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

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is a drama set on a remote lake ringed by mountains, where a floating wooden temple houses an old monk and the boy he is raising as his disciple. The two live apart from the world, and the master's stern teaching gradually strips away the child's casual cruelty toward the creatures around him and instils a respect for life and nature. When the boy grows into a young man, a woman arrives at the temple to recover her health, and the feelings she stirs in him draw him away from his teacher and toward a life the older monk has warned him against. The film moves through the seasons to trace the course of a life, returning to the lake at each stage.

Kim Ki-duk directed and wrote the film, which was released in 2003 and followed Bad Guy from the previous year and preceded 3-Iron in 2004, the sixth of the thirteen features he directed. The cast is led by Oh Young-soo as the Old Monk, with Kim Young-min, Seo Jae-kyeong, Kim Jong-ho as the monk at different ages, Ha Yeo-jin as the girl, and the director himself credited as the adult monk.

The film took about 9 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from around 91,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 out of 10 from roughly 1,200 votes. A critics' rating of 8.1 out of 10 from 98 reviews places it close to the audience scores.