Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring Again Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring Again Frog
Kim Ki-duk, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Bound
A man for all seasons
The Bodhisattva of Compassion,
When he meditated deeply,
Saw the emptiness of all 5 skandhas
And sundered the bonds that acquired him suffering.
—The Middle Sutra
IN A WORLD obsessed with finding significance and validation through being a somebody,Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound tells the story of a solitary monk who has found pregnant through forsaking the secular realm and diving deep into the very depths of his ain soul. And yet, despite his secluded existence, the outside world inevitably comes calling, reminding united states of america that detachment can only ever truly be a state of mind and disposition of eye.
Written and directed by Korean auteur, Kim Ki-duk'southward exquisitely cute masterpiece filmed at Jusan Pond in North Gyeongsang Province in South korea portrays the subsequent relationship between a Buddhist renunciate and his immature protégé, characters whose names are never relayed. Even so, despite the motion picture's absence of any specific temporal referencing,Bound, Summertime, Fall, Wintertime … and Spring is a securely sophisticated meditation on the vagaries of the human being condition reflected within the passing seasons of nature.
Jump, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photo: © Sony Pictures Classics
Here so,
Grade is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than grade.
Course is only emptiness,
Emptiness only form.
—The Heart Sutra
Akin to Michelangelo Frammartino'due south Le Quattro Volte, which explores similar themes associated with the transience of life fix confronting a backdrop of the natural mural, the stunning tall topography forms an integral element to this elegiac drama, with each of the v titular segments representing a stage in a man'south life and the associated lessons he must learn.
Despite the minimal use of dialogue, through the use of Buddhist iconography and Aesopian symbols, we go acutely aware of the inherent message of the ancient nondual teachings embodied in the doctrine of the Iii Universal Truths—annica (impermanence), dukka (suffering) and anatta (no self)—every bit they unfold throughout the movie, with the principles of the Four Noble Truths—the causes and cessation of suffering—forming the didactical framework through which the plot evolves.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Moreover, in a film steeped in visual imagery, the lake itself functions every bit a metaphor for universal mind, its silent waters the very embodiment of the enlightenment land, with the floating hermitage representative perhaps of the fragile self, drifting silently atop its omnipresent depths.
Similarly, the monastery's apprehensive rowboat is symbolic of the private'south journey on the spiritual path. Beautifully painted with images of Guan Yin (the bodhisattva of pity and mercy) as she extends a mitt that holds the lotus-born child, Maitreya, the future Buddha, it is the yana or vehicle by which the young monk is transported to his spiritual destiny, across the body of water of samsara to the mount shore of liberation and release.
Spring, Summertime, Fall, Winter … and Leap.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Feeling, idea and selection,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same as this.
All things are by nature void
They are not built-in or destroyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane.
—The Middle Sutra
And thus it is springtime. In the fashion of a dramatized Eastern fable, the film commences with two wooden carved doors of a "gateless gate" creaking open to reveal a mysterious monastery drifting upon the serene surface of a pond, whose sole occupants are an sometime monk (Oh Young-soo) and his child disciple (Kim Jong-ho). Life is quiet and elementary and like whatsoever immature boy, the chief's student enjoys playing with his puppy and collecting herbs until 1 24-hour interval, he is consumed by the capricious cruelties of childhood.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Jump.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Subsequently tying pebbles to a fish, a frog and a snake, the immature monk later on awakens to find that he himself is fettered past a large smoothen rock tied to his dorsum. It is the first harsh lesson to exist learnt, not through angry chastisement but by redemptive endeavour: the old monk calmly instructs the immature boy to release the creatures from their suffering, vowing that if whatever of the animals dice, "Yous volition carry the rock in your heart for the balance of your life."
Indeed, the commencement Noble Truth—the nature of suffering—is a grave precept to accept on lath at such an early historic period, made all the more poignant by the weeping of the boy when he discovers that although the frog has managed to survive, both the fish and snake take perished, signalling a portentous omen of that which is yet to come.
Spring, Summertime, Autumn, Wintertime … and Bound.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
And then, in emptiness, no form,
No feeling, thought or option,
Nor is there consciousness.
No heart, ear, nose, tongue, body, heed;
No colour, sound, scent, gustatory modality, touch,
Or what the listen takes concur of,
Nor fifty-fifty act of sensing.
—The Heart Sutra
The wooden gates open once again, this fourth dimension on the flavour of summer. The immature novice is now a teenager (Seo Jae-kyung), moderately expert at keeping the Buddhist rituals of the temple in place. Before long, even so, the tranquillity of the hermetic abode is disturbed past the arrival of a immature adult female, afflicted with an unspecified malady. The primary allows her to stay in order to restore her concrete and mental strength, noting calmly, "When she finds peace in her soul, her body will return to wellness."
Leap, Summertime, Autumn, Wintertime … and Bound
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Needless to say, the young adult female awakens sexual want in the pupil, with their playful flirtations culminating in passionate lovemaking amid shoreside rocks and the hull of the master's rowboat. Upon discovering their secret tryst, the one-time monk is, nonetheless, unmoved and simply observes, "Lust leads to desire for possession, and possession leads to murder," once again foreshadowing after events. He and so dispatches the immature adult female, now healed, back to her female parent. The student is devastated and, forsaking his monastery home, follows after her leaving his eremitic life behind.
