Film buffs: don't miss "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring"

[Tummler]

Currently playing on fewer than 60 screens, Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is in limited release in the U.S. I saw it last night via the Region 3 Korean DVD, which is of top-notch quality (like most Korean DVDs) and has English subtitles (again, like most Korean DVDs). Korean movies rarely receive video/DVD distribution in the U.S., so unless you have a region-free DVD player, your only chance to see this wonderful movie may be in theaters.

Spring, Summer... is the best movie I've seen since In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai). It is a movie of such exquisite beauty and quiet power that I would struggle mightily to express my love for it in a coherent fashion. Instead, allow me to crib some paragraphs from a review at Culturedose.net:

It would be easy to scoff at the film's simple-simple parable storyline, which involves different generations of Korean Buddhist monks living in a cottage-size temple afloat in a picturesque lake. In fact the film is so uncomplicated that the characters names on the credits actually read "Old Monk" and "Boy Monk." We are introduced to the locale in springtime through an opened freestanding doorway that is erected without walls at the edge of a lake surrounded by a remote lush forest. It welcomes the viewers into the lives and home of the film's two central characters.

The narrative begins with a young boy, being raised by an elderly monk, taking his daily playtime adventures, but things take a shady turn when the young boy individually ties rocks to a snake, a fish and a frog, hindering their movement. The elderly monk witnesses this and in the night ties a weighty rock to the boy's back. In the morning the monk orders him with rock in tow to free the fish, frog and snake, but if any of these animals are dead, the boy will have to "carry the stone forever in his heart."

Many viewers may have a hard time digesting this kind of dialogue; but if they shell out cash to hear Laurence Fishburne emptily lecture driveling wisdoms in the CGI-fist-fighting and gimmicky Matrix movies, then perhaps a viewing of this film should be mandatory.

Upon finding the snake dead (it tugged off its own head working it against the rope), the boy whales in tears, taking moral responsibility for needlessly killing a creature. The scene is played so purely that I found it hard not to be affected, and the moment never stunk of emotional manipulation. I would also like to make mention that I was glad that writer, director and editor Kim chose a snake to be brutalized. Seen too often in the Western world as a symbol of evil, the snake here is figured as innocent and man as the purposeless and grinning tormenter. I bet Ron Howard would have chosen a white bunny.


And from a review at DVD Beaver:

In "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring", Kim moves away from contemporary film and creates a self-containing Buddhist metaphor, by representing both the stages of our lives, the emotions related to suffering, the road to enlightenment and the circularity of nature, life and the universe thru the four seasons, where each season becomes an allegory for one of the phases in a man's life and the suffering connected to it.

Kim chose wisely not to overload the narrative: quiet opposite, he reduces everything to simple motifs and actions, letting his audience connect the dots of his minimalist and symbolic presentation. As a background for this tale, he chose the Jusan Pond, a 200 year old artificial lake surrounded by mountains, as it's beauty only is surpasses by the mystic resonance. Here, in the middle of the lake, floats a tiny temple, housing an old monk and his student. With each season, the student enters a new phase of his life, encounters new suffering, until he finally is able to reach enlightenment, that marks end of winter and beginning of spring. Curious is, that Kim is devout Catholic of belief, but points out, that the film in part was driven by his relationship between his own religious values and the culture around him.


Reviews by IMDb users:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0374546/usercomments

Reviews by movie critics:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0374546/externalreviews


Now, let's watch this post sink like the cruel young monk's doomed, rock-bound fish ... :)

[davidinalameda]

1. kick

you owe me a dollar

:-)

[Tummler]

2. Thanks for the kick

In keeping with the film's origin, I owe you 1 Korean won (approximate value, 0.000860217 U.S. dollars)!

[Tummler]

3. More

From one of the reviews linked above:
Like The Thin Red Line and Malick's other two films, Kim's goes out of its way to make animals and nature actual characters in the film and serves to remind, among other things, that it is nature (not cities) that is man's natural habitat. Throughout the film, the monks surround themselves and actively participate with animals, including a dog, a rooster and a cat (in addition to the three animals already mentioned).


In one of my favorite scenes, the older monk uses his cat's tail (still attached to the cat, of course) to paint dozens of characters on the wooden floor of the floating temple. I don't know how they got the cat to (barely) cooperate -- sedatives, maybe?