Mike Ashcroft wrote <<And finish with contemporary situation - have we
reached Perniola's 'total philosophical work' Use analyses of: Spring,
Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (Kim di-Kuk, 2003)>>

Mike,
I won't know much about the aspects of what Perniola wrote but about Kim
Ki-Deok(the name is actually Kim Ki-Deok in Korean romanized spelling, but
written as Kim Ki-Duk for the sake of simplifying the complex proliferation
of vowel sounds and compound vowel sounds in Korean), I would probably say
that the film itself has much to say about transcendence in a Buddhist
perspective. The Buddhist notion of nirvana is based on the whole premise of
transcending and breaking the binding cycle of samsara which applies to all
living beings. The first movement, "Spring" (Bom), is the young boy-monk's
lesson in not killing nature; the second, "Summer" ("Eorum") is about the
young boy's sexual discovery in his interest in the female sex, which itself
proves to be a lesson on the possessiveness of lust and fleshly desire for a
woman; the third, "Autumn" (Gaeul) is about the control of rage which leads
to murder as hinted in the long shot segment where he carves out the
characters of Prajnarata(I think that is the title of the sutra, but in
Chinese, it is called "Ban Ruo Xing Jing") Sutra in Chinese characters. The
fourth segment in which he returns as an old man(surprisingly Kim Ki-deok
himself as a cameo) is a reflection of the ascetic discipline of monasticism
in Buddhism, which takes pride in training one's body in martial arts and
hard work(and at the same time carries the seeds of the cycle of repetition
which is contained in the metaphor of seasonal change).

The enigmatic imagery may be interesting to you in the case that the camera
actually cuts in between to various images which seem unrelated to the whole
plot, but which actually have a lot to say about the Buddhist message of the
film. The image of the boat(rowed by the boy-monk) which carries Buddhist
carvings of a boddhisattva carrying forth a baby incarnation of the Buddha
Gautama who comes forth out of a lotus carries with it allusions to Buddhist
legends in which it was stated that when the Buddha was born, lotuses
sprouted wherever he walked. Plus, the devas inscribed on the wooden doors
which are always opening up onto vistas of the river valleys and the
floating Buddhist lodge in the midst of the river are always signs of
initiation into the Buddhist world, and also guardians against evil  and the
spirits that form the world of Maya(chaos) outside. Also the constant
repetition of the Buddha(whether a boy rock statue or a small iron figurine)
which stares upon the world beyond the floating lodge is always a salient
image that makes statements about the Buddha and his bodhisattvas as beings
who are detached from the world in their attainment of nirvana which allows
them to maintain a poise unlike any human. What particularly struck me was
the segment in which a masked lady brings a baby boy to the lodge during
winter, and later when she falls into a hole in the frozen lake, the adult
monk tries to rescue her dead body from the lake, and unravelling the
mask(her shawl which she uses to enwrap her face), the camera cuts to an
image of a bodhisattva or buddha's head statue which lies atop the shawl.
What do you think of that scene? This is one of the few which actually still
haunts me and makes one think.

Kevin

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