• A boat rowing towards a small monstery in the middle of a lake - Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring - THIS Buddhist Film Festival
  • A young monk rowing a boat with a child monk sitting on the oppposite side - Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring - THIS Buddhist Film Festival
  • A man lying on wooden floor of calligraphy and another man leaning against monastery pilliar - Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring - THIS Buddhist Film Festival

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER… AND SPRING

Fri 1 Oct | 6.45pm

Sun 3 Oct | 1.30pm

Single Cinema Ticket: $13
Prices exclude SISTIC booking fees

South Korea | 2003 | 105 min | M18: Mature Theme

Korean with English subtitles

Directed by Kim Ki-duk

A young Buddhist apprentice is mentored by an aging monk at a secluded monastery in the Korean wilderness. As a teenager, the apprentice encounters a girl who arrives at the monastery seeking assistance with her health. Over the course of a few days, the boy is tempted away from his spiritual existence into a sexual relationship. He leaves the monastery to follow the girl into a modern way of life he has never known and is unprepared for.

This lyrical film, depicting the passing seasons of the year and of human life, presents a fascinating change in director Kim Ki-duk´s controversial methods, though without sacrificing his artistic identity or characteristic themes. The filmmaker himself plays the adult monk.

Fri 1 Oct | 6.45pm

Sun 3 Oct | 1.30pm

Single Cinema Ticket: $13
Prices exclude SISTIC booking fees

Best Film, Grand Bell Awards, South Korea, 2004
Best Film, Blue Dragon Awards, South Korea, 2003

BOOK PAIRING

Zen Is Right Here 
Author: Shunryu Suzuki
$24
Buy from Evergreen Buddhist Culture

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Kim Ki-duk (1960-2020) was a South Korean film director and screenwriter, noted for his idiosyncratic art-house cinematic works. His films have received many distinctions in the festival circuit, rendering him one of the most important contemporary Asian film directors.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I intend 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 surrounded only by nature on Jusan Pond. In my other films there has been a lot of brutality and cruelty and anger inside them. But with SPRING, SUMMER… I also wanted to show the healing powers of forgiveness and tolerance.

PRINT SOURCE

SeongHyun PARK
Finecut Co., Ltd.
shyun@finecut.co.kr

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN

Padmasambhava Buddha Statue in Karana mudra - Precious Guru - THIS Buddhist Film Festival

PRECIOUS GURU

Sat 25 Sep | 2pm

70 min | USA | PG

PRECIOUS GURU is a feature length documentary movie that gives vivid insight into the life, times and legacy of Padmasambhava – the 8th century Indian yogi who carried Buddhism over the Himalayas into Tibet.

The lama standing in snow winter mountain background - The Medicine Buddha - THIS Buddhist Film Festival

THE MEDICINE BUDDHA

Sun 26 Sep | 10am
Wed 29 Sep | 6.45pm

110 min | United Kingdom | PG

This unique documentary is a portrait of one of the leaders of the Buddhist faith in Mongolia: Khamba Lama Natsagdorj. Revered as a national treasure, he treats patients around the world with traditional Mongolian herbal medicine.

Backview of person in red robes and hat walking up a mountain - Wandering But Not Lost - THIS Buddhist Film Festival

WANDERING… BUT NOT LOST

Sat 25 Sep | 4.10pm
Fri 1 Oct | 6.50pm (SOLD OUT)

88 min | USA | PG

An intimate account of Mingyur Rinpoche’s four-and-a-half-year retreat interspersed with the master’s own guidance in applying Buddhist wisdom to our daily modern lives.