Ten Great Foreign Films Of This Decade

Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring

by Ari

Kim Ki-duk is one of the best filmmakers in the world right now, and not surprisingly, one of the most under-appreciated. Because his style isn’t the most easily accessible form of storytelling you’ll find in movies today, it’s not likely that his audience will grow too much here in America. However, if you’re looking for a filmmaker who refuses to accept the norm or compromise his art, this is the person for you. Ki-duk is a refreshing voice in contemporary film, one who creates significant works of art with a delicacy and touch that few possess. His 2003 spiritual drama Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring is his most personal work, and similar to Martin Scorsese’s misunderstood epic Kundun, it’s mesmerizing, transcendent and deeply moving.

Ki-duk takes a very simple premise and turns it into something incredibly rich and symbolic; he provides the audience with an experience that explores spiritual and religious themes with extraordinary power. Like Cafe Lumiere, Ki-duk doesn’t bother with plot, something that brings up an interesting point about foreign cinema in general. One of the things I love so much about these films is their complete creative freedom. With Cafe Lumiere, Bab’Aziz or this film, the creative control on display is something you rarely find in American film. It’s not that our sense of plot and structure has become terribly flawed or completely tedious, but to see filmmakers in foreign countries be given the opportunities to push the boundaries of filmmaking is extremely important for the development of cinema, and most importantly, experimental cinema.

Kim Ki-duk has done particularly well with these opportunities. Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring is a small, quiet, intimate story, but one that eventually builds into an epic feat of theme, emotion and visuals. This is one of the most beautifully made films I’ve seen in recent years, an achievement I dare call perfect on every level. The film is a contemplation of the soul and explores issues of love, sin and repentance. This is Ki-duk’s study on the beauty and suffering of life, one that can be perfectly described by the most important line in the film: “when she finds peace in her soul, her body will return to health”. While this line is directed towards one of the supporting characters, its meaning evokes the entire piece.

The story takes place in essentially one location for the entire film: a remote Buddhist temple that floats on a lake surrounded by the mountains and forest. In this small monastery, an old monk (Yeong-su Oh) lives with a young boy who he teaches in the ways of Buddha. The film is divided into different segments for the different seasons, each one signaling a new chapter in the boy’s life , from childhood to adult.

“Spring” is the first chapter. It shows the boy learning about life and death (he kills a fish and snake), and the consequences for doing something wrong. As a young adult in the chapter “Summer”, he learns about love and lust when a sick girl his age is sent to the temple for healing, something that eventually haunts him and his master. At the conclusion of this chapter, the boy decides to leave the monastery with his lover and enter the world beyond his tranquil, isolated home. In the segment, “fall”, the young man is now 30, and he returns to the old monk and temple after murdering his wife. The monk forces him to release his rage and poison by completing a Sutra before the police take him away in one of the film's most powerful moments. In the last chapter he returns to the temple as an older man (played by director Kim Ki-duk himself), dedicating the rest of his life to his master’s old teachings and cleansing his soul.

Now this brief description barely scratches the surface of what Kim Ki-duk accomplishes here, but this film isn’t exactly the easiest thing to describe. Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring is something that needs to felt more than anything. It’s an unforgettable experience that represents cinema at its finest.

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