The recommendations and visuals would lead you to believe that this is a really thoughtful, unique movie. Indeed the first two chapters "Spring" and "Summer" were promising, leading up to a plot which manages to hold the attention. After this is starts to go downhill and the final third is just awful, with a few very silly scenes.
Also lacking is any kind of subtlety. You expect a quite thoughtful meditation, but really you get a series of really simple dumbed-down messages like "it is bad to hurt animals" or there are consequences to evil acts. The director is not content with making a point once, or obliquely, he has to make the point three or four times each chapter.
This points to a basic lack of editing directorial concision. For instance, the child monk in "Spring" is naughty, mean to three wild animals, a fish, a frog and a snake. The master chastises him an makes him rescue the animals. The whole series of scenes where the child finds each animal in turn and then has to rescue each animal afterwards are needless filler. One animal would have made the point far more clearly and forcefully.
Given the quality of the visuals available and the basic concept of the story a much better movie could have been made.
Also lacking is any kind of subtlety. You expect a quite thoughtful meditation, but really you get a series of really simple dumbed-down messages like "it is bad to hurt animals" or there are consequences to evil acts. The director is not content with making a point once, or obliquely, he has to make the point three or four times each chapter.
This points to a basic lack of editing directorial concision. For instance, the child monk in "Spring" is naughty, mean to three wild animals, a fish, a frog and a snake. The master chastises him an makes him rescue the animals. The whole series of scenes where the child finds each animal in turn and then has to rescue each animal afterwards are needless filler. One animal would have made the point far more clearly and forcefully.
Given the quality of the visuals available and the basic concept of the story a much better movie could have been made.