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

This film takes place in an isolated lake, where an old monk lives on a small floating temple. The wise master has also a young boy with him that teaches to become a monk. And we watch as seasons and years pass by.

Director: Ki-duk Kim
Writer: Ki-duk Kim
Stars: Ki-duk Kim, Yeong-su Oh and Jong-ho Kim
Storyline

In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis... Written by KGF Vissers.

This beautiful film is one to see more than once -- either in the theater (or in your mind's eye).

I found the discussion group on this film (see the Messag Board for this film title here at IMDb) very helpful in illuminating the symbolism which I partially grasped and in decoding some Buddhist principles.

The setting and the photography that captures it are strikingly beautiful and satisfying. The issues are so universally human that the Buddhist flavor provides an accent and not a barrier.

The story recounts the growth of a child into his adulthood and his eventual reclaiming of his roots and meaning. While the film deals with other Buddhist principles and symbolic elements, a central part of it reminds me of lines from T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" which reads (loosely remembered) '...and the aim of all our wandering is to arrive again at the place from which we started and know it for the first time...'

As one sees one cycle end and another begin, it made me wonder about how the old monk first got there and what his life was like.

Symbolic. Complex. Elegantly simple. Beautiful. Evocative. Haunting. Provocative. Gently touching the universal religious and the profound.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a 2003 South Korean film about a Buddhist monastery that floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story is about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age. The movie was directed by Kim Ki-duk, and stars Su Oh-yeong, Kim Young-min, Seo Jae-kyung, and Kim Jong-ho. The director himself appears as the man in the last stage of life. The quiet, contemplative film marked a significant change from his previous works, which were often criticized for excessive violence and misogyny.