Well while I was watching this movie I kinda liked it but I felt something was missing. Oldboy is one of my favourite movies and I don't think we can compare them. But when I saw the last scene where the main character is fighting against his own image in the glass I thought "Hell yeah, that's a good scene to end this film".
What do you think about that?
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You know, they didn't make any of this extremely clear. It was a good ending, I really enjoyed it. However I feel it is left to interpretation. There is a lot of evidence for thinking the ending was a dream.
Or it could be like you said, the ending a flashback to before all the events of the movie have started, when he was happier. His invincibility explained by the fact that it's just a movie and that's the way it was meant to play out.
I prefer the dream ending, but really, there isn't anything to support right or wrong completely with either interpretation. That's what makes this something creative.
"Bulls**t MR.Han Man!!"--Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon
here is my slightly different (pretty wild as well) theory on the ending:
maybe the guy had some aspirations to be a boxer but then got sucked into the life of a mobster, while shadow boxing he was reliving the life before. it slightly gave me that vibe because the guy is proficient at fighting and the scene at which that jealous dude was taking the piss saying even till the end he wants to look cool and he ends up shadow boxing in front of him.
it's a very tenuous link but it fit in more with the dream message. he didn't have the feeling of a cut throat mobster, nor did he seem happy in that life. he may have been quite high up in the gang hierarchy but he didn't look very interested in that position nor did he show any affection for the boss. if he was a former boxer, it slightly fits the character better because he could've lost his chance or something and the boss gives him a job and he gets roped in like that but he doesn't actually like what he does. so it's regret that he didn't actually become a boxer, he was dreaming when he was shadow boxing.
once again, the theory seems unlikely as it isn't ever addressed, but i prefer it to the pretty bad option of endings:
1. it was a dream
i actually dont have a big problem with this if the dream had some meaning, i mean you dont just dream some random story of losing the reason of your existence or something. maybe if the dream took a route where he could've led a different life or something and his past comes to haunt him or whatever, but this was just a random story in his life as a mobster. nothing really changed (he was still a gangster) and he just created a story where he met the bosses wife and falls in love with her after 2 days (what a good story to create -.-')
2. he is looking back on his time where everything was going good
this probably fits to what the director was trying to say, however the flaws are that basically there is no character development. he is still the gangster, he doesn't deserve our pity, if he is just looking back when things were good, he hasn't made any development and his choice to not kill the girl didn't mean anything. hes still a bad guy. i dont mind this type of ending, but the way it was portrayed makes me think he is supposed to be pitied and this ending meant he doesn't actually deserve our pity, he got what he deserved, the boss gave an order and the dude lied and didn't carry it out.
just my thing, but i do think him being a fallen boxer makes more sense than the other 2 endings if it was actually fleshed.
Actually, I liked the fable he recalled towards the end about the disciple crying and the teacher asking why. He said he dreamed a nice dream, but realized as he woke up it's a dream he can't have. I thought that made the entire movie, and it explained why he did what he had to do. He realized he couldn't live the life he wanted, and that especially now, it was all coming to a head.
Great movie. I thought it started off really slow and dull, but it ended on a good note.
but what life was it? he was going back to be a ganster, he would've never left that life, he didn't change his life style in the story, he just got caught bosses ire for not killing the gf and her lover. thats my main issue with the film, he doesn't actually change what so ever. he is still stone cold gangster who decided to spare this girl who he magically fell in love with (while never acting on this love, which made this love redundant, because he was never going to see her again).
shareIt's not about changing anything, the dream was the kind of life the girl had, something he will never have.
shareLike the scene in which Sun-Woo watches Hee-Soo play the music, we don't get to see his reaction in the beginning, but it's shown towards the end how he reacted happily with a smile. The same way the ending shot was shown along with the title card in the beginning but it didn't show him shadowboxing. It was at the end that the director did an amazing job by mixing two things: firstly, he completed the beginning shot by showing him shadowbox. Second, his image starts to fade away at the end, if you noticed. It makes it clear that he couldn't survive the battle with his bittersweet life and thus he died. He actually died by a gunshot by another man. The director could have ended it here only, but to add a bittersweet twist, he did so, I suppose. I don't think the further part of the movie from the beginning was Sun-Woo's dream.
It was really the best gangster action film I have ever seen. Had it been released in India here, it would have done very well. But with the help of Internet, I and many people over the world have watched it. May more films of Lee Byung-hun release here!