The Banquet

Language: Mandarin. English subtitles
IMDB Rating: 6.5/ 10

Plot: In 907 AD, the Tang Dynasty is in tatters; infighting snarls the imperial family. Crown Prince Wu Luan loves Little Wan, but his father takes her as his Empress. Wu Luan goes into exile, studying dance and music. His uncle muerders his father, taking throne and Empress; uncle sends assassins to kiill Wu Luan. The Crown Prince eludes dtheah and comes to court. The Emperor arranges for Little Wan's coronation and dispatches Wu Luan to a distant land; he then calls for a midnight banquet on the 100th day of his rule. Poison, treachery, Wu Luan's return, and the love of the innocent Qing for Wu Luan set up the final entanglements. No Fortinbras or Horatio lay the daetd to rest (IMBD).

Part I


Part II

Story of 1

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 7.2/ 10

Plot: The story of the number one is the story of Western civilization. Terry Jones ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") goes on a humor-filled journey to recount the amazing tale behind the world's simplest number. Using computer graphics, "One" is brought to life, in all his various guises, in STORY OF 1 (IMDB). More information to be found here.

A Guide to Happiness: "Nietzsche on Hardship"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

106 - "Nietzsche on Hardship"

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 106 is “Nietzsche on Hardship.” Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) advocated suffering and the overcoming of hardship as good aspects of life. Why and how did Nietzsche advocate difficulty as necessary for worthwhile life achievements?

A Guide to Happiness: "Schopenhauer on Love"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

105 - "Schopenhauer on Love"

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 105 is "Schopenhauer on Love." 19th Century Arthur Schopenhauer believed that love is the most important human striving because of its powerful impulse toward "the will to life." What light does Alain de Botton shed on the irony of an unhappy philosopher probing the subject of love?

A Guide to Happiness: "Montaigne on Self-Esteem"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

104 - "Montaigne on Self-Esteem"

Plot: Episode 4: "Montaigne on Self-Esteem" looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.

Michel de Montaigne lived in 16th Century France, long before modern psychology developed and the expression "self-esteem" was coined. In what ways was this contemporary psychological concept central to his worldview?

A Guide to Happiness: "Seneca on Anger"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

103 - Epicurus on Happiness

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 103 is "Seneca on Anger." What practical guide can we adopt from the principles developed by Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) to accommodate the stresses and dangers of his era?

Seneca took the subject of anger seriously enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument. He thought anger arose from certain rationally held ideas about the world, and the problem with these ideas is that they are far too optimistic. Certain things are a predictable feature of life, and to get angry about them is to have unrealistic expectations.

A Guide to Happiness: "Epicurus on Happiness"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

102 - Epicurus on Happiness

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 102 is “Epicurus on Happiness.” Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 341-270 BC, believed that “friends,” “freedom,” and “thought” are the path to happiness. What kind of happiness was Epicurus seeking – and is this still relevant today?

A Guide to Happiness: “Socrates on Self-Confidence”

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

01 - Socrates on Self-Confidence

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 101 is “Socrates on Self-Confidence.” What did Socrates (470-399 BC) mean by “searching for the truth,” “self-knowledge,” and his dialectic method, and how does Alain de Botton extrapolate these concepts into our lives in the 21st Century?