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Summary: The Fifth Season Is For Renewal
SOME SPOILERS UNAVOIDABLE
In music and literature as well as in film, the cycle of seasons often is a profound leitmotif for the stages of human experience. Rarely has that association been so beautifully and exquisitely portrayed than in the Korean film, "Spring Summer Autumn Winter...and Spring." The "fifth" season reflects not only the Buddhist concept of eternal cycles but it also encompasses a compelling universality.
While the seasons change in normal progression, years pass between each one, a technique that allows the unfolding of a rich story of growth, love, loss and redemption.
Set in a gorgeous Korean landscape outside, wholly, the bustle of a modern industrialized society, all the scenes take place on either a floating temple in a calm lake or in its immediate vicinity. A monk in the first spring is the only caretaker but also teacher of a little boy. Childish acts of cruelty to animals delight the child until a tough lesson from the master molds his awakening conscience.
With summer comes a young woman accompanied by her mother, both dressed in comfortable, stylish western garb. The daughter is ill, coughs betraying a non-specific malady. Why she has been brought to the monk is never stated but the expectation is for a healing sojourn.
Now a young man, the acolyte falls either in lust or in love with the woman. Their sexual congress is proclaimed by the master as an obviously necessary cure for the woman's illness but he warns the smitten youth that in the outside world love and violence are intermingled. Hardly surprisingly, the man departs with the woman for life outside the rituals and teachings of Buddhism.
And then comes autumn and the anguished young man is back. He married the woman and it didn't work out. In fact it worked out so badly that two detectives arrive to arrest him. Now wizened but still wise, the master concocts an act of spiritual expiation to unburden the tortured fellow's soul. Even the cops fall under the monk's spell.
Winter brings the now matured and hardy former disciple back to the temple where he begins to repeat his now deceased master's simple life. And as he once was brought to the old master, now a mysterious woman brings a baby boy to the temple, a child she can not keep.
And spring again...the symbol of renewal but also repetition.
This is a brilliant film that distills a great moral tradition into a tale that uses the passage of a little over a year to illustrate much of the human experience. You don't have to be especially interested in Buddhism to savor the strengths, weaknesses and temptations moving across the screen.
10/10
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Summary: A beautiful Korean Buddhist pastoral
If you are not familiar with the basics of Buddhism, you will be after watching this movie. You might not realize it, and you won't know the terminology, but this whole movie is not only about a boy who becomes a man and then raises a boy, but also about the core Buddhist beliefs.
(NOTE: Some of the following comments might spoil some of the plot elements. However, the official movie website has a "synopsis" that spoils the entire plot, without explaining the Buddhist themes, so at least this review is better than that!)
The first lesson we see is that creating suffering for others, no matter if they are fish or snake or frog or person, causes suffering for yourself. Most people know this as Karma.
The second lesson is that desire causes suffering. The Old Monk warned the Young Monk of this, but the Young Monk did not resist, and ruined most of his life as a result. (I laughed very hard when Yoda, in Star Wars Episode I, explains this same lesson: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.")
If you listen carefully to the conversation between the monks, you will understand both how desire causes suffering, and how letting go can prevent the suffering.
The third lesson is that you can purify yourself and get rid of the negative thoughts that cause desire and suffering. Some people achieve this by studying the teachings, some by meditating, and some by spiritual tasks, such as repeated bowing or chanting. The Young Monk, instead, drags a millstone and a statue of Tara, the Compassion Buddha, up to the top of a mountain overlooking the lake, where she can keep an eye on things.
The fourth lesson is that the cycle repeats, and does not necessarily have to degrade because of the imperfections of the people involved. The Young Monk purified himself and became a capable teacher, and the teachings also transcend the imperfections of the teachers.
In addition to these lessons, the movie touches on some of the superstitions about Buddhism which want for a little explanation. These appear in the scenes where the Old Monk leaves this life.
Most important is the fact that the Old Monk, like many famous very enlightened Buddhists are reputed, can tell he is about to die. He therefore is able to prepare himself. Some Buddhists, especially enlightened masters, are cremated. Since there is no one to help him, the Old Monk builds his own funeral pyre and then sits in it. It's not suicide -- he knows that he will die soon, and picks the moment of his death, as great masters are reputed to be able to, just before the flames engulf him.
We also see a snake emerge from the pyre, and we kind of get the idea that the snake is a reincarnation of the Old Monk. You will find this kind of thing in Buddhist legends, as well.
When the Young Monk returns, he digs in the ice for remains of the Old Monk. In Buddhist lore, these remains are considered magical and sacred, as if the Buddhist teachings themselves were somehow compressed into fabulous jewels (some of the remains are said literally to resemble jewels). In civilized areas, these remains are often put in special monuments called stupas, and these monuments literally radiate peace and enlightenment into the surrounding area.
However, the Young Monk instead wraps the remains in a cloth and puts them into a Buddha sculpture made of ice. In this way, the remains are released into the water when the ice melts, and this will release the purified goodness into the area for the benefit of all the entities in the area.
But put all that aside, and you'll still see a beautiful fable about peace and sanctity and about how it's possible to regain them even if you've gone far away, and about how each life has its own chance to achieve them.
I know I'll be buying the DVD and watching it often.
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Summary: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING
At the risk of boring you all senseless here are some observations off the top of my head.
THE HUT Representing the self. All the possessions and shelter needed is on the floating hut. When the young man can no longer live at peace and comfort in the hut then bad things transpire. He never commits lustful acts in the hut. When we seek happiness outside ourselves, we are never truly content.
THE DOORS The doors by the lakeside and in the hut are symbolic rather than prescriptive. The fact there are no walls means their use is not forced but elected. They represent morality and discipline. Morality is not defined by a higher power but by society and the self. By adopting the constraints the doors engender, self-discipline is attained. As soon as the young man transgresses these self-imposed boundaries, to sneak across to the young woman, then disaster follows.
THE DEAD ANIMALS The Master allows the young boy to let the animals die. He does not become an all powerful father figure, cleaning up after him, but allows him to make mistakes and suffer the consequences. Buddhism does not have a higher power but rather promotes self-awareness.
THE MILLSTONE AND BUDDHA Represent the twin stones of regret for killing the fish and the snake. What you do unto others, you do unto yourself. He has carried that karma around with him all his life until he transcends them both, carrying them to the top of the hill, near heaven. Here he cuts himself free and attains redemption through struggle.
THE MASTER Is a great teacher, but does not lecture. Hardly a word is spoken, but lessons are learned. A good teacher points the way for a student to discover self-evident knowledge for themselves.
THE MOTHER The veil, representing guilt and shame are ultimately the cause of her downfall. Hiding from the outside world can bring about ruin.
THE YOUNG BOY Both at the beginning and the end, represents us. A good life is attained not by the absence of bad thoughts, but rather by their mastery, so they have no hold over us. We choose our behaviour rather than it choose us. The new boy is not born without sin, but rather must walk his own path to divinity. The same actor playing the young boy show the eternal cycle of the human soul.
THE SEASONS The endless cycle of birth, growth and death.
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Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003) (Read 14,435 times)
