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Reader comments on Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring
Subject: Symbolism
Date: Jan 17, 2005
You mentioned... "my companion explained the ending--where the Buddhist figurine is hauled up the hill--in Buddhist terms or I would have been baffled by its symbolism." I would like to know more about this symbolism. I understand that his act was one of atonement, but since I don't know anything about the meaning of the statue I feel that much of the richness of the symbolism is lost.
It is the same with the text that he carves in the floor. What is the text? Do the colors have meaning and that the other characters(police) partake of the ritual by painting the characters? What signifcance is the cat and the turtle? The fish and the frog?
This is definately a film that could have benefited from a commentary.
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Response to this comment:
Re: burning oneself alive
I think cinthya hits the symbolism right on the head: the first monk must die, so that we can witness the cycles of life proceed with his protege. The movie'w title really is apt and without guile: human beings go through cycles during the course of their lives that can be likened to the turning of the seasons. I, too, would have been much more appalled if the protege had found the skeletal remains of his teacher; self-immolation, within a very small segment of mankind is as natural--and in the monk's case more so--as burial for Christians or leaving the remains to be picked clean by vultures (is it the Parsis of India?). I think Cinthya's insight about why, symbolically, the monk had to die in the boat is brilliant. I had the good fortune of seeing the movie with a Buddhist, so I didn't have to think one minute what the various animals at the monastery represented (though some reflection would have worked anyway), but my companion explained the ending--where the Buddhist figurine is hauled up the hill--in Buddhist terms or I would have been baffled by its symbolism. No matter. What a great movie, if for no other reason than the cinematic lushness of the movie.
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Comment index:
» Symbolism « from Gail, Jan 17, 2005
all from Erik, Aug 11, 2005
» Symbolism « from Gail, Jan 17, 2005
all from Erik, Aug 11, 2005
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