Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

DVD

Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Recent DVD/Video Releases

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring reviews
85
8.4 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign

Written by: Ki-duk Kim

Directed by: Ki-duk Kim

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 2, 2004
DVD: September 7, 2004

Running Time: 103 minutes, Color

Origin: South Korea / Germany

Summary

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)

What The Critics Said

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.

Read Full Review >
100

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A masterful portrait of the seasons of a life.

Read Full Review >
100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

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

Read Full Review >
91

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.

Read Full Review >
90

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.

Read Full Review >
90

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.

Read Full Review >
90

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.

Read Full Review >
90

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.

Read Full Review >
90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

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

90

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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

Read Full Review >
89

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.

Read Full Review >
88

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

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

Read Full Review >
88

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.

Read Full Review >
88

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.

Read Full Review >
88

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.

Read Full Review >
88

Premiere Glenn Kenny

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

88

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.

Read Full Review >
88

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

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

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

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.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety Derek Elley

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

Read Full Review >
80

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

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

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Wise, gentle, and simply constructed.

Read Full Review >
75

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.

Read Full Review >
75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

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

Read Full Review >
70

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.

Read Full Review >
70

TV Guide Ken Fox

Exquisitely crafted drama.

Read Full Review >
63

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.

Read Full Review >
60

Washington Post Phillip Kennicott

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

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

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.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use