Spring, summer, autumn, winter...and spring (movie review)

Spring, summer, autumn, winter...and spring (2004) (drama) (1hr 43 mins)

This film from Korean director Kim Ki-Duk is a parable about a Buddhist monk and the pupil he raises. It’s a change of direction for Kim, who is best known for violent films like Bad Guy and The Isle.

Living on a floating temple in the middle of a lake, surrounded by forests and mountains, they live a simple life, attending to their interior world.

In the spring section, the monk observes the boy tying a stone to a fish, a frog and a snake. To teach him a lesson, he ties a stone to the boy’s back and tells him he must release the animals before he is released, adding that if any of the animals has died, he will carry that death within him forever. When the boy finds that the snake has died, he cries.

Summer sees the boy, now a teenager, fall for a young woman who is staying at the temple. They soon become lovers and when she leaves to return to the world, he goes in pursuit.

In autumn he returns, now a man and scarred by life.

In winter, he takes the role of the monk and the everlasting cycle of life continues. The seasons are presumably intended to show the stages of a man’s life.

There is a lyrical, reflective quality to the film which makes it absorbing. The spiritual message, if less than subtle, just manages to keep from straying into preaching. There is little dialogue but the unfolding scenes portray the major dramas of life: sin, love, suffering and redemption.

The film won the Audience Award at the 2003 San Sebastian film festival.

 Rating: 7/10