Spring Summer Fall Winter…And Spring (2003) and the Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are two movies that both reflect the aspects, culture and traditions of the Asian society, captured through the lenses of a movie camera from two different times. The Spring Summer Fall Winter…And Spring (2003) reflects aspects of traditions and modernity from the perspective of Buddhist teachings and the Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) reflects the not so perfect but yet a dysfunctional imperial family from later Tang dynasty. Spring Summer Fall Winter…And Spring (2003) is a movie about human nature, about who we are and what our purpose is in life. KIM Ki-duk, the director of the film in his statement states the following: I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature. In the movie, Spring Summer Fall Winter…And Spring (2003), the protagonist's life is reduced to the four seasons. The seasons reflect the life cycle philosophy. The movie makes anyone who watches it to meditate on the knowledge of Buddhism and the cycles of human life as they are played out in the untouched beauty of the nature. Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), on the other hand is an amazing epic movie about the madness of war and the breakup of the imperial family under the burden of unrequited love. It is a movie about betrayal and the impossible to forgive and the endless thirst for power. CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER takes place in the Later Tang dynasty, more than 1,000 years ago. The Tang was one of the most flamboyant dynasties in Chinese history. It was an ostentatious time. There’s an old Chinese saying, “Gold and jade on ... ... middle of paper ... ...lly when it comes to be portrayed in movies such as the ones discussed in this paper. Both movies are meant to teach valuable lessons. Lessons which are pushing the human beings towards evolution, the dignity of living right by observing the existence as a unique gift and make us reflect on the fact that time is free will, an unforgiving champion, which do not gives us the right to return and fix a mistake. Any mistake in this life is difficult to repair, leaves scars and strongly reflects on the human generations. Works Cited Smith, B. (ND). http://www.mongrelmedia.com/. Retrieved from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/data/ftp/Spring,%20Summer,%20Fall,%20Winter...%20And%20Spring/Spring%20Summer%20Press%20Kit.pdf Smith, B. (ND). http://www.mongrelmedia.com/. Retrieved from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/data/ftp/Curse%20of%20the%20Golden%20Flower,%20The/COTGF_press.pdf
King Solomon wrote wisely, and later was wisely paraphrased by the folk band “The Byrds”, “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven...” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,8). Seasons often represent the periods of a person’s life; birth, youth, age and death. In the short story “Summer” by David Updike, the lake provides an eternal and unchanging witness to Homer’s transition from season to season and from boy to man.
In John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Piece, the main Character, Gene Forrester, has to learn to become friends with his hazardous roommate, Phineas, at his school, Devon, in New Hampshire. The novel is affected by a number of changes, however the largest and most significant change is the change in seasons. In Thomas C. Foster’s novel, How to read literature like a Professor, chapter twenty explains the significance of the seasons. Foster states that, “Summer [symbolizes] adulthood and romance and fulfillment and passion,” while, “ winter [symbolizes] old age and resentment and death.” John Knowles’ book A Separate Peace, all aspects of Summer, Fall, and Winter are excellently represented as explained in Thomas C. Foster’s novel, How to read
“A Summer in the Cage” is a documentary filmed by Ben Selkow that shows his friend Sam battling with a manic-depressive illness known as bipolar disorder. The main theme of this film is the struggles the main character Sam goes through when battling bipolar disorder. Selkow firsts meets Sam while filming a documentary about street basketball. Ever since that day, they became close friends. Sam decided to help make the documentary with Selkow. Selkow begins to realize after spending so much time with Sam that he had something off about him. At this time, Sam was having is first manic episode. When Sam was eight years old, his father committed suicide due to battling the same disorder. Throughout this documentary, Sam tries to escape that same
In “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why?” Edna St. Vincent Millay says that “the summer sang in me” meaning that she was once as bright and lively as the warm summer months. In the winter everyone wants to bundle up and be lazy, but when summer comes along the sunshine tends to take away the limits that the cold once had on us. She uses the metaphor of summer to express the freedom she once felt in her youth, and the winter in contrast to the dull meaningless life she has now. There are many poets that feel a connection with the changing of seasons. In “Odes to the West Wind” Percy Bysshe Shelley describes his hopes and his expectations for the seasons to inspire the world.
