Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

*SPOILER FREE

What is nature and what is nurtured? If nature is the common-sense, where did the nurtured emerge from?

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a romantic drama set by a Buddhist monastery drifting on a lake in the serene forested mountains of Korea and follows a Buddhist monk, who lives with his older mentor, as he passes through the seasons of his life.

This is a meditation within a meditation within a meditative masterpiece of cinema. This is a poem about the circle of life, a spiritual exploration of life and death, innocence and sin, joy and anger, possession and unfaithfulness, and the desire to love and be loved.

Writer and director Kim Ki-duk, who also edited and appeared in the film, poetically tells the story through symbolic visuals, minimal dialog and exuberant human emotions in this depiction of the human nature and experience.

Breathtaking on-location cinematography and set design, seamless pacing and compelling story. This is work of art of 21st-century cinema.

Though the sound and music play a significant role in the narrative and give it a complete different dimension, one can experience this motion picture with no sound or subtitles for its entire runtime and still understand the plot to the fullest extent. This is visual storytelling at its best.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a masterful melodrama that despite its tranquil beauty and atmospheric vibe manages to capture all of your physical and non-physical senses and make you experience the resolution of its story and ask humanity's most existential questions.

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Available to watch on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video

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