detachment in the movie as well. I was a little confused by this, because I would have thought a better word to try and describe Buddhism would have been "attachment". We had stated in class that the cessation of Dukkha (suffering) is achieved by following the Noble Eight Fold Path, but to embark on the Noble Eight Fold Path one must accept the Three Convictions of the Four Noble Truths. While the last of the three convictions is Bodhi (or Nirvana) the first two are annica and annatta.So annica and anatta are both essential pillars of Buddhism, without the understanding and accepting of which you cannot live the path to enlightenment. Annica then, states that selfishness is the cause of suffering because all things are interrelated and ever changing. This means that nothing exists of itself, but is only an extension of the rest of the universe. Therefore, when we are greedy we are trying to put our self ahead of other parts of the universe, parts of the universe we are a mere extension of. This would mean we are actually trying to put ourselves ahead of other parts of ourselves, essentially. Which is precisely why doing so causes suffering in ourselves rather than in others. Because there is no "other" we are hurting, that "other" is actually an extension of ourselves, and in hurting that we are hurting ourselves, causing us more suffering. This is why greed and selfishness are thought by Buddhists to be contrary to the way in which the universe works, and why one must understand this relationship to begin their path toward enlightenment. Then understanding this concept of annica can lead to the concept of anatta. Anatta states that if everything that exists is annica, changing and interrelated, then we humans are anatta. Anatta then translates literally to "no selves". Anatta then is to understand annica and to grasp that we are not truly individuals, as we are all part of one ever-changing process. Anatta then also states that we can only realize our true potential when we are sharing with, giving to, and receiving from others. To me I understood these essential truths of Buddhism to mean that there can be nothing more important in Buddhism than to understand that we are all related, and to never "detach" ourselves or others from the rest of existence. This is why "detachment" seemed a little confusing to me in class. For example, in the small intro to the bit of the movie we did watch in class on Monday, the introduction spoke differently to me. I didn't see the clouds as detached gods watching over the events below, or the people as detached from the grand scenery behind them. When I saw the enormity of the mountains and scenery, it made me think of how the people in the scene were merely a very small part of this "larger than life" scene behind them, almost as if to allude to the universe and existence itself. It was like the movie was saying, what problems may be big and important to these people are nothing as the people themselves are such a small insignificant part of existence itself (mountains), a thing much larger than them. I also saw the selfishness present in the scene thusly affect existence. Changing from the white and serene view of the clouds prior to the scene, to the suffering unleashed on the universe by the peoples karma (actions). This transition was then represented by another unpleasant view of the clouds following that scene of the movie.