Spring to Winter and Then Spring Again
Kim Ki-duk, Leap, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring
A human being for all seasons
The Bodhisattva of Compassion,
When he meditated deeply,
Saw the emptiness of all five skandhas
And sundered the bonds that acquired him suffering.
—The Heart Sutra
IN A WORLD obsessed with finding significance and validation through beingness a somebody,Spring, Summer, Autumn, Wintertime … and Jump tells the story of a solitary monk who has constitute meaning through forsaking the secular realm and diving deep into the very depths of his own soul. And however, despite his secluded existence, the outside world inevitably comes calling, reminding united states that disengagement can only ever truly be a state of mind and disposition of center.
Written and directed by Korean auteur, Kim Ki-duk'due south exquisitely beautiful masterpiece filmed at Jusan Pond in North Gyeongsang Province in Republic of korea portrays the subsequent relationship between a Buddhist renunciate and his young protégé, characters whose names are never relayed. Nevertheless, despite the pic'southward absence of any specific temporal referencing,Spring, Summertime, Autumn, Wintertime … and Spring is a securely sophisticated meditation on the vagaries of the man condition reflected within the passing seasons of nature.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Hither then,
Class is no other than emptiness,
Emptiness no other than form.
Form is only emptiness,
Emptiness only grade.
—The Heart Sutra
Akin to Michelangelo Frammartino'due south Le Quattro Volte, which explores similar themes associated with the transience of life set against a backdrop of the natural landscape, the stunning alpine topography forms an integral chemical element to this elegiac drama, with each of the 5 titular segments representing a stage in a human being'southward life and the associated lessons he must learn.
Despite the minimal use of dialogue, through the use of Buddhist iconography and Aesopian symbols, we become acutely aware of the inherent bulletin 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 abeyance of suffering—forming the didactical framework through which the plot evolves.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Moreover, in a moving-picture show steeped in visual imagery, the lake itself functions every bit a metaphor for universal mind, its silent waters the very embodiment of the enlightenment state, with the floating hermitage representative perhaps of the fragile self, globe-trotting silently atop its omnipresent depths.
Similarly, the monastery'south humble rowboat is symbolic of the individual'south journey on the spiritual path. Beautifully painted with images of Guan Yin (the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy) as she extends a hand that holds the lotus-built-in child, Maitreya, the time to come Buddha, it is the yana or vehicle by which the young monk is transported to his spiritual destiny, beyond the ocean of samsara to the mount shore of liberation and release.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound.
Photo: © Sony Pictures Classics
Feeling, thought and choice,
Consciousness itself,
Are the same every bit this.
All things are past nature void
They are not born or destroyed
Nor are they stained or pure
Nor do they wax or wane.
—The Heart Sutra
And thus it is springtime. In the style of a dramatized Eastern fable, the moving picture commences with 2 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 erstwhile monk (Oh Immature-soo) and his child disciple (Kim Jong-ho). Life is quiet and simple and like any young boy, the master's pupil enjoys playing with his puppy and collecting herbs until ane day, he is consumed by the arbitrary cruelties of childhood.
Bound, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
After tying pebbles to a fish, a frog and a serpent, the young monk subsequently awakens to find that he himself is fettered by a big polish rock tied to his back. It is the outset harsh lesson to be 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 any of the animals die, "Y'all volition carry the rock in your heart for the residue of your life."
Indeed, the first Noble Truth—the nature of suffering—is a grave precept to take on board at such an early age, fabricated all the more poignant past the weeping of the boy when he discovers that although the frog has managed to survive, both the fish and snake have perished, signalling a portentous omen of that which is yet to come.
Bound, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
So, in emptiness, no form,
No feeling, thought or choice,
Nor is in that location consciousness.
No centre, ear, nose, tongue, trunk, mind;
No color, sound, smell, taste, bear on,
Or what the listen takes hold of,
Nor even human action of sensing.
—The Middle Sutra
The wooden gates open up once again, this fourth dimension on the flavor of summer. The young novice is now a teenager (Seo Jae-kyung), moderately expert at keeping the Buddhist rituals of the temple in place. Before long, however, the tranquillity of the hermetic abode is disturbed by the arrival of a immature woman, afflicted with an unspecified malady. The master allows her to stay in society to restore her physical and mental force, noting calmly, "When she finds peace in her soul, her body volition return to health."
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Needless to say, the young woman awakens sexual desire in the student, with their playful flirtations culminating in passionate lovemaking amidst shoreside rocks and the hull of the master'due south rowboat. Upon discovering their secret tryst, the former monk is, however, unmoved and merely observes, "Lust leads to desire for possession, and possession leads to murder," once again foreshadowing later events. He then dispatches the immature adult female, now healed, back to her mother. The student is devastated and, forsaking his monastery domicile, follows subsequently her leaving his eremitic life behind.
