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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Working miracles with only a single set and a handful of characters, Korean director Kim Ki-Duk creates a wise little gem of a movie. As the title suggests, the action takes place in five distinct episodes, but sometimes many years separate the seasons. The setting is a floating monastery in a pristine mountain lake, where an elderly monk teaches a boy the lessons of life--although when the boy grows to manhood, he inevitably must learn a few hard lessons for himself. By the time the story reaches its final sections, you realize you have witnessed the arc of existence--not one person's life, but everyone's. It's as enchanting as a Buddhist fable, but it's not precious; Kim (maker of the notorious The Isle) consistently surprises you with a sex scene or an explosion of black comedy; he also vividly acts in the Winter segment, when the lake around the monastery eerily freezes. --Robert Horton
Product Description
From the award-winning Korean writer/director/editor Kim K-Duk comes this critifcally acclaimed and exquisitely beautiful story of a young Buddhist monk's evolution from innocence to Love, Evil to Enlightenment and ultimately to Rebirth.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
124 of 135 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring ushers the audience into silent solitude through meticulously planned cinematography that maximizes the effect of the natural environment. The environment is essential to the story as it takes place in an idyllic valley that is untouched by the continually modernizing civilization. In the middle of the valley is a small lake in which a small floating monastery drifts by the forces of the nature. This has an allegorical meaning as it supports the notion that everything is part of a greater plan in which individuals can make small ripples that will affect the individual throughout life.
Each frame is carefully planned as color, form, and movement come together into a meaningful expression of either spiritual, moral, existential meaning, or a personal meaning which rests behind the eye of the beholder. The film becomes a sequential succession of spiritual or existential paintings that are rapidly exchanged before the viewers' retina. The mise-en-scene is exceptionally significant as Ki-duk Kim has left nothing to chance, yet everything is based on chance. This visual oxymoron is very much like the chaotic expression which nature expresses itself within each season.
The story is split into the four seasons as it begins and ends with spring as the title suggests. The beginning takes place in the spring as an old monk cares for a young boy who discovers the consequence of guilt the hard way as he torments a fish, a frog, and a snake. The shots have symbolic meaning, yet the many frames offer much room for personal interpretation as the boy deals with everyday life under the supervision of the monk.
Summer opens the door to love, affection, and desire as the young boy has become a young man. This begins with the old monk who receives a young woman that is sick. The mother of the young woman requests that the monk help to cure her daughter that seems to suffer from some sort of restless melancholic ailment. The young woman and the young man playfully begin a romantic relationship that leads them into a physical relationship. This relationship drives the young man to give up a life in the small monastery as he sneaks away an early morning.
Fall is the season when the woods change from green to an explosion of color. Ki-duk Kim use this natural phenomenon of the seasons to a full effect as the season displays the aftermath of a vengeful strikeout from the young man who now is a man in his 30s. The man now has to learn the consequences of his actions through a painful internal crisis, in which he seeks moral and spiritual redemption by returning to the tranquility of the valley.
Winter follows fall and the man is now in his 40s, as he once again returns to the monastery in order to take over for the former monk. It becomes a time for spiritual search and moral purging for the man who tries to fill the shoes of his former teacher and guide. This means that he must find a way to deal with his past, present, and future by rigorously following a rough and narrow path.
When spring returns the film brings the audience in a full circle as it returns to where the film once started. The cyclical message is a fundamental cornerstone of Buddhism and the message that the film portrays. However, it does not mean that things will be the same in the future as each ripple created will cause some change in the environment, which is skillfully depicted through the use of the animals that Ki-duk Kim incorporates into each season. In the initial spring there is a dog and as summer comes along it brings a rooster while a cat enters with the fall. A snake appears in the winter as and as the spring returns it brings the audience a turtle. These animals also represent the end of men's lives as they could be reincarnations of other human's, which is a result of the ripples they once created.
Each frame is carefully planned as color, form, and movement come together into a meaningful expression of either spiritual, moral, existential meaning, or a personal meaning which rests behind the eye of the beholder. The film becomes a sequential succession of spiritual or existential paintings that are rapidly exchanged before the viewers' retina. The mise-en-scene is exceptionally significant as Ki-duk Kim has left nothing to chance, yet everything is based on chance. This visual oxymoron is very much like the chaotic expression which nature expresses itself within each season.
The story is split into the four seasons as it begins and ends with spring as the title suggests. The beginning takes place in the spring as an old monk cares for a young boy who discovers the consequence of guilt the hard way as he torments a fish, a frog, and a snake. The shots have symbolic meaning, yet the many frames offer much room for personal interpretation as the boy deals with everyday life under the supervision of the monk.
