Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, 2003, Korea)

I liked this movie for its multivalency. It was so rich and deep, food for thoughts. Based on the movie I could ponder what’s in my baggage. I enjoyed how the metaphor was made explicit; showing how the protagonist’s past sins are weighing him down as physical stones. “The stone that you used to kill the fish will remain in your heart forever.” It is also about the inevitability of renewal. No matter what we humans do, nature will re-cycle instead and in the next season the same will happen again in a slightly different format. I have some problems though with the unproven but demonstrated statement that passion will lead to the will to own and then to murder. Although this was foretold in the movie and then shown as predicted but I don’t see it as necessary. Nevertheless this was one of the moral lessons it wanted to teach us so it did. This idea leads to my drawing towards monastic, secluded life. I am tempted by that. Detachment on hand seems like an ideal that could solve problems and help to solve God. On the other hand I don’t see it as a feasible alternative for many people or even to me. Not in this century, not in Europe or the US and not as a person born in the Western traditions. The challenge I and my mates have to live with is how to remain com-passionate while surrounded by other humans.