Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2004)

Spring – Child Monk takes life of animals out of innocence A child monk bursts out in laughter when he watches a pitiful sight of a captured fish struggling with a stone tied to its back. Same plight awaits a frog and a snake. The child monk roams the brook in search of the fish and the frog as his punishment allotted by the old monk. Summer – Boy Monk in love learns obsession The boy monk has grown into an open hearted 17 year-old. To the lonely hermitage where the boy and an old monk live, a girl the boy’s age comes to convalesce. Before long, warm feelings towards the girl sprouts in the boy’s heart. Their ripple in the water turns into an act of love. Fall – Young Monk in agony of malice The boy returns to the hermitage in the mountains as a young man in his thirties. The old monk whips him without mercy when the young man attempts suicide in front of the statue of Buddha, unable to overcome his carnal desires. It is finally in etching the words of the old monk’s copy of the Pranja-parpamitasutra in his heart that the young man finds peace. Winter – Mature Monk in days of enlightment The monk, now in his full maturity retraces his steps to the abandoned hermitage in the mountains. He submits to rigorous training in the icy winter for self-cultivation and makes paper from mulberry trees as if the act is a part of his ascetic program. A nameless woman in the last stages of her pregnancy visits the snow-covered hermitage. And then spring – Another child monk : cycle of four seasons The old monk converses with nature as well as the innocent child monk by his side. When time comes, he conducts his own cremation ceremony by piling logs. Yet another child monk plays by the brook by tossing the old monk’s remains into the water