Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring review

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home > arts&culture > Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring review

May 31, 2004 6:01 PM
by [email]

"I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple…surrounded only by nature." -- director Kim Ki-duk

Intricately carved wooden doors open and this is how the Spring segment of the movie begins, and each season after.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring is a brilliant film, full of symbolism and meaning. The entire movie is set on a floating wooden Buddhist temple on a lake, amidst magnificent scenery. The film is broken down into five seasonal segments, each representing a phase in the main character’s life.

The story begins in the Spring, when we see The Child Monk (played by Kim Jong-Ho) growing up and learning difficult life lessons from his Master, The Old Monk (Oh Young-Soo). Spring marks a time of promise and hope; although The Child Monk makes mistakes, he’s young and youth always holds the dream of future happiness.

The movie moves into Summer, in which The Child Monk has grown into The Boy Monk (Seo Jae-Kyung). The Boy Monk and The Old Monk live a peaceful life, praying and meditating, until a desperate mother brings her sick daughter, The Girl (Ha Yeo-Jin) to the temple for medicine. Inevitably, The Boy Monk and The Girl fall in love.

In the film, Summer is the beginning of main character’s downfall. As we move through the his life and seasons as The Young Adult Monk (Kim Young-Min) and then the Adult Monk (Kim Ki-Duk, the film’s director), we see the effects of actions and consequences.

Whatever religion you follow (or don’t follow), you can appreciate this magnificent film’s Buddhist themes signifying the endless cycles of karma, desire, attachment, suffering and finally, happiness.

Although there is a lot of Buddhist symbology (such as The Old Monk’s burning body and the meaning of the statue The Adult monk places on the hill overlooking the temple), this is a movie everyone should see. There are important lessons to be learned and above all, this film evokes a meditative, peaceful state in the viewer. Dialogue is sparse but this is done on purpose, to place more emphasis on the symbolic actions of the characters.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring is a subtle moral masterpiece.