

The monk waits for the night and when the boy sleeps he ties a rock to the boy's back, precisely as the boy did with the tiny creatures. The young apprentice prepares herbal medicine for the girl The teacher's task hasn't changed, after all, just the degree of difficulty. When the older monk sees the child tying stones to small animals' legs, Oh registers a flicker of doubt and then seems to banish the thought just as quickly. The tranquility of Oh's demeanor is most powerful in its absence. The Actor Oh Young Soo is the picture's emotional anchor as a patient older monk schooling a boy to become his replacement. That his innocent prank led to the death of a snake He is a silent observer, allowing the boy to engage in his mischief. From the woods above the shore of the water, the elder monk watches. The boy repeats this with a frog, with a snake, gleefully tormenting his fellow creatures. 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. 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. He lets the boy learn on his own, watching from a distance, and only steps in when it is time to do so.

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 monk watches the naive young boy engage in lessons proffered by nature. The story is split into the four seasons as it begins and ends with spring as the title suggests. The child apprentice sleeps with the stone on his back As Kim establishes during the course of the film, the monastery lacks a literal foundation but stays in place through persistence of belief. A Buddhist monastery sitting on a lake looks the picture of serenity, especially in long shots of the sun-kissed water and verdant shoreline surrounding it. Kim provides a calm surface for his tale of roiling spiritual conflict.

Korean director Kim Ki-Duk has created the film centered around the seasons of a man's life beautifully framed against the seasons of nature. The Master and the child apprentice after a routine trip It takes place within and around a small house floating on a small raft on a small lake, and within that compass, it contains life, faith, growth, love, jealousy, hate, cruelty, mystery, redemption … and nature. The film is Buddhist, but it is also universal. Each season represents a crucial state in the monk's life, as well as the cyclical nature of life. Predominantly set in a small floating house, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring is a beautiful story that follows a Buddhist monk from childhood to old age.

In an age of computer enhanced, if not entirely generated, special effects, high adventure, action upon action scenes, it is an enjoyable respite to view this Korean film of aesthetic simplicity.
SPRING FALL AUTUMN WINTER SUMMER MOVIE
The South Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk's films have been met with critical acclaim worldwide since his debut in the mid-90's, but this movie is his most stunning, sublime film till date. Director: Kim Ki-duk /South Korea/Korean/103 mts
