dannatyo
The film "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring", created by the Korean film director Kim Ki-duk, was highly appreciated among the critics and was awarded with many global prizes, and after watching this I can easily understand why. Atmospheric - that is the appealing word to describe this film. Everything, starting from the amazing landscapes, and ending with barely-heard beautiful music, make viewers to be completely immersed in this parable-like movie. With the minimum amount of words, the creators of the film clearly delivered the story, and have let every viewer to make his own conclusion.
In my opinion, the idea of the film coincides with the Buddhist ideology, that life is full of suffering; it is a continuous battle with yourself, with your own cravings, attachments and unnecessary emotions. During the whole film, the main character is trying to conquer himself and to become like his master. Starting from the period when he, as a boy, attains pleasure from seeing the sufferings of animals and ending with the time when his lust turned him into a murderer. All this way through, his teacher is trying to help him, by attaching the stone to him and thus, showing how instant karma works, or by detaching him from the woman, the object of the disciple's passion. The teacher expects that he would be able to change the life of this boy by teaching him all that he knows. But the Wheel of Samsara is continuously turning because all creatures are sinful, and it is very hard to escape it, as well as it is hard to escape the fact that after spring where will be fall, and after fall there will be winter and on and on.
Throughout the film, we can see different interesting Buddhist signs and references. The first thing that catches the attention is that nobody in this film has the name. It may be connected with the Buddhist idea of "no-self", that there is no permanent "self" in us. Another example, when the boy decides to leave, he takes with him the statue of Buddha and the rooster. By doing that he wants the revenge, he wants to hurt his teacher by taking away the things that his teacher loved and was attached to, the same as the teacher separated the disciple from his woman. But rooster in Buddhism symbolizes lust and attachment, so metaphorically speaking, the disciple takes this sin with him to his further life. Another episode, when the teacher burns himself after the monk goes to jail, the snakes come out. Snake in Buddhism symbolizes hatred emotion, so probably this was because the teacher was full of hatred and disappointment in his disciple and in himself, because he failed to pass the Dharma effectively. Or probably because even the disciple tried to get rid of the hatred through cutting the Sutra, it was still left in him.
That is the fascinating feature of this movie - everybody can understand and interpret this story according to his understanding. But the main moral is clear - it is all in your mind, which always should be in peace and not deceived by physical attachments, lust, cravings, hatred, and only through abandoning this, it would be possible to change the frailty of life and stop the Wheel of Samsara. Or how it was said in the movie: "The suffering is in her mind. When she finds peace in her mind, her body will return to health".
Overall, I think it is a great movie. It greatly demonstrates the basics of Buddhist ideology and some of the Eastern cultural features. I think it may seem for some viewers to be a little slow, or lack of actions and words, but again, that is the feature of Asian movies, of their culture and mentality. There is a good camera work, amazing nature shown, good storyline, and more importantly, it provides a great food for thought, even for those, who are not interested in Buddhism.
Anssi Vartiainen
Kim Ki-duk continues to solidify his position as one of my all-time favourite directors. Every film I've seen from him has been a unique experience, yet all of them share similarities that make them instantly recognizable as a Kim Ki-duk film.This particular film is one of his best critical successes and in some ways a new direction for him. Most of his films are at least somewhat urban in nature and deal with themes such as sexuality, detachment and the effects of loneliness. And while those themes are also explored in this film as well, it feels different. The story goes that there's a lake up in the mountains, on which floats a small Buddhist temple. A lonely monk takes care of the temple, accompanied by a small boy. The film follows the events of the temple throughout the years, watching the boy grow as the seasons change. Each season is given a clear separate story, a separate mood, a separate set of symbols and omens.In some ways the film can only be understood if you know enough about Buddhism and its particular symbols and teachings. Then again, I certainly didn't, and I still enjoyed the film immensely. I also enjoyed learning about the symbols and meanings afterwards as I was reading about the film.And quite frankly that's about as much as I'm willing to say about the film. Because to say more would ruin the experience. Know that it's not a very fast-paced film. It's not about great characters or complicated dialogues. Rather it's about mood, about ideas, about silence. Very much worth a watch and a great place to start if you're unfamiliar with Kim Ki-duk.
Vishnu Khandelwal
The plot of the movie revolves around an old monk (master) and a young monk (disciple), living on a floating house at an isolated lake.As we grow up, we go through certain changes at different stages of life. The movie has similarly depicted those changes, in a beautiful way of seasons. While the young monk grows up, he goes through various life learning experiences respective of his age and finally leave.The movie is about how our life goes on to have different seasons and don't end there. Nature repeats its seasons, year and year after. Likewise, the circle of life continues to have the same stages in a different form, through the following generations. Even if the monk was living isolated, oblivious of what in the rest of the world is going, he had to go through same seasons of life as we all do. Here, the thing to learn is that, irrespective of what our future generations will do, the basic human characters are always going to be there and repeat it as someone else.
