Starring Oh Yeong-su, Kim Ki-duk, Kim Young-min, Seo Jae-kyung, Park Ji-a, Ha Yeo-jin and Kim Jong-ho
South Korea, Germany, 2003
This beautiful and quietly haunting film tells the story of two Buddhist monks, a young apprentice and his older mentor. They live together in small monastery floating in the middle of a lake. The lake is surrounded on all sides by mountains, and is seemingly only accessible to the outside world via winding foot paths. The story covers most of the young apprentice's life, divided into episodes reflecting the different seasons of the year -- he's a child in the spring, a teenager in the summer, at the beginning of adulthood in the fall, and well into adulthood come winter.
It is difficult to talk about this movie without giving too much away, because not much happens in it and what does happen and how it develops is surprising. The way the story unfolds is not commented upon much by the characters in the movie, so most of the reward comes from attentively watching and drawing your own conclusions.
It is also difficult to talk about the tone of the film, because it is so hypnotic you sort of need to see it to believe it and understand it. I can tell you the seasons are all represented beautifully, that nature has never looked so perfect, and that every scene looks like a painting, but it's still not doing the movie justice.
You might be wondering -- what's this have to do with romance? Isn't this Romancefest? Well, yes -- and no. The Summer segment, in which the apprentice is a teenager, does feature a story in which love (and lust) blossoms. And, the consequences of this inform the rest of the movie. But the real romance is really between the viewer and the movie -- it is so beautiful and perfect, you fall in love with it.
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