The story of the farmer's daughter

yes, i see what you mean. i think that sequence could've been fleshed out a bit more to demonstrate what the character meant by this story. Our narrator (Jo) eventually explains that in this mystery of the movie's structure, what is NOT there is an important as what IS there. The farmer's daughter knows she is being tricked and that both doors go to the bedroom and punishment (instead of one door going outside to freedom). She chooses one door and says "this is NOT the door to outside."

I expected the story to go further and say that the daughter would then force the king to open *that* door to show that it was in fact a door to the bedroom. If the king did this, then everyone would assume/understand/believe that the OTHER door should be the door to outside.

The farmer's daughter should then be set free ... that is, if the king didn't want to be accused of playing dishonestly. Then again, he was a dishonest king. Also, if no door actually led to the outside (freedom), just how would