Kim Gi-duk

A 2003 South Korean film about a Buddhist monastery which floats on a lake in a forest. The story is about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age.

The movie was directed by Kim Ki-duk, and stars Su Oh-yeong, Kim Young-min, Seo Jae- kyung, and Kim Jong-ho.Kim Ki-dukSu Oh-yeongKim Young-minSeo Jae- kyungKim Jong-ho The director appears as the man in the last stage of life. This quiet, contemplative film marked a significant change from his previous works, which were often criticized for excessive violence.

Kim Ki-duk said of the film: "I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature.”

The hermitage is an artificial set made to float on Jusan Pond, Cheongsong County, Kyungsangbukdo. Jusan Pond is an artificial lake created about 200 years ago. It retains the mystical aura of having trees hundreds of years old still growing within its water. Permission was given to build the set after 6 months of negotiations with the Ministry of Environment.

The traditional song used near the end of the film, while the adult monk is climbing the mountain, is called “Jeongseon Arirang”, sung by Kim Young-im. The film score was composed by Ji Bark

The film is divided into five segments. Each shows a different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk. Each segment is roughly ten to twenty years apart, and is also in the season of its title.

We see the young Buddhist apprentice with his master on a small floating monastery on a lake in the forested mountains of Korea. One day, the apprentice torments a fish by tying a small stone to it with string and laughing as it struggles to swim. He does the same to a frog and a snake. His master ties a large, smooth rock to the apprentice as he sleeps. In the morning, he tells the boy that he cannot take off the rock until he unties the creatures he tormented - adding that if any of them have died, he will "carry the stone in his heart forever". The boy finds the fish, lying dead on the bottom of the creek, finds the frog still alive and struggling, and the snake in a pool of blood. The master watches as the boy begins to cry heavily upon seeing what he has done to the snake.

The apprentice (now in his teenage years) sees a mother and daughter walking along the forest path, looking for the lake monastery. The apprentice rows them to the monastery, where it is revealed that the daughter has an illness and has been brought to the Buddhist master by her mother, hoping that she will be healed. The master agrees to take in the teenage girl, and the mother leaves. The next few days, the apprentice is sexually attracted to the girl. Eventually they wander off into the forest and have sex. The master discovers them asleep and naked, drifting around the lake. He warns "lust leads to desire for possession, which leads to murder’” In the middle of the night the apprentice runs away in pursuit of the girl, taking the monastery's Buddha statue with him.

Many years later, in "Fall" (or "Autumn"), the master sees a warrant for the arrest of his former apprentice, for the murder of his wife. Soon after the adult apprentice appears, still full of anger and carrying the bloodstained knife with which he stabbed his wife. The master beats him ruthlessly. He ties his bloodied apprentice to the ceiling and sets a candle to burn through the rope, then paints "Heart Sutra" on the monastery deck. The apprentice eventually falls, cuts his hair off and starts carving the Chinese characters out of the wood. 2 detectives arrive and try to arrest the apprentice, but the master asks them to let him finish his task. The apprentice is taken away by the detectives. The master, knowing he is at his end, builds a pyre in the rowboat.

The middle-aged apprentice returns to the frozen lake and to his former home. He finds his master's clothes and digs his master's remains out of the frozen rowboat, setting them under a waterfall. He finds a book of meditative stances, and begins to train and exercise in the freezing weather. A woman comes to the monastery with her baby son. She seeks to leave her son, but she stumbles into a hole in the ice and drowns. Finding her body the next day, he ties the monastery's large, circular stone to his body and climbs the tallest mountain holding another statue, which he places there.

Finally, the cycle is completed. The new master lives in the monastery with the abandoned baby, now his apprentice. The boy torments a tortoise and forces stones into the mouths of a fish, frog and snake.

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