Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003)

A boy is raised by a Buddhist monk in an isolated floating temple where the years pass like the seasons.

Director:

Ki-duk Kim

Writer:

Ki-duk Kim

Stars:

Ki-duk Kim, Yeong-su Oh, Jong-ho Kim

15 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Yeong-su Oh	...	Old Monk (as Young-soo Oh)
Ki-duk Kim	...	Adult Monk
Young-min Kim	...	Young Adult Monk
Jae-kyeong Seo	...	Boy Monk
Yeo-jin Ha	...	The Girl
Jong-ho Kim	...	Child Monk
Jeong-yeong Kim	...	The Girl's Mother (as Jung-young Kim)
Dae-han Ji	...	Detective Ji
Min Choi	...	Detective Choi
Ji-a Park	...	The Baby's Mother
Min-Young Song	...	The Baby

Storyline

In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis...

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Plot Keywords:

buddhist | seclusion | isolation | buddhist monk | monk | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

14A

Did You Know?

Trivia

Official submission of South Korea for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 76th Academy Awards in 2004.

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Goofs

When the old monk holds and strokes the cat, the cat's position changes between shots.

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Quotes

Old Monk: Lust awakens the desire to possess. And that awakens the intent to murder.

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Alternate Versions

SPOILER:

• The missing sequence is placed just before the final shot of the film. After the shot of child monk in the rowboat, in the cut scenes the child monk is shown putting stones into the mouths of a fish, a frog, and a snake; these scenes emphasize the film's themes of the circularity of life. The film then continues to its final scene of the Buddha statue on the hill.

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Connections

Featured in Arirang (2011)

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Soundtracks

Jeongseon Arirang
Traditional
Performed by Kim Young Im

User Reviews

The Diamond Sutra (or the Prajnaparamita Sutra)

After watching the movie a second time, I was determined to find out what the Old Monk had drawn on the deck of the hermitage. The only clue I had was the scene's subtitle: "Prajnaparamita Sutra – it helps restore inner peace." Those were the words the Old Monk used to describe the sacred teachings that the Young Monk had to carve out as penance for his crime of passion. When I looked up the Prajnaparamita Sutra on the internet, I found out it was known as the Diamond Sutra of the Buddha.

The Buddha spoke the wise words in a monastery near Sravasti, saying that "this sutra should be called the Diamond that cuts through illusion because it has the capacity to cut through illusions and afflictions and bring us to the shore of liberation." There are 32 sutras or sections, and the 32 sections are also "marks" that are used to meditate on "the Tathagata" – which means "the suchness of all things (dharmas)." The meaning of Tathagata is "does not come from anywhere and does not go anywhere." The insight into the truth of the sutras consists in a realization that "the idea of a self is not an idea, and the ideas of a person, a living being, and a life span are not ideas either." A self-realized or awakened "Buddha" is called a Buddha because he/she is free of ideas.

The "Buddha" in the Diamond Sutra is also called the World-Honored One, and his message can be summarized by two axioms: (1) "Someone who looks for me in form or seeks me in sound is on a mistaken path and cannot see the Tathagata." (2) "All composed things are like a dream, a phantom, a drop of dew, a flash of lightning. That is how to meditate on them, that is how to observe them."

Now I will have to watch the movie a third time and meditate on the 32 marks that the Old Monk draws with the cat's tail on the floor of the ashram. I will also feel the urge to count and see if there are really 32 marks.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site Sony Picture Classics [United States]

Country:

South Korea Germany

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

19 September 2003 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Primavera, verano, otoño, invierno... y otra vez primavera

Filming Locations:

Jusanji Pond, Cheongsong County, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$42,561, 4 April 2004

Gross USA:

$2,380,788

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$10,991,329

Company Credits

Production Co:

Korea Pictures, LJ Film, Pandora Filmproduktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1