How did the detective (Koichi Takakura) break the brainwashing drug? And then after the creep is killed, how is it the drug just instantly "deactivates" and everyone just returns to normal?
I can suspend disbelief to assume that the drug can control people's behavior and that can explain characters' strange actions. But not at the end, where somehow the drug just instantly stops working.
Evidently, the detective wasn't brainwashed enough, or perhaps was simply stronger than his wife (or most people that he had ensnared before). The creepy guy seems to have gotten careless and not kept the detective on the drug-taking/brainwashing program long enough.. I don't think you're understanding the intent of the ending. The detective at the beginning of the film blunders because he over-estimates both his skills as a psychologist and the innate morality and goodness of humanity. The killer says he has "morality" and the detective in his hubris assumes that he is in control of the situation and can reach the killer. The detective's hubris gets a police office and a civilian killed. The end of the film parallels this, but in reverse. The psycho gets careless and sloppy, by making the opposite assumption, namely that human beings are fundamentally as corrupt as they are and have no innate morality. He hands the gun to the detective thinking he has the situation under control and the he understand what his captive would do. Both of the detective and the creepy guy are undone due to their hubris.
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