(Spoilers!) I think the author believes, as he suggests in the caption at the end of the film, that life may be a dream. So he has made a film that is very dreamlike about lovers who virtually never speak to each other.
The protagonist is a mischievous young man whose innate temper seduces him into seeking revenge on the unfortunate husband. That error eventually lands him in prison where he frees himself from the cycle of revenge by accepting punishment after punishment without retaliating in kind. He becomes less human and more other-worldly until finally he "sees" what life is all about. You rememberl the illustration of the seeing eye on his hand.
I can't recall all the events, but I believe that when he is led down the dark corridor (toward the bright light) by two guards that he is actually headed toward the experience of their fury and to his death which finally frees him from the "human dream."
The husband is told that the prisoner has been released, but that could be to free them from implication in his "disappearance."
When he returns to his lover, he does so as a spirit, and it is her fey spirit that allows her to "see" him.
Her sullen behavior toward her husband at the start may suggest that she had not yet realized that she reincarnated to guide her lover away from his anger. And it is only after meeting Tae-suk that she seems to have a purpose. Thus she repeatedly tries to stop him from using the looping golf ball contraption. She knows that expressing anger is not the way.
When he returns as a spirit she is finally able to smile for the first time in the story. She is glad that he has finally freed himself from his human weaknesses.
Like any "dream", this one is open to many interpretations.
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osmanzeki
17 years ago
SPOILERS!!
I agree with the part when he is walking towards that light with the jail guards. It really looked like he was going towards the afterlife.
Also when he's out he exacts his revenge of the corrupt police officer than beat him and at some point he is able to deviate golf balls on the wall as if he was able to see him through the wall. He demonstrates some kind of inhuman golfball-vengeance-delivering-ish ability. :)
Also when she "traps" him to the wall to be able to see him after her husband goes to work, we see for a couple seconds that she seems to be holding her shadow's hand (or his shadow's hand) on the wall instead of his real, physical hand.
I think you laid it down better than me, but I believe in the spiritual return of Tae-suk.
"Why are you worrying about your beard... when you're about to lose your head?"
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Dantès
16 years ago
If he's heading for the afterlife in that scene, when did he die? I suppose it could be from the multiple beatings of the prison guard (an unexpectedly hilarious part of the movie I thought (not the beatings but the hiding)).
Another way to look at it could be that Tae-suk didn't exist at all and was a manifestation of Sun-hwa's rebellious spirit. The whole bit in the prison could have been in her imagination.
Or maybe it's just like Donnie Darko, where I'm convinced that even the director didn't know what the hell was going on, but it's still really well done and captures your imagination nonetheless.
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