Summer opens the door to love, affection, and desire as the young boy has become a young man. This begins with the old monk who receives a young woman that is sick. The mother of the young woman requests that the monk help to cure her daughter that seems to suffer from some sort of restless melancholic ailment. The young woman and the young man playfully begin a romantic relationship that leads them into a physical relationship. This relationship drives the young man to give up a life in the small monastery as he sneaks away an early morning.
Fall is the season when the woods change from green to an explosion of color. Ki-duk Kim use this natural phenomenon of the seasons to a full effect as the season displays the aftermath of a vengeful strikeout from the young man who now is a man in his 30s. The man now has to learn the consequences of his actions through a painful internal crisis, in which he seeks moral and spiritual redemption by returning to the tranquility of the valley.
Winter follows fall and the man is now in his 40s, as he once again returns to the monastery in order to take over for the former monk. It becomes a time for spiritual search and moral purging for the man who tries to fill the shoes of his former teacher and guide. This means that he must find a way to deal with his past, present, and future by rigorously following a rough and narrow path.
When spring returns the film brings the audience in a full circle as it returns to where the film once started. The cyclical message is a fundamental cornerstone of Buddhism and the message that the film portrays. However, it does not mean that things will be the same in the future as each ripple created will cause some change in the environment, which is skillfully depicted through the use of the animals that Ki-duk Kim incorporates into each season. In the initial spring there is a dog and as summer comes along it brings a rooster while a cat enters with the fall. A snake appears in the winter as and as the spring returns it brings the audience a turtle. These animals also represent the end of men's lives as they could be reincarnations of other human's, which is a result of the ripples they once created.
60 of 65 people found the following review helpful
By Robert Wise
Format:DVD
This is a truly great work of art that is also a medium for the Buddha's teachings.
Zen is a school of Buddhism that traditionally does not rely on words or letters and is based on the "mind to mind" transmission of the master's teaching to the student.
Many excellent reviews have covered the wonderful story line and the cinematic qualities of the film. I would like to make a few comments on the Buddhist and Zen teaching elements of the film.
1. The setting -- Buddha was enlightened under a tree and the natural world serves as the context for many Buddhist teachings. The great Japanese Zen Master, Dogen, wrote essays on the lives of mountains and rivers and non-sentient beings.
2. Cycles -- The seasonal cycle in the film is symbolic of the cycle of life with an old man, a child, youth, young lovers, parents, and old man again. Only if we live, as Dogen said, in Being/Time can we transcend these cycles.
3. Karma -- The child, because of his choice or his propensity kills a fish and more... Every decision and mysterious propensity leads to consequences.
4. The Island temple and the raft -- The small temple is on a drifting island connected to the shore by a raft indicating the impermanence even of the Master's abode and the refuge. A question from Zen point of view is -- Where is Buddha?
5. The Master -- He teaches with few words -- typical of Zen tradition -- teaches by example. (Actually... Zen masters are blabbermouths who did anything to teach their students that they thought would work. Existence is the ultimate blaberbody).
6. The Gateless Gate -- One of the two great Zen Koan (cases studies for contemplation) collection is called in English "The Gateless Gate". To reach the boat from the shore and to reach the Master's room from the bedroom there is a door but no wall.
What is reality? Is there any real separation?
7. Animal teachings -- A fish, a rooster, a cat, rocks, falling leaves, snow, water and waves, the sky, and mountains all play roles in the teaching process. Does a little fish have Buddha nature or not?
8. Skillful Means -- In Zen tradition there is dynamic and powerful teaching, when necessary, using shouts, hitting, and dynamic dialogues and any other means. The Master uses a poor cat's tail to write the sutra on the deck of porch of the temple. There is more but you must see this movie...
9. No eyes, no ears, no tongue, no body, no mind. no seeing, no hearing, no tasting, no touching, no thinking -- This line from the Heart Sutra is a core teaching of Buddhism -- especially Zen Buddhism. In the most haunting scene in the movie, the Master's eyes and mouth are covered with paper -- what does this mean to you? Has reality been cut or is this a new reality?
Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring. Where is it and when does it begin and end?
Zen is a school of Buddhism that traditionally does not rely on words or letters and is based on the "mind to mind" transmission of the master's teaching to the student.
Many excellent reviews have covered the wonderful story line and the cinematic qualities of the film. I would like to make a few comments on the Buddhist and Zen teaching elements of the film.
1. The setting -- Buddha was enlightened under a tree and the natural world serves as the context for many Buddhist teachings. The great Japanese Zen Master, Dogen, wrote essays on the lives of mountains and rivers and non-sentient beings.
2. Cycles -- The seasonal cycle in the film is symbolic of the cycle of life with an old man, a child, youth, young lovers, parents, and old man again. Only if we live, as Dogen said, in Being/Time can we transcend these cycles.
