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Bookmark this pageSpring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring (2003)
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Acclaimed by credulous western critics (but not by Koreans), Kim's ninth feature rips off ideas from several Buddhist classics, notably Im Kwon-Taek's Mandala and Bae Yong-Kyun's Why Did Bodhi-Dharma Leave for the Orient? But it seems that Korea's best-known autodidact understands Buddhism even less than he understands women. Across four chapters and a brief coda, he purports to trace the cycle of life. An elderly monk (Oh) raises an orphaned boy in a temple which floats picturesquely on a raft in a tranquil lake. The boy wantonly kills three animals, incurring a 'karmic' burden. In the 'Summer' and 'Autumn' chapters the boy grows to adolescence, loses his virginity to a handy girl, leaves for the outside world and returns as a man wanted for killing his wife. In 'Winter' (the man now woodenly played by Kim himself), the cycle approaches completion with a ludicrous act of expiation and the arrival of a new orphan boy. There are flashes of authentic visual poetry, mostly involving Chinese calligraphy, but there's no coherent meaning and the attitude to women is as screwed-up as ever. A 'meditative' experience for the dumbed-down.Author: TR
User reviews of this film
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- storytellerr said...
- Posted on Dec 07 2010 04:18 dude...this is the most ridiculous review i hv ever read on time out...the film is a classic but the review, well...plain DUMB!
- Report as inappropriate
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- Psico said...
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Posted on Jul 27 2010 19:41
Pathetic critic...
how someone who doesnt know what "ficcion" is, can critic? - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Kim Ki-Duk
Producer: Lee Seung-Jae, Kim So-Hee, Karl Baumgartner, Raimond Goebel
Cast: Oh Young-Su, Kim Ki-Duk, Kim Young-Min, Seo Jae-Kyung, Ha Yeo-Jin full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 101 mins
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