Transcript Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter …, and Spring

Kim Gi-duk
http://www.sonyclassics.com/spring/
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A 2003 South Korean film about a Buddhist
monastery which floats on a lake in a forest.
 The story is about the life of a Buddhist
monk as he passes through the seasons of
his life, from childhood to old age.
The movie was directed by Kim Ki-duk, and sta
rs Su Oh-yeong, Kim Young-min, Seo Jae-kyung,
and Kim Jong-ho.
 The director appears as the man in the last
stage of life.
 This quiet, contemplative film marked a
significant change from his
previous works, which were
often criticized for excessive
violence.
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Kim Ki-duk 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.”
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The hermitage is an artificial set made to float on
Jusan Pond, Cheongsong County, Kyungsangbukdo.
Jusan Pond is an artificial lake created about 200
years ago.
It retains the mystical aura of having trees hundreds
of years old still growing within its water.
Permission was given to build the
set after 6 months of negotiations
with the Ministry of Environment.
The traditional song used near the end of
the film, while the adult monk is climbing
the mountain, is called “Jeongseon Arirang”,
sung by Kim Young-im.
 The film score was
composed by Ji Bark
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The film is divided into five segments.
 Each shows a different stage in the life of a
Buddhist monk.
 Each segment is roughly ten to twenty years
apart, and is also in the season of its title.
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We see the young Buddhist apprentice with his master on a small
floating monastery on a lake in the forested mountains of Korea.
One day, the apprentice torments a fish by tying a small stone to it with
string and laughing as it struggles to swim. He does the same to a frog
and a snake.
His master ties a large, smooth rock to the apprentice as he sleeps.
In the morning, he tells the boy that he cannot take off the rock until he
unties the creatures he tormented - adding that if any of them have
died, he will "carry the stone in his heart forever".
The boy finds the fish, lying dead on the bottom of the creek, finds the
frog still alive and struggling, and the snake in a pool of blood.
The master watches as the boy begins to cry heavily upon seeing what
he has done to the snake.
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The apprentice (now in his teenage years) sees a mother
and daughter walking along the forest path, looking for
the lake monastery.
The apprentice rows them to the monastery, where it is revealed that
the daughter has an illness and has been brought to the Buddhist
master by her mother, hoping that she will be healed.
The master agrees to take in the teenage girl, and the mother leaves.
The next few days, the apprentice is sexually attracted to the girl.
Eventually they wander off into the forest and have sex.
The master discovers them asleep and naked, drifting around the lake.
He warns "lust leads to desire for possession, which leads to murder’”
In the middle of the night the apprentice runs away in pursuit of the
girl, taking the monastery's Buddha statue with him.
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Many years later, in "Fall" (or "Autumn"), the master sees a warrant for
the arrest of his former apprentice, for the murder of his wife.
Soon after the adult apprentice appears, still full of anger and carrying
the bloodstained knife with which he stabbed his wife.
The master beats him ruthlessly. He ties his bloodied apprentice to the
ceiling and sets a candle to burn through the rope, then paints "Heart
Sutra" on the monastery deck.
The apprentice eventually falls, cuts his hair off and starts carving the
Chinese characters out of the wood.
2 detectives arrive and try to arrest the apprentice,
but the master asks them to let him finish his task.
The apprentice is taken away by the detectives.
The master, knowing he is at his end, builds a pyre
in the rowboat.
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The middle-aged apprentice returns to the frozen lake and to his
former home.
He finds his master's clothes and digs his master's remains out
of the frozen rowboat, setting them under a waterfall.
He finds a book of meditative stances, and begins to train and ex
ercise in the freezing weather.
A woman comes to the monastery with her baby son.
She seeks to leave her son, but she stumbles into a hole in the ice
and drowns.
Finding her body the next day, he ties the
monastery's large, circular stone to his body
and climbs the tallest mountain holding
another statue, which he places there.
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Finally, the cycle is completed.
The new master lives in the monastery with the
abandoned baby, now his apprentice.
The boy torments a tortoise and forces stones into
the mouths of a fish, frog and snake.
Aje Aje, Bara Aje
 ImKwon-taek
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Ms Word file
Why Dharma Left for the East
 Bae Yong-kyun
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Ms Word file