3. Karma -- The child, because of his choice or his propensity kills a fish and more... Every decision and mysterious propensity leads to consequences.
4. The Island temple and the raft -- The small temple is on a drifting island connected to the shore by a raft indicating the impermanence even of the Master's abode and the refuge. A question from Zen point of view is -- Where is Buddha?
5. The Master -- He teaches with few words -- typical of Zen tradition -- teaches by example. (Actually... Zen masters are blabbermouths who did anything to teach their students that they thought would work. Existence is the ultimate blaberbody).
6. The Gateless Gate -- One of the two great Zen Koan (cases studies for contemplation) collection is called in English "The Gateless Gate". To reach the boat from the shore and to reach the Master's room from the bedroom there is a door but no wall.
What is reality? Is there any real separation?
7. Animal teachings -- A fish, a rooster, a cat, rocks, falling leaves, snow, water and waves, the sky, and mountains all play roles in the teaching process. Does a little fish have Buddha nature or not?
8. Skillful Means -- In Zen tradition there is dynamic and powerful teaching, when necessary, using shouts, hitting, and dynamic dialogues and any other means. The Master uses a poor cat's tail to write the sutra on the deck of porch of the temple. There is more but you must see this movie...
9. No eyes, no ears, no tongue, no body, no mind. no seeing, no hearing, no tasting, no touching, no thinking -- This line from the Heart Sutra is a core teaching of Buddhism -- especially Zen Buddhism. In the most haunting scene in the movie, the Master's eyes and mouth are covered with paper -- what does this mean to you? Has reality been cut or is this a new reality?
Spring Summer Fall Winter Spring. Where is it and when does it begin and end?
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
In an age of computer enhanced, if not entirely generated, special effects, high adventure, action upon action scenes, what an enjoyable respite it is to view this Korean film of aesthetic simplicity.
Korean director Kim Ki-Duk has created a film centered around the seasons of a man's life beautifully framed against the seasons of nature. An elder Buddhist monk raises a younger monk with a quiet and unobtrusive wisdom. The scene is set in a small floating monastery where the two live alone but for one animal companion, the choice of animal changing with each season, adding layers of intriguing symbolic meaning. Surrounding the floating monastery is a lake set among mountains.
Beginning in the spring of the boy's life, when he is a child learning about the world around him and within him, the wise older man watches the naive young boy engage in lessons proffered by nature. He lets the boy learn on his own, watching from a distance, and only steps in when it is time to do so. In perhaps the film's most profound statement, he watches as the boy, chuckling to himself, ties string around a fish he catches in the lake, and attaches it to a stone. The child takes joy in the struggling of the fish when he releases it back into the water, where the fish is unable to swim freely. The boy repeats this with a frog, with a snake, gleefully tormenting his fellow creatures. From the woods above the shore of the water, the elder monk watches. He is a silent observer, allowing the boy to engage in his mischief. It is only at night, when the boy sleeps, that the monk ties a rock to the boy's back, precisely as the boy did with the tiny creatures. When the boy wakes upon morning, he finds himself weighed down with the rock, and when he questions the elder man, is told that the rock will not be removed until the boy removes the stones he tied to the creatures the day before. Should he not have rescued the creatures in time, the stone will then be a weight the boy must carry in his heart ever after.
The boy seeks out the creatures he has tormented. He finds the little fish dead in the water, still tied to its stone. Teary eyed, he buries it. The frog, though exhausted from its added weight, survives. The snake, however, the boy finds bloodied and dead, attacked by other creatures while unable to escape, and the boy sobs with regret for what he has done.
This is but the first of many lessons the boy must learn as he grows into a man over the course of the seasons of his life and the life around him. There are lessons of love and lust as the manchild, and then the adult man, confuses the two; there are lessons of violence and retribution; lessons of penitence and forgiveness; lessons on dealing with one's own emotions and inner turbulence; lessons of honor and death and rebirth. There is a repetition of the stone tied to the man as he reaches a higher level of understanding, once the elder monk has died, and this time the man has tied the stone to himself as he presses to reach for a higher level of endurance, wisdom, and reverence.
While seemingly simple, this wonderful film is in actuality complex and rich with beauty and symbolism, cutting to the core of a man's nature and the nature of life. It can be watched many times over to enjoy fully its intricacies. It is subtitled, yet one can watch it, and perhaps even should--at least once--without the words, for there are few, and the images convey all that must be understood.
Perhaps the greatest skill in movie-making is not the amount of special effects incorporated in its making, as to what level of beauty and wisdom one can bring to the screen without anything other than a director's fine eye and profoundly simple yet wise insights.
Highly recommended.