The lush and arcadian surround where nature is in its fullest bloom has seeped deep into the soul of the pupil, stimulating the innate demand for consummation and animalism. Indeed, the master acknowledges the inevitability of his protégé's actions by stating wrily information technology is only natural for him to succumb; without the total realization of the Buddha'south teachings, the crusade of our hurting and anguish, as the 2nd Noble Truth wisely informs us, is unfettered craving and want.
Jump, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
No ignorance or end of it,
Nor all that comes of ignorance;
No withering, no death,
No end of them.
—The Middle Sutra
The wooden threshold now reveals the arrival of autumn. The old monk has considerably aged and yet his pocket-sized life is as it always was. Returning from a trip to replenish food supplies, by chance, the master notices devastating news nearly his onetime educatee reported in the local newspaper. Anticipating his imminent arrival, the pupil returns, now a thirty-year-quondam fugitive (Kim Youg-min), on the run from a violent crime he has recently committed.
Leap, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Bound
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
In an human action of penance, the educatee attempts suicide but his master beats him brutally before writing out the Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamitahrdaya or The Eye of the Perfection of Wisdom) on the monastery deck, using his cat'due south tail equally a calligraphy brush. When he finishes, he commands the young monk: "Carve out all of these characters and while y'all are etching, anger will be cut out of your heart." As the disciple'south rage dissipates through the painstaking transcription, ii policemen make it to abort the young monk and conduct him away to his fate.
Again, the old monk is left lonely to reflect upon the purpose of life. His duty towards his former pupil 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 paper in the manner of the traditional Buddhist death ritual, is engulfed by flames as the boat drifts slowly beyond the lake, the scene endmost with a snake slithering along the hermitage deck.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Bound
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
Nor is there pain, or cause of hurting,
Or cease in pain, or noble path
To lead from hurting;
Not fifty-fifty wisdom to achieve!
Attainment besides 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 water ice. Again, the pupil returns (as the director himself, Kim Ki-duk), this fourth dimension on parole as a mature human being in middle age. Coming to the realization that his beloved teacher has left the temporal world, he excavates his master'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.
Spring, Summertime, Fall, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
The monk's spiritual journey is finally coming to an finish as the last 2 of the Buddha's Noble Truths are now realized through penance and disciplined adherence to the steps of the Eightfold Path. And thus, in a pilgrimage of amende for the accumulation of all the suffering in his center, 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 information technology to the top of a mount, whereupon he sits in meditation, looking down on his floating hermitage and reflecting upon the unending cycles of human being existence.
It is not earlier long that a veiled adult female appears, begetting an infant, whom she entrusts in the care of the monk. Slipping away in the dead of night, the immature mother slips on the frozen swimming's surface and falls downwards a hole, simply to be discovered the post-obit morning trapped lifeless under the ice.
Spring, Summertime, Fall, Wintertime … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
So know that the Bodhisattva
Property to nil whatsoever,
Simply domicile in Prajna wisdom,
Is freed of delusive hindrance,
Rid of the fright bred past information technology,
And reaches clearest Nirvana.
—The Centre Sutra
The wooden threshold opens one final time on a beautiful spring day. The babe is now a immature boy and the one-time pupil is at present principal to his new accuse. The educatee is seen tormenting a turtle, harking back to the capriciousness of his predecessor at the kickoff of the tale and the egoic seed of attachment and destruction impregnated inside in all beings, preparing us still again for the cycle of life to start afresh …
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring.
Photo: © Sony Pictures Classics
Thus the circle of life repeats itself once more—nature rejuvenates herself every iv seasons, human reincarnates himself through the lifespan of every man and yet everything remains exactly as it was, is, and shall forever be. Every bit the film fades into emptiness, for several moments later on we feel the ambience sounds of the natural globe—the tinkling of the wind chime, birdsong, the lapping of water confronting the rowboat—continuing to resonate deep inside usa, 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, Spring, Summertime, Autumn, Wintertime… and Bound transmits a transcendental beauty all of its ain, elevating the soul with its elegant and timeless aesthetic from innocence, through love and evil, to enlightenment and finally rebirth, subtlely and silently observed by the impassive gaze of a bodhisattva.
Leap, Summer, Autumn, Winter … and Spring.
Photograph: © Sony Pictures Classics
All Buddhas of past and present,
Buddhas of future time,
Using this Prajna wisdom,
Come 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 Heart Sutra
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Post Notes
- Michelangelo Frammartino: Le Quattro Volte
- Pavel Lungin: The Island
- Alan Watts: Deject-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Uncle Boonmee Who Tin Recall His By Lives
- Philip Gröning: Into Keen Silence
- Edward A. Burger: Amongst White Clouds
- Paula Marvelly: The Monasteries of Meteora
- Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
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Source: https://www.theculturium.com/kim-ki-duk-spring-summer-autumn-winter-and-spring/
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