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| A young and an older monk sail on an invisible lake on this etheric, minimalist poster for Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring |
An aging monk in a floating house on a lake raises a young boy there. When the boy becomes a young man, he falls in love and runs away, - though nothing good comes of this.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is written and directed by Kim Ki-duk (Human, Space, Time and Human/Inkan, gongkan, sikan grigo inkan (2018)).
The film tells partially a real story and partially paints a metaphor for the different phases in human life: Told episodically and set up against some strikingly beautiful Korean nature.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring has inspired photography (by Baek Dong-hyeon (My Wife Is a Gangster 3/Jopog manura 3 (2006))), and it is a respectable enterprise to be sure, - but also somewhat tedious at times, - meditative some might say, more diplomatically. I zone out some in some of its abstract, metaphorical stretches. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring may appeal stronger to Buddhists.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 9.5 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring premiered 14 August (Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in South Korea in and around the 200 year old artificial Jusanji Pond. Ki-duk has said of the film: "I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature." A sequence towards the end of a boy harming animals by the lake was removed from some international versions of the film. It opened #59 to a 42k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 74 theaters, grossing 2.3 mil. $ (24.2 % of the total gross). The film's listed 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.3 mil. $ (13.7 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (11.6 %), - but the list is missing South Korea and Japan, which may likely have been the film's biggest markets of all. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. It was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Ki-duk returned with Samaritan Girl/Samaria (2004). Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.02/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring?
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