*spoilers herein*
The problem is that this film could have been much better but I think the director just kept shooting himself in the foot. First of all, the title gives away the whole point of the film. As you're watching the "Spring" segment, you already know this is going to be another one of those life cycle stories... Why not choose another title then ? At the end of the "Summer" segment, the Master says that lustful acts can lead to murder *nudge nudge*, next thing you know, he finds an article about his disciple in the newspaper wrapping his fish... Why are these scenes necessary ? The disciple stabbing the floor with his knife full of blood was clear enough, and would have had a much more surprising effect on the viewer than having the whole murder thing spelled out for us beforehand. Finally, the disciple becomes the master and there is a new disciple, as if this had to be an unavoidable cycle... which it doesn't. So, the director says he wrote the whole story in 2 hours and made a point not to alter any of it, and I believe him as this story is cute but superficial as a Paulo Coelho novel. It certainly doesn't have the depth of most works by Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Ozu or even Koizumi and Kitano. Still, it's watchable, thanks to the acting, cinematography and nice settings, and can be a nice introduction for some shallow Westerners to Asian cinema.
The problem is that this film could have been much better but I think the director just kept shooting himself in the foot. First of all, the title gives away the whole point of the film. As you're watching the "Spring" segment, you already know this is going to be another one of those life cycle stories... Why not choose another title then ? At the end of the "Summer" segment, the Master says that lustful acts can lead to murder *nudge nudge*, next thing you know, he finds an article about his disciple in the newspaper wrapping his fish... Why are these scenes necessary ? The disciple stabbing the floor with his knife full of blood was clear enough, and would have had a much more surprising effect on the viewer than having the whole murder thing spelled out for us beforehand. Finally, the disciple becomes the master and there is a new disciple, as if this had to be an unavoidable cycle... which it doesn't. So, the director says he wrote the whole story in 2 hours and made a point not to alter any of it, and I believe him as this story is cute but superficial as a Paulo Coelho novel. It certainly doesn't have the depth of most works by Mizoguchi, Kurosawa, Kobayashi, Ozu or even Koizumi and Kitano. Still, it's watchable, thanks to the acting, cinematography and nice settings, and can be a nice introduction for some shallow Westerners to Asian cinema.