This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The overall idea of the film is beautiful, but you can find that out in five minutes by reading a summary of what happens. Not worth an 1 hr 45 minutes of your life. Just read a summary and you'll get the same thing out of it. The cinematography is not really very beautiful (which would maybe be a reason to watch the film) and it moves incredibly slowly.

Kim Ki-duk continues to solidify his position as one of my all-time favourite directors. Every film I've seen from him has been a unique experience, yet all of them share similarities that make them instantly recognizable as a Kim Ki-duk film.This particular film is one of his best critical successes and in some ways a new direction for him. Most of his films are at least somewhat urban in nature and deal with themes such as sexuality, detachment and the effects of loneliness. And while those themes are also explored in this film as well, it feels different. The story goes that there's a lake up in the mountains, on which floats a small Buddhist temple. A lonely monk takes care of the temple, accompanied by a small boy. The film follows the events of the temple throughout the years, watching the boy grow as the seasons change. Each season is given a clear separate story, a separate mood, a separate set of symbols and omens.In some ways the film can only be understood if you know enough about Buddhism and its particular symbols and teachings. Then again, I certainly didn't, and I still enjoyed the film immensely. I also enjoyed learning about the symbols and meanings afterwards as I was reading about the film.And quite frankly that's about as much as I'm willing to say about the film. Because to say more would ruin the experience. Know that it's not a very fast-paced film. It's not about great characters or complicated dialogues. Rather it's about mood, about ideas, about silence. Very much worth a watch and a great place to start if you're unfamiliar with Kim Ki-duk.

Very little in the world of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring is physically attached to one another, yet everything feels connected; physically, spiritually, narratively. The doors insinuating rooms inside the tiny monastery where we lay our scene stand alone, unattached to walls. The small row boat, providing the only connection between the outside world and the monastery is almost never festooned to its moorings. For that matter, neither is the temple itself which gently glides across the lake like it were a pontoon. Nothing is attached, yet everything is connected, tranquil and cyclical.The story is told in simple, largely visual terms; an elderly Monk (Yeong-su Oh), is rearing a small child (Jae-kyeong Seo) with him as his master in an isolated monastery surrounded on all sides by a man made lake. As the seasons pass the boy grows into a young man (Young-min Kim), then a troubled adult (Ki-duk Kim), with each chapter of his life reflecting in the seasons as they pass. We witness as the capriciousness of spring changes the boy into a flirtatious teenager by summer; made all the more apparent by the arrival of a young girl (Yeo-jin Ha) who comes to the temple in search of restoration. His desire for the girl turns to lust, desire then anger, followed by a long absence in fall before winter becomes a pilgrimage of contrition. All the while, the elderly Monk looks on like a spirit as his protégé succumbs to what is natural.What little is spoken throughout, everything people do speak in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring is given an incontrovertible weight. Yet there's never a lecture or conflict made verbal disquisition. Much of the conflict, characterization and morality is expounded through visual metaphor complimented by the fantastic natural splendor that surrounds our protagonists. What results is a film with the conciseness of a fable without trenchant proselytizing. The elderly Monk mirrors that sentiment, using a gentle hand to guide his young apprentice towards the lessons he needs to learn. The world then bends to the magnanimous will of the story, using animals as larger symbols of the young man's journey.What results is a story lush with beauty and serenity awash in the full spectrum of human experience. With a very small cast, director Ki- duk Kim unravels the central tenants of Buddhism and gingerly brays them into contemporary society. It results in colors and emotional shades hereto unseen by anything ever committed to celluloid apart from perhaps the final works of Ingmar Bergman. The comparison is completed with the ponderous rhythms of changing seasons and the slowly changing perspectives of the Monks.Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring makes the short list for most beautiful film in human history, capitalizing on the natural beauty that surrounds the water bound temple. Furthermore it is an innately human parable about the cyclical nature of man and the hidden beauty therein. Contemplative yet truly mesmerizing, Spring, Summer, Fall Winter...and Spring is a revelatory triumph. Those looking for the naturalistic beauty of a Terrence Malick film bending to the meditative majesty of eastern philosophies should pick up Ki-duk Kim's contemporary classic right away.

The plot of the movie revolves around an old monk (master) and a young monk (disciple), living on a floating house at an isolated lake.As we grow up, we go through certain changes at different stages of life. The movie has similarly depicted those changes, in a beautiful way of seasons. While the young monk grows up, he goes through various life learning experiences respective of his age and finally leave.The movie is about how our life goes on to have different seasons and don't end there. Nature repeats its seasons, year and year after. Likewise, the circle of life continues to have the same stages in a different form, through the following generations. Even if the monk was living isolated, oblivious of what in the rest of the world is going, he had to go through same seasons of life as we all do. Here, the thing to learn is that, irrespective of what our future generations will do, the basic human characters are always going to be there and repeat it as someone else.