The Circle of Life

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄, Korean, 2003)

This is a very quiet movie with hardly any dialogue set in a serene lake surrounded by mountain. The message it carries, however, is ‘earth shattering’. In very few words, it narrates with symbolisms by using animals (rooster, cat, snake, tortoise) which refer to particular virtues in Buddhist and Eastern traditions. It is divided into seasons, not all in a year, signifying the life cycle that seems to repeat itself.

A very young boy (maybe six) grows up in a floating Buddhist monastery in a lake deep in the wood with his sifu, an elderly monk. Their daily routine is laid out - daily walks, plucking herbs and chanting. The boy, mischievous as he is, ill-treats little animals in the forest, fish, frog and snake. The master was watching his every move, teaches him that every cruel deed would be carried by the heart forever.

In the next segment, the boy grows into a young man. A mother brings her daughter (a young woman) for a mysterious illness, probably the mental kind. The young man with his bulging hormones is head-over-heels in love with the lady. They were caught embraced in sexual activity. The girl is sent off as she seems to have recovered. The young man, longing to be with her, follows her back to civilisation. He is warned that lust leads to the desire for possession, and possession leads to murder. A colourful rooster, which signifies desire and craving, is featured in this segment.

In the ‘fall’ component, the monk reads from an old newspaper wrapping that the apprentice had killed his wife for infidelity and that he is at large. Expectedly, he arrives at the monastery. The cat is featured here. Cats are thought to be able to cast away evil spirits in Korean culture whilst they denote decadent lascivious life in Far Eastern scriptures.

The apprentice, regretting the turn of events, attempts suicide but is stopped by the monk. He is made to carve out some holy scriptures. Police later arrived to apprehend him. Sifu then performs self-sacrifice by burning himself on a pyre.

Winter... Many years later, the apprentice returns as a changed man. He rejuvenates the temple. A lady turns up to leave her son. Spring... the child does the same thing that the apprentice did before, torture animals...

That is the circle of life. Things happen cyclically; the world is a stage with the same play. Only the props and actors differ. The plot may vary slightly. The outcome may vary, but the trend is the same.