With Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring Korean exceptional director Kim Ki-Duk began to tell his stories in a more subtle way using almost meditative images. Though far away from the extremes of a Bad Guy, deep pits are shown here, as well - only less offensely, but still well suited for the moral guards to scream up from time to time, as his next movie Samaritan Girl would prove. There were also problems with Spring, Summer .... Torturing animals in the cloak of art is always to be seen sceptically and especially in Great Britain, this is an insurmountable obstacle, which is why Tartan removed the ending sequence even before having the movie rated by the BBFC. It seems this cut version is used as master for all the international versions, because it is also missing in Germany and the US. One unmistakable indication of the English version being the root of all this evil, is the same (poor) image quality of both DVDs, which differs drastically from the Korean DVD's.

Contrary to the English DVD, the German one includes the removed scene at least as an alternative ending in the bonus-section. It is clear from the title, though, that the scene belongs in the movie. (Intro by Doc Idaho).

1.35.56
The little boy tortures some animals. First he catches a fish and shoves a stone up its mouth. As he puts it back into the water, it cannot carry the weight and floats headfirst in the water. Near by, the boy is sitting at the shore, laughing and giggling. Then the boy catches a frog and shoves a stone into its mouth too, so it strugglingly floats headfirst in the water as well. Again, the boy kneels down at the shore and laughs. The third victim is a snake, which suffers the same fate. You don't see the procedure here, though, only the laughing boy. Finally, fade-out.
153 Sec.