SummaryEntirely set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape, this film is divided into five segments with each season representing a stage in a man's life. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed By:Kim Ki-duk
Written By:Kim Ki-duk
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
85
User score
Universal Acclaim
8.3
My Score
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
97% Positive
28 Reviews
28 Reviews
3% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
This meditation on spirituality, loneliness and accountability could touch your heart's core.
90
This beautiful -- and beautifully controlled -- film is also an object lesson in how to hypnotize an audience.
User score
Universal Acclaim
94% Positive
83 Ratings
83 Ratings
5% Mixed
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
1% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
May 9, 2013
10
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring takes you to a Quite Peaceful place if you allow it to. I liked everything about it. It`s not just like any other movie.
Sep 6, 2024
8
A quiet, unhurried meditation on the lessons and leanings of Buddhism. These spiritual guidelines are embodied by a basic narrative in which a lonesome monk ages, stumbles, matures and accepts his place in the world. Set on a floating temple in the center of a poetic, isolated Korean lake, the film's gorgeous scenery is as much a character as its very small cast. Upon the shifting of a season, the story turns the page on a new chapter, often skipping decades at a time. While this allows the central character, who is never named, to show significant growth between appearances, it also makes the task of forgiving his larger sins more difficult for the audience. Which is, in a way, a lesson in itself. Delicately framed, it's a beautiful picture that, while slow-moving and deliberate on the surface, bears a wealth of hidden meanings beneath.
90
An exquisitely simple movie. Mr. Kim manages to isolate something essential about human nature and at the same time, even more astonishingly, to comprehend the scope of human experience.
88
An exquisitely realized film; a little gem, it keeps its conflicting or varying themes of tranquility and violence, sacred and profane love, recklessness and wisdom, in almost perfect balance.
80
This subtly entrancing paean to seasons earthly and emotional is to the developing male psyche what "Whale Rider" is to the female, and deserves equal acclaim.
75
In the end, inner peace is found by all - on screen and in the audience.
60
Though lacking in any particular narrative surprise, the film nevertheless takes the viewer completely by surprise several times.
Jul 3, 2021
8
Unfortunately the movie is too long and repeat some statements too often. But on the other side it is beautiful and very different from the usual Hollywood movies and shows some buddhist meanings.
Jan 30, 2014
8
"Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" is a movie about life, a movie about growing and learning, a movie about love and hate, and a movie about change and invariability. It's a spiritual movie, not a religious one. What is very interesting, is how writer/director/actor Ki-duk Kim managed to put such moments in a serious film that made the audience laugh, and then during the next scene, they were serious again.
Jun 30, 2013
3
Another slow and long-winded movie. The only praise is the scenes. From start to finish there are short pieces of dialogue, a minimal amount of actual movement and characters that were very dull indeed. However, if you are a fan of artistic movies then it is worth watching.
Production Company:
- Korea Pictures
- LJ Film
- Pandora Filmproduktion
- Cineclick Asia
- Cinesoul
- Mirae Asset Capital
- Muhan Investment
Release Date:Apr 2, 2004
Duration:1 h 43 m
Rating:R
Awards
Locarno Film Festival
• 4 Wins & 5 Nominations
Chlotrudis Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Blue Dragon Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
