Film Reviews

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Ha Yeo Jin
• Details: South Korea / 102 mins / (No Cert).

The title may make it sound like the punchline to a bad joke, but Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring is an evocative and intensely beautifully judged drama. An enchanting and moral movie, it moves with understated grace and dignity and is recounted in five chapters, which are reflective of the seasons and, more importantly, the passage of time. In the first chapter, Spring, a young boy is taken under the wing of a monk (names are never disclosed). The boy is something of a wayward sort and he's soon punished by the monk for his wanton cruelty to small animals. He realises the error of his ways, but further tests come in their splendid isolation over the years, including a dalliance with a young woman, which, his mentor warns, could have significant ramifications.
A quietly dignified but transfixing picture, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring has a philosophical grace that never seems bent or forced. Elegant and assured, Kim Ki-duk captures the passage of time quite serenely managing to fashion something quite compelling out of it. Indeed, the sheer beguiling intensity of the premise carries so much weight and conviction that it borders on the profound. It's that good.

Review by Garreth Murphy