The poem “anyone lived in a pretty how town” by E.E. Cummings talks about the cycle of life and the importance of structure, symbolism, and language of the poem. For instance, the poem has nine stanzas, which has a rhyming pattern of AABC. The rhythm of the poem is significant for it supports one of themes, the cycle of life. Cumming uses season to explain the poem's progress. “spring summer autumn winter” (3) and “sun moon stars rain” (8) symbolizes time passing, which represents life passing. In the poem, as the seasons and skies rotate, life continues along with them. In addition, the uses of the words “snow” (22), “buried” (27), “was by was” (28), and “day by day” (29) leading to death. Towards the end of the poem, the depression of death was mention, but Cumming was just stating the n...
Seasons can convey a multitude of meanings. Though the Kokinshū consists of numerous sections, the seasonal sections are the best at conveying the power of human creativity. The seasons in poetry are used to show everything from the passage of time as well as evoke feelings such as loneliness and love. As shown in the spring sections of the Kokinshū, seasons are treated in poetry through their progression from one part of the season to another, seasonal imagery in describing the season, related emotional expressions, and the linking of human emotion to the natural surroundings.
The sun has been an endless source of inspiration, both physical and spiritual, throughout the ages. For its light, warmth, and the essential role it has played in the maintenance of the fragile balance of life on earth, the sun has been honored and celebrated in most of the world's religions. While the regeneration of light is constant, the relative length of time between the rising and setting of the sun is affected by the changing of the seasons. Hippocrates postulated centuries ago that these changing patterns of light and dark might cause mood changes (9). Seasonal downward mood changes of late fall and winter have been the subject of many sorrowful turn-of-the-century poems of lost love and empty souls. For some, however, “the relationship between darkness and despair is more than metaphoric (6).
The pattern rose due to its parallel to nature. Nature revolves in seasons of spring, summer, fall, and winter. This spans from the new growth or birth of the season to the eventual end of the season. The same belief transferred to life itself. A person is born and grows early in the season. Then enter adulthood for their period of summer. The eventual decline in the individuals is reminiscent of fall. Eventual death occurs to all. Further supported this theory was
Spring Breakers and American Honey are two films released in the 2000s that focus on teenagers and their lives in a seemingly provocative and edgy way. Spring Breakers follows four college girls, Faith, Cotty, Candy, and Brit, who embark on a journey to Florida for Spring Break. These girls go to drastic lengths to ensure the success of their trip which is full of partying, drugs, and violence. American Honey is the story of Star a teenage girl who joins a band of misfits who travel across the country selling magazines in order to escape her tumultuous home life. These two respective films share several commonalities but also diverge on several different issues. Both films have some of the cinematic tendencies used to depict certain scenes, and the types of scenes that
Finally, I come to mark the passing of the seasons, signaled by the harvest and the snow squalls and most significantly to me, by the great flocks of waterfowl, purposely drifting south across the plains. Understanding, (unlike many people I know), the futility of resisting the seasons, knowing that their only recourse is to become one with the flow of time.
"To Autumn." Brooklyn College English Department. Brooklyn College, 19 Feb. 2009. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. .
Morrison has divided her portrayal of a fictional town of blacks, which suffers from alienation and subjugation, into four seasons. I believe that her underlying message is to illustrate the reality of life's travails: the certain rhythms of blessings and tragedies. Some blacks understand and acccept this philosophy and Morrison's use of the seasons portrays and echoes the bible verse, "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven"(Ec. 3.1). Perhaps this is a fatalistic approach or as Darrow says,
Seasons have been around for many years and affect many people in every way. Can seasons really change the moods of several individuals? Seasons are something that no human has effect over and are not something that anyone can change with the click of a button. The world was ordered around having seasons at specific times, but who knew it could affect lives every day. Mary Pinkowish states that, “Ten million Americans suffer from winter depression,” and that is just one season out of the four. Seasonal Affect Disorder is a real disorder that affects many people who should be carefully diagnosed, should know the symptoms and signs, and should know how to treat it.
Unlike any other movie, Gasper Noe’s Irreversible (2002), with his own unusual but unique way of telling a story, shows how violence roots from love, how pain roots from pleasure, how imagination roots from reality and how death roots from life. This movie focuses Marcus and Pierre’s battle with the illusion of justice to avenge Marcus’ girlfriend, Alex, from her atrocious fate. And beginning this with the ending, Gasper Noe has created not just a realistic and powerful movie but has explained, as well, what it means
of plant and animal life. There is a reason for all seasons, two of which are