Essentials: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

Year: 2003
Genre: Drama
Stars: Yeong-su Oh, Young-min Kim, Ki-duk Kim, Jae-kyeong Seo, Yeo-jin Ha, Jong-ho Kim, Jung-young Kim, Dae-han Ji, Min Choi, Ji-a Park, Min-Young Song
Directed: Ki-duk Kim
Production: LJ Film

Very little in the world of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring is physically attached to one another, yet everything feels connected; physically, spiritually, narratively. The doors insinuating rooms inside the tiny monastery where we lay our scene stand alone, unattached to walls. The small row boat, providing the only connection between the outside world and the monastery is almost never festooned to its moorings. For that matter, neither is the temple itself which gently glides across the lake like it were a pontoon. Nothing is attached, yet everything is connected, tranquil and cyclical.

The story is told in simple, largely visual terms; an elderly Monk (Yeong-su Oh), is rearing a small child (Jae-kyeong Seo) with him as his master in an isolated monastery surrounded on all sides by a man made lake. As the seasons pass the boy grows into a young man (Young-min Kim), then a troubled adult (Ki-duk Kim), with each chapter of his life reflecting in the seasons as they pass. We witness as the capriciousness of spring changes the boy into a flirtatious teenager by summer; made all the more apparent by the arrival of a young girl (Yeo-jin Ha) who comes to the temple in search of restoration. His desire for the girl turns to lust, desire then anger, followed by a long absence in fall before winter becomes a pilgrimage of contrition. All the while, the elderly Monk looks on like a spirit as his protege succumbs to what is natural.

What little is spoken throughout, everything people do speak in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring is given an incontrovertible weight. Yet there's never a lecture or conflict made verbal disquisition. Much of the conflict, characterization and morality is expounded through visual metaphor complimented by the fantastic natural splendor that surrounds our protagonists. What results is a film with the conciseness of a fable without trenchant proselytizing. The elderly Monk mirrors that sentiment, using a gentle hand to guide his young apprentice towards the lessons he needs to learn. The world then bends to the magnanimous will of the story, using animals as larger symbols of the young man's journey.

What results is a story lush with beauty and serenity awash in the full spectrum of human experience. With a very small cast, director Ki-duk Kim unravels the central tenants of Buddhism and gingerly brays them into contemporary society. It results in colors and emotional shades hereto unseen by anything ever committed to celluloid apart from perhaps the final works of Ingmar Bergman. The comparison is completed with the ponderous rhythms of changing seasons and the slowly changing perspectives of the Monks.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring makes the short list for most beautiful film in human history, capitalizing on the natural beauty that surrounds the water bound temple. Furthermore it is an innately human parable about the cyclical nature of man and the hidden beauty therein. Contemplative yet truly mesmerizing, Spring, Summer, Fall Winter...and Spring is a revelatory triumph. Those looking for the naturalistic beauty of a Terrence Malick film bending to the meditative majesty of eastern philosophies should pick up Ki-duk Kim's contemporary classic right away.

Final Grade: A