Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring | Review

South Korean film is a lyrical journey about the life cycle and the cycle of the seasons.

South Korea’s Kim Ki-Duk’s sublimely-shot Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…Spring is a mythical, spiritual, yet contemporary journey which reflects upon the bookends in the cycle of life – birth, death and rebirth. With a deliberate unhurried pacing, – one which demands reflection on the film text’s minimalist messages accompanied by a captivating poetic, visual beauty this film is for the senses.

Nestled in middle of the wilderness, a lonely temple in the form of a boathouse sits centered around the tranquility of the changing colors of the seasons, but this peaceful seclusion from the rest of the world doesn’t mean totally isolation from it either. Over time, people come from and to the sacred place and outside influences from Western world are the causes for some of the rifts in such a mediation-friendly setting. Spoken through the actions of the film’s endearing characters, Ki-Duk’s script is developed through a timeline that spreads over a couple of generations and is thematically segmented into five seasonal pieces — in the same order as the film’s title. In the film’s first episode we see a child being reprimanded for his cruelties with tiny living-things – it will come to sensiblize the boy at a very later stage in his life as these life-teachings taught by his old master take a while to sink in. The film illustrates a good number of these lessons and the film’s conclusion shows that with the passing of time – wisdom becomes an acquired tool.

Complemented by the splendid cascading colors of a remarkable chosen location, Ki-Duk’s canvas evokes a metaphoric dialect due mostly to Baek Dong-hyeon’s lush cinematography. The entire film is a cinematic splendor with arguably the best composition and framing. The different shot distances and perspectives continually address the man among living things theme and the almost wordless text stresses the visual storytelling of the film. Ki-Duk’s narrative is basic and the pacing matches the divine aspects of what a Buddhist’s world entails, but this is a spiritual journey not solely reserved for the film’s characters but for the audience as well.

With The Isle and now this film Kim Ki-Duk may find himself as the next director in line to be pulled from the obscurity of the Asian film market and placed onto an international platform. Delve into Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…Spring it’s a visual nirvana which you won’t regret or easily forget.

Rating 4.5 stars