YMMV / Kundun

• Award Snub: Four Oscar nominations for its impressive production values - and got none, losing to Titanic (1997) out of all films.
• Awesome Music: If you ever heard anything from Philip Glass, you will instantly recognise him, even without knowing he did the soundtrack. Also, many tracks seemlessly blend with in-universe ceremonial instruments.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Disney folding like a tent under Chinese pressure. It was bad when it happened in 1997, but it also marked the point where the Chinese government, feeling confident thanks to their success, doubled down on the effort to isolate and suppress any kind of Western sympathy toward the cause of Tibetan independence and to alienate the 14th Dalai Lama - successfully so.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Today the film is mostly known for the massive political outcry it created, rather than what the film is about or the quality of it. Not only it is literally Banned in China, but so is everyone behind its production from ever entering the country. And if this wasn't enough, Disney quite ostentatiously bent over to the Chinese government, to the point of Michael Eisner, then the CEO of the company, going for a personal kowtow trip. All of this re-surfaced years later, in regards to the Mulan (2020) controversies.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Kim Chan, due to his association with playing over-the-top bad guys, comes off as unintentionally comedic and hammy, solely due to his association.
  • Robert Lin as Mao Zhedong, with a ridiculous lisp and even more ridiculous hairstyle trying to imitate Mao balding spot.
• Signature Scene: The Dalai Lama's nightmare, where he's standing in the middle of a massive field full of hundreds of dead monks, while the camera keeps panning further and further away and there are still more bodies.
• Special Effect Failure: Despite its impressive visuals, great cinematography and general Scenery Porn, the film used a matte painting during the burial of Dalai Lama's father that's just painfully obvious, looking like a set straight from the 1930s studio lot.

---