Response to "Spring" in Kim Ki Duk's Film

      Even today, fear exists between me and my parents. Since very young, I remember that my parents have been strict and firm when they came to child education. When I did wrong, and especially when I intentionally did so, I was scolded a lot. Probably I cannot firmly declare that such punishments were so severe, since I don’t know how other parents taught their children. However, as far as I conceived as a young boy, I was afraid, frightened whenever I found out that I were to be punished.
     At this moment, I can remember the fact of being scolded a lot, but there are few anecdotes that flashed inside my head once I saw the video clip. In the short video, a little boy was punished by his master for being cruel to animals. It was rather drastic, since most teachers or parents probably would have simply told him not to do so. Instead, the monk does what the boy did to the animals, but this time, to the boy—tying up with a big stone. The boy cries in vain that he is sorry, both discovering the corpse of the snake and climbing up the mountain with the stone on his back. Through this punishment, the monk made the lesson clear,
     Similarly, I once acted really wrongfully and my parents gave severe punishments. I lied about my whereabouts after school. Trying to cover my fault going to the PC rooms without permission and wandering the streets until late, I told that I had group studies. What made my parents angrier was that I lied for three days in a row. On the third day, my mother called one of the boys that I “alleged” to study with. She was totally shocked. And I came home late.
     Literally, I was kicked out of home. My father said that he will never have a liar as a son. In the middle of the night, I shivered in cold, sitting on the stairs, and thought about what I did. At first thought, I felt my parents were being too harsh. Other kids were doing the same thing, but why only me? Though, looking back, I feel such disciplines guided me the right way, just as the monk taught the little boy in the film. Harsh yet effective education must be a bitter medicine that helps children in the future.