Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring 2003

“Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring is an exquisitely simple movie. Written and directed by Kim Ki-duk, it was filmed at a single location – a remote and picturesque mountain lake in a South Korean wilderness preserve – and it concentrates on the relationship between a Buddhist monk and his young protégé, characters whose names are never spoken… The subject of Spring is spiritual discipline, which the older monk distills into a set of lessons that are, like the film, self-evident and enigmatic. They also reflect aspects of Buddhism not always sufficiently appreciated in the West, often witty and occasionally harsh… The master and his protégé live in extreme isolation; their small wooden house, on a raft in the middle of the lake, is the only habitation for miles around. But emissaries from the outside world occasionally reach them… The story, effortlessly joining the cycle of the seasons to the larger rhythms of the life cycle, has a beguiling perfection. Along the way there are numerous surprises, and you are never sure, as one chapter gives way to the next, how many changes will have taken place. But by the end – when you are back at spring, with a young acolyte and a gray-haired master – the film takes on the heft and gravity of one of the smooth stone Buddhas that decorate the old monk’s house. It seems less a modern work of art than a solid, ancient object that has always been there, waiting to be found.” – A.O. Scott, NY Times