A Review by Phil Calabro
***HIGHLY RECOMMENDED***
*** #1 - TOP 10 OF 2004 ***
2004, Sony Picture Classics, Dir. Ki-duk Kim - Starring Yeong-su Oh, Ki-duk Kim, Young-min Kim, Jae-kyeong Seo, Yeo-jin Ha, Jong-ho Kim, Jung-young Kim, Dae-han Ji, Min Choi, Ji-a Park, Min-Young Song
This is ultimate proof to all moviegoers that there is never any need for special effects, stellar casts, or even dialogue to make an excellent film. Our director lets us feast our eyes on some of the most stunning yet placid visuals that I have seen in a theater since Return of the King. The mood is calm, peaceful, isolated - setting the stage for the film's premises. Rarely have movies that deal with 'the preciousness of life' ever really struck me, with the minor exception of 'Lion King', but now I've been completely bowled over by its production and message. As our main two characters are living on an isolated hut in the middle of a lake, the director Kim expresses the dependence upon each other, and how the environment blends in by its vast nature and grandeur. It's an example of how something such as the circle of life can be filmed as something so simplistic and meditative as 'Spring, Summer', yet so comprehensive.
Filmed entirely in the canyons of Korea, we begin in the phase of "Spring" with a wise monk and his child student, as they co-exist with their surroundings. We then move into "Summer", as we see the young monk grow to be a teenager, and his conflicting feelings for a young girl who has moved to the island to gain treatment from a disease. They then begin to fall in love, and when the old monk finds them together in a exposing situation, he sends her off the island because she has been cured by then, and so in the gripping situation, the young monk leaves the island to be with the girl. In "Autumn", the hardest season to watch, we then pass through several years, as the monk has been living in the city to be with the girl. We later find out that he has murdered the girl for loving another man, he escapes to the hut to be with the monk in a wave of rage of anger. The monk tries to reteach him the ways of life, but by then the cops come to find the man, and take him away. During this time, the old monk dies of old age, and then we transverse into "Winter", where we watch the opening stages of an entirely new life, and we see the reformed young monk come back to the hut to start over and relearn the ways of life. We end the film at the scene where a young woman abandons her child at the house, leaving him in care of the young monk - symbolizing the continuous cycle of life.
The roles of the monks change throughout the movie, so there isn't too much to say about each individual actor. What's most important is the relationship established between the old and young monk. Although they are not related, they treat each other as father and son - listening to the elder's advice, for the purpose of teaching further generations. But the only obstacles are their intuition, something that the younger monk has trouble controlling. The older monk has taught him all he needs to survive in this world, yet he finds some form of conflict when the idea of loving the young girl comes to mind. He tries to be as casual as possible about the situation, but together, the couple exerts all their sexual energy. The young monk contrasts entirely against the teachings of the older monk, who does not approve of the situation. We eventually have a dulled-down battle of the philosophies - the older monk's traditional moral values versus the young monk's liberation from solitude. One of these will triumph in the end, and in a very tragic manner.
There's hardly any dialogue in the movie, but it would be easily ignored anyway. There is a metaphorical aspect to the movie that takes the place of dialogue - since the monks treat the nature as a human, many of the lessons are all signaled towards the territory. And if there's one movie in 2004 that triumphes entirely on the grounds of cinematography and set location, it's 'Spring, Summer'. Never have I seen such a stunning, yet placid, environment for this story. The nature that surrounds our characters is so frighteningly real that you can feel the ripples of the lake rushing past your seat. It goes even further when it comes to the scenes involving Korean calligraphy - it moves in such a graceful manner, that it could lull someone to a deep sleep watching it - but I'm not insinuating that it's boring at all. Although it seems out of the ordinary for most American audiences, everything about this movie feels all too real. And with such a universal message that writer/director Ki-Duk Kim is imploring, it would come to no surprise that anyone could understand this film.
As we sit through this film, we find the symbolism of the young monk's wavering hardships between his life and his religion, as we see his constant persistence through life, holding both these as burdens upon his back. Our director simply can't put such a more uplifting tale of life and the lessons we learn in it any better. Undoubtedly one of the year's best films yet.
