I must confess I don't get a lot of his films but I adored "Spring, Summer Fall, Winter and Spring again". Now I see that this man just comes from a different place with his stories. He is not trying to be commercial. He is brave enough to make some weird stuff but without formulaic endings and feel good clichés. The man is stretching the boundaries of our perception and disturbing our sensibilities enough to make us remember what we just saw whether we liked it or not. For that I give him his due.<br /><br />Hwal is another zen story in my eyes but with a bit of Shamanism as well. The imagery is once again luscious with Buddhism and nature with beautiful Korean traditional wedding costumes also. The old man and young girl thing disturbed me to no end but that was the intent. There was something sincerely loving between them even though one's moral sensibilities are assaulted from the get go. As the young man enters the picture in what would seem a more appropriate love interest the conflict begins. Just as things start to seem to turn normal the magic begins and the spiritual enters the mundane like an old Korean fairy tale.