The lush and idealized environment where nature is in its fullest blossom has seeped deep into the soul of the educatee, stimulating the innate demand for consummation and lust. Indeed, the master acknowledges the inevitability of his protégé's actions past stating wrily it is only natural for him to succumb; without the total realization of the Buddha'southward teachings, the cause of our pain and ache, equally the second Noble Truth wisely informs us, is unfettered craving and desire.
Leap, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Bound
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
No ignorance or end of information technology,
Nor all that comes of ignorance;
No withering, no death,
No end of them.
—The Middle Sutra
The wooden threshold at present reveals the arrival of fall. The old monk has considerably aged and even so his modest life is as information technology always was. Returning from a trip to replenish food supplies, by chance, the master notices devastating news well-nigh his former student reported in the local newspaper. Anticipating his imminent arrival, the pupil returns, at present a 30-year-old avoiding (Kim Youg-min), on the run from a violent crime he has recently committed.
Bound, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
In an deed of penance, the student attempts suicide but his master beats him brutally before writing out the Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamitahrdaya or The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom) on the monastery deck, using his cat'southward tail as a calligraphy brush. When he finishes, he commands the young monk: "Carve out all of these characters and while you are carving, anger will be cut out of your heart." As the disciple's rage dissipates through the painstaking transcription, ii policemen go far to arrest the young monk and carry him away to his fate.
One time again, the sometime monk is left alone to reflect upon the purpose of life. His duty towards his former student is now completed for he understands that even the pursuit of wisdom itself is rooted in emptiness. He builds a funeral pyre in the rowboat and, covering his ears, eyes, nose and mouth with newspaper in the manner of the traditional Buddhist death ritual, is engulfed by flames as the boat drifts slowly across the lake, the scene closing with a snake slithering along the hermitage deck.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Nor is there pain, or crusade of pain,
Or cease in pain, or noble path
To pb from pain;
Not even wisdom to attain!
Attainment too is emptiness.
—The Heart Sutra
The creaking of the wooden doors now reveals winter has descended upon the secluded monastery, long since abandoned and frozen in ice. Once again, the student returns (equally the director himself, Kim Ki-duk), this time on parole as a mature homo in eye age. Coming to the realization that his honey teacher has left the temporal world, he excavates his main's charred remains from the icy corpse of the rowboat, placing them on the altar, and then embarks upon a new life of prayer, meditation and qigong.
Bound, Summertime, Autumn, Wintertime … and Spring.
Photo: © Sony Pictures Classics
The monk'south spiritual journey is finally coming to an end equally the terminal two of the Buddha'southward Noble Truths are now realized through penance and disciplined adherence to the steps of the Eightfold Path. And thus, in a pilgrimage of atonement for the aggregating of all the suffering in his middle, both unwittingly and wittingly enacted, the monk takes out a statue of Guan Yin, then attaches a millstone to his body with a rope and drags it to the tiptop of a mountain, whereupon he sits in meditation, looking down on his floating hermitage and reflecting upon the unending cycles of homo existence.
It is not presently that a veiled adult female appears, bearing an infant, whom she entrusts in the care of the monk. Slipping away in the expressionless of nighttime, the young female parent slips on the frozen pond'due south surface and falls down a hole, just to be discovered the post-obit morning trapped lifeless under the water ice.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
So know that the Bodhisattva
Holding to nil whatever,
Just dwelling in Prajna wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fear bred by it,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
—The Heart Sutra
The wooden threshold opens one final time on a beautiful spring day. The babe is now a young boy and the quondam student is at present master to his new charge. The student is seen tormenting a turtle, harking back to the capriciousness of his predecessor at the beginning of the tale and the egoic seed of attachment and destruction impregnated inside in all beings, preparing us yet again for the cycle of life to start anew …
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Thus the circumvolve of life repeats itself again—nature rejuvenates herself every four seasons, human reincarnates himself through the lifespan of every man and yet everything remains exactly as information technology was, is, and shall forever be. As the film fades into emptiness, for several moments afterwards we experience the ambient sounds of the natural world—the tinkling of the air current chime, birdsong, the lapping of water against the rowboat—continuing to resonate deep within us, instilling reverence for the sacredness of nature and sublimity of the empty void.
Exquisitely scored and shot with each frame exuding the composition of a painting, Leap, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Bound transmits a transcendental beauty all of its ain, elevating the soul with its elegant and timeless aesthetic from innocence, through beloved and evil, to enlightenment and finally rebirth, subtlely and silently observed by the impassive gaze of a bodhisattva.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,
Using this Prajna wisdom,
Come up to full and perfect vision.Hear then the great dharani,
The radiant peerless mantra,
The Prajnaparamita
Whose words allay all pain;
Hear and believe its truth!Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate
Bodhi Svaha
—The Middle Sutra
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- Michelangelo Frammartino: Le Quattro Volte
- Pavel Lungin: The Island
- Alan Watts: Deject-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Call back His Past Lives
- Philip Gröning: Into Great Silence
- Edward A. Burger: Among White Clouds
- Paula Marvelly: The Monasteries of Meteora
- Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
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