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Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Sony Pictures Classics

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring reviews


8.4

based on 29 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Yeong-su Oh, Jong-ho Kim, Jae-kyeong Seo, Young-min Kim, Yeo-jin Ha, Dae-han Ji, Jung-young Kim, Ki-duk Kim, and Ji-a Park

Entirely set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape, this film is divided into five segments with each season representing a stage in a man's life. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Foreign
WRITTEN BY:	Ki-duk Kim
DIRECTED BY:	Ki-duk Kim
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 7, 2004 Video: September 7, 2004 Theatrical: April 2, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	South Korea / Germany
LANGUAGE(S):	Korean (with English subtitles)

Original title "Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom"; Audience Award, 2003 San Sebastián International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Kim's movie conjures a sense of spiritual discipline as suspenseful as it is stunning to watch and exhilarating to contemplate.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A masterful portrait of the seasons of a life.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

This meditation on spirituality, loneliness and accountability could touch your heart's core.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The triumph of ''Spring, Summer'' is that even those of us who don't happen to be Buddhists can catch a glimpse of ourselves in the spinning wheel of hope, destruction, suffering, and bliss.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The film unfolds at a deliberate pace, with a soundtrack occupied less by dialogue than by the sounds of water flowing and crickets chirping. And if you listen carefully enough, you might just hear the sound of one hand clapping.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

As meditative and beautiful as its title would indicate. What is a surprise is the extent to which it manages to be involving if you can put yourself on its wavelength.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

An exquisitely simple movie. Mr. Kim manages to isolate something essential about human nature and at the same time, even more astonishingly, to comprehend the scope of human experience.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Kim exalts nature--life’s passage--without stooping to sentimentality. He sees the tooth and claw, and he sees the transcendence. Whether this is a Buddhist attribute, I cannot say, but the impression this movie leaves is profound: Here is an artist who sees things whole.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This beautiful -- and beautifully controlled -- film is also an object lesson in how to hypnotize an audience.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Truly a movie for world audiences with a message that's devastatingly subtle.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Proof that movies don’t always have to be busy to entertain and enrich, this tale of life at a bucolic Korean monastery is at once profound and simple.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Spring, Summer values life, beauty and even human fallibility, ascribing to humanity a nobility we neglect at our own peril.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This delicate, transporting movie, which keeps dialogue to a minimum to tell its story primarily through images, is also a triumph of sheer cinematic craft that mirrors its characters' contemplative natures while extolling the virtues of lives simply led.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The film is as spare and unvarnished as a wooden temple floating on a lake, but its reflections run deep, and it can ripple your thoughts for months.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Using perfectly composed shots to amplify an emotionally resonant story, the film successfully argues that "artistic" films do not have to be boring.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Beautiful, lyrical, but not in the least bit wimpy. [May 2004, p. 18]

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An exquisitely realized film; a little gem, it keeps its conflicting or varying themes of tranquility and violence, sacred and profane love, recklessness and wisdom, in almost perfect balance.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Proves that the most local story is sometimes the most universal, the simplest tale sometimes the most complex.

Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)

This subtly entrancing paean to seasons earthly and emotional is to the developing male psyche what "Whale Rider" is to the female, and deserves equal acclaim.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Kim Ki-duk keeps dialogue to a minimum and actions simple in what is virtually a two-character piece. Humor arrives organically, often resulting in hearty laughs.

Variety Derek Elley

A sublime, witty, gritty and transcendental movie reflecting one man's life journey.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Far from a maxim-expounding sermon, the film is a fresh spring of irrational visual pleasure.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Wise, gentle, and simply constructed.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Where Kim's best-known movie, "The Isle," was a stomach-churner, this beautifully composed canvas is the sort of film one falls into, resurfacing at the end with great reluctance.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

In the end, inner peace is found by all - on screen and in the audience.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

It IS a little obvious, but that's the way it goes with spiritual enlightenment. The film's lessons are plain--spoken aloud, even--and deal with the close relationship between what can be shed in this life and what binds people to the world in spite of their best efforts to purify.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Exquisitely crafted drama.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Looking like some gorgeous fan painting come to life, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter . . . and Spring is pictorially spellbinding.

Washington Post Phillip Kennicott

Though lacking in any particular narrative surprise, the film nevertheless takes the viewer completely by surprise several times.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jeff M. gave it a7:
As each season progressed, my interest lessened along the way. Still, there are moments of stunning beauty in each vignet that it is a film woth seeing. The sum its parts is better than the whole though.

M. Daye gave it a10:
For a film whose objective is to recount the intricacy of life, 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…And Spring' is blissfully simple. Gorgeously paced and highly original.

Matt A. gave it a9:
Great movie except for one thing: The first sex scene. Totally unrealistic. Other than that, loved it.

Adam gave it a10:
Awesome and calm despite all the violent scenes. I'd only like someone to explain the meaning of painting sutras with cat's tail.

John S gave it a10:
Serene, beautiful, calm, intriguing.

Joey M. gave it a9:
A terrific movie that explores the ages of man by following the lives of two men. Beautifully filmed, pitch perfect performances. Perhaps not for all tastes - it is a little slow and one of my less intelligent companions complained that she "just doesn't want to have to understand other cultures" - but I think that most fans of great filmmaking will be very pleased that they saw this. It is one of the few movies that I actually want to own on DVD for repeated viewings.

Kay L. gave it a10:
Absolutely stunning and spiritual.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring Sony Pictures Classics

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
Sony Pictures Classics