Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring also known as Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Kim Kiduk about a Buddhist monastery that floats on a lake in a pristine 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 film is divided into five segments the titular seasons, each segment depicting a different stage in the life of a novice Buddhist monk and his older teacher. The segments are roughly ten to twenty years apart, and the action of each takes place during the season of its title. The story unfolds rather simply, but the implications of the characters actions are silently commented upon by the presence of various Buddhist symbols and iconography.We are introduced to the life of the very young Buddhist apprentice living with his master on a small floating monastery, drifting on a lake in the serene forested mountains of Korea. The apprentice and his master live a life of prayer and meditation, using an old rowboat to reach the bank of the lake where they regularly go walking, for exercise and to collect herbs. One day, in a creek amongst the rocky hills, the apprentice torments a fish by tying a small stone to it with string and laughing as it struggles to swim. Shortly after, he does the same to a frog and a snake his master quietly observes on all three occasions, and that night ties a large, smooth rock to the apprentice as he sleeps. In the morning, he tells his apprentice that he cannot take off the rock until he unties the creatures he tormentedadding that if any of them have died, he will carry the stone in his heart forever. The boy struggles with the load on his back through the forest, and finds the fish, lying dead at the bottom of the creek, finds the frog still alive and struggling where he left it, and finds the snake in a pool of blood, presumably attacked and killed by another animal, unable to get away. The master watches as the boy begins to cry heavily at seeing what he has done to the snake. ........
Source: Wikipedia