Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Velvetier Now the words "Korean art film from the 80s" should be enough to get film snobs and Asian cinema fans to watch this film. And how many films are about monastics, to boot? I agree with the reviewers who say this film is slow and incomprehensible. The Korean art professor who made this seemed more interested in making a pseudo-profound art film than an actual good film. The Zen koan-like utterings from the monks seem just a bit cliched. There was even a monastery cat in the window sill. Does it get any better than that? Art films, especially foreign ones, will get a lot of rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for simply being pretentious and artsy. New York Times raved about this way back in 1993. Actually, this reminds me of Ponette (1994) - another very slow-moving, boring foreign film from around that time.Still, I give 5 stars for some beautiful cinematography, hot actor (why doesn't he have any other credits besides this film?), and the unique subject matter. The hot actor looks like Sang Woo Kim, the British Korean model/artist on Instagram.I watched this streamed on YouTube, but had a really hard time following and keeping interested. Maybe it's better if you watch it in a theater. This is a very little-known film from the 80s, but I can see art film houses screening this these days. This reminds me of a more recent monastery film, Into Great Silence (2005), a German documentary that followed around Carthusian monks in a French monastery. That documentary had no narrative, just silent, and just followed the monks about their lives. Anyway, this is a decent film to attempt watching (good luck) if you want to add to your tiny arsenal of monastery films. You'll learn about Korean stuff you probably didn't know about, like the purple rice (black rice added to white, turns it purple).

peter07 I first saw this film several years ago, and I was told that it was so hard to understand. Then I studied more about Zen Buddhism, and slowly but surely, I did begin to understand.The movie is considered the best film about Buddhism, and rightly so. The director, a professor at the Buddhist Dongguk University in Seoul, took seven years to make it and used non-actors to play the parts.He recently remastered the image and dialogue in a new DVD release, but unfortunately, no extras or featurettes. This film is one of the greatest made, and I feel sorry that it hasn't gotten the proper DVD treatment it deserves.Nonethless, this movie is a meditation about Buddhism, life and death, and our raison d'etre. Definitely not to be missed.

meyer-8 This movie is quite a bit like "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring."It must be a Korean genre. The photography is absolutely magnificent, but the Takemitsu-like music will put off some people. It leaves you with an eerie feeling.There is a story and not altogether a happy one. These forest monks are still homo sapiens, replete with all the urges and desires and wonderings that drive us mad. In both films, there is an old master who is quite sure of himself and of Buddhism, but that is offset by a younger monk who must leave for the world.So see both these movies and draw your own comparisons.

marc-64 As a fan of exotic and international cinema, I looked forward to seeing this film. Like another commentator, I lost interest and focus about half way through the film...but not because it was more enjoyable to contemplate the slide-show of imagery from afar--rather it was utterly incomprehensible. Symbolism, yes, but perhaps one has to be a Zen follower to ascribe deeper meaning to the simple presentation of a mish mash of images.Perhaps interesting from a Zen perspective, everyone in the theatre (who managed to stay to the end of the film) left in a stony silence.