I think it bonded the cast and crew."Given the dark territory in which Nakata's film moves, the blessing also had the effect - like The Exorcist's 1973 production blessing by Reverend Thomas Bermingham - of raising the film's profile. However, the Shinto priest has been quietly playing a part in Japanese films for years."In Japan, there is always a purification ceremony to ensure the safety of the filming and the crew," says the prolific Japanese producer, Takashige Ichise, who made the recent US remake of the Japanese film Ju-On, The Grudge "We also pray for the success of the film. It is all part of the process of making movies here." Even when Ichise worked with an American cast, he found that the ceremony served to bond the film's team together. "There's something wonderful about everyone paying their respects on set," says Sarah Michelle Gellar, who starred in The Grudge.The director Ang Lee, meanwhile, has taken the Buddhist ritual of the "Big Luck" ceremony to his cast and crew on movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Sense and Sensibility.

At the beginning of each production, fruit, red flowers and incense sticks are placed on a table while the group bow to the four points of the compass A camera and a symbolic length of film are blessed. Emma Thompson recalls it as a high point of the production of Sense and Sensibility. She recorded in her diary: "Arrived for the opening 'Big Luck' ceremony. Ang struck the gongs, we all cheered and planted incense in the rice bowls I cried. Al Watson, one of the electricians, passed Ang and said, 'Is this going to happen every day, guv?'"Fortunately, all the gaffers on the Lama Khyentse Norbu's 2003 film Travellers and Magicians were sympathetic to Buddhism. He chose cast, crew, and even film stock by using Mo, a method of divination.

"Many ceremonies were conducted before, during and after filming," says the producer Mal Watson. Ceremonies included lighting fires and burning precious substances like grains, expensive liquor and special herbs and then getting the crew to howl and whoop and yell. "Even 'letters' were sent to particular temples believed to be the seats of these deities requesting permission and assistance," says Watson. It produced startling results says Khyentse's assistant, Noa Jones "After one [ceremony] a big rainbow came.