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| Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring |
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This exquisitely beautiful film is set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape. Divided into five segments, each season represents a stage in a man's life.
Under the vigilant eyes of an old monk, a child novice learns a hard lesson about the nature of sorrow when some of his childish games turn cruel. In the intensity and lushness of summer the novice, now a young man, experiences the power of lust and desire that will ultimately lead him, as an adult, to dark deeds. With winter - strikingly set on the ice and snow-covered lake - the man atones for his past actions, and spring starts the cycle anew...
With an extraordinary attention to visual details and different symbols for each section, writer/director Kim Ki-duk has crafted a totally original yet universal story about the human spirit, moving from innocence, love, evil, to enlightenment and finally rebirth.
