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

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003) takes place in a floating temple in the middle of a lake. An old monk and a boy live there. The film is divided into five parts, one per season; the boy is older in each and learns a different lesson. The last part returns to the beginning. The temple was actually built. It was constructed as a floating structure on Jusan Lake in North Gyeongsang province and removed after filming. The lake sits inside a national park and shooting ran across all four seasons. Kim Ki-duk wrote and directed, and plays the adult monk in the final section himself. There is very little dialogue and the structure is entirely cyclical. Compared to Kim's harsher films the violence here is oblique, but it is present; the scenes with animals in the first section, which establish the film's moral, are hard to watch. It runs 103 minutes. Good for: slow cinema, Buddhist themes, and narratives built around a single place. Less good for: animals are harmed on screen and it is not simulated. The women exist only as tests for the man. The story does not progress, it repeats; that is intentional, and not for everyone.