Korean director Kim Ki-Duk has created a film centered around the seasons of a man's life beautifully framed against the seasons of nature. An elder Buddhist monk raises a younger monk with a quiet and unobtrusive wisdom. The scene is set in a small floating monastery where the two live alone but for one animal companion, the choice of animal changing with each season, adding layers of intriguing symbolic meaning. Surrounding the floating monastery is a lake set among mountains.
Beginning in the spring of the boy's life, when he is a child learning about the world around him and within him, the wise older man watches the naive young boy engage in lessons proffered by nature. He lets the boy learn on his own, watching from a distance, and only steps in when it is time to do so. In perhaps the film's most profound statement, he watches as the boy, chuckling to himself, ties string around a fish he catches in the lake, and attaches it to a stone. The child takes joy in the struggling of the fish when he releases it back into the water, where the fish is unable to swim freely. The boy repeats this with a frog, with a snake, gleefully tormenting his fellow creatures. From the woods above the shore of the water, the elder monk watches. He is a silent observer, allowing the boy to engage in his mischief. It is only at night, when the boy sleeps, that the monk ties a rock to the boy's back, precisely as the boy did with the tiny creatures. When the boy wakes upon morning, he finds himself weighed down with the rock, and when he questions the elder man, is told that the rock will not be removed until the boy removes the stones he tied to the creatures the day before. Should he not have rescued the creatures in time, the stone will then be a weight the boy must carry in his heart ever after.
The boy seeks out the creatures he has tormented. He finds the little fish dead in the water, still tied to its stone. Teary eyed, he buries it. The frog, though exhausted from its added weight, survives. The snake, however, the boy finds bloodied and dead, attacked by other creatures while unable to escape, and the boy sobs with regret for what he has done.
This is but the first of many lessons the boy must learn as he grows into a man over the course of the seasons of his life and the life around him. There are lessons of love and lust as the manchild, and then the adult man, confuses the two; there are lessons of violence and retribution; lessons of penitence and forgiveness; lessons on dealing with one's own emotions and inner turbulence; lessons of honor and death and rebirth. There is a repetition of the stone tied to the man as he reaches a higher level of understanding, once the elder monk has died, and this time the man has tied the stone to himself as he presses to reach for a higher level of endurance, wisdom, and reverence.
While seemingly simple, this wonderful film is in actuality complex and rich with beauty and symbolism, cutting to the core of a man's nature and the nature of life. It can be watched many times over to enjoy fully its intricacies. It is subtitled, yet one can watch it, and perhaps even should--at least once--without the words, for there are few, and the images convey all that must be understood.
Perhaps the greatest skill in movie-making is not the amount of special effects incorporated in its making, as to what level of beauty and wisdom one can bring to the screen without anything other than a director's fine eye and profoundly simple yet wise insights.
Highly recommended.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spring,Summer,Fall,Winter......and Spring
Serenly beautiful,with a timeless quality.This movie touches on the human experiences we are all familiar with and deal with everyday.The acting was supurb.
Published 15 days ago by Carolyn Francisco
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorite movies.
I have always really liked this movie for its sense of peace and depth this movie portrays. One of my favorite movies, the depth is penetrating as long as you can appreciate the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Berry Amason
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome story.
Had seen this movie with my husband and after four years he said he'd like to see it again. It was the Valentine's gift that made him smile and gave us a evening at home alone,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Emalea Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Soothing movie
This is one of the best movies I've seen in a while. There is a lot of symbolism about life told through the seasons. The setting is amazing. It will make you appriciate nature. Read more
Published 3 months ago by bettyboopflirt
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful film
Directed by Ki-duk Kim, this beautiful film is pleasing on the eye as it is in its simplicity. Rather than referring to five consecutive seasons, the film focuses on the different... Read more
Published 3 months ago by D Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well done
This is the most romantic,spiritual,sexy Korean movie I have ever seen. There are a couple scenes that would be considered R rated for sex scenes. Read more
Published 3 months ago by chris jansen
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Essence of Zen, in Five Acts
This is one of the most beautiful, profoundly moving films I've ever seen. An exquisite work of art, it makes maximum use of the delicate nuances of nature and the changing... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Marsha Waggoner
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best
Wonderful story of life... everyone should see this movie. It's a visual celebration to nature and a very moving interpretation of life... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jolene A. Duff
5.0 out of 5 stars
I was just introduce
Saw this movie on Starz Cinema- I loved it the scenery and story. I wish it was in blu-ray. If you are one of the wierd artistic people who love sub-title, then this will work.
Published 4 months ago by TW
2.0 out of 5 stars
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winer...and Spring
If I knew the movie was going to be so boring, I would not have purchased it. I wasted $12 on it.
Published 4 months ago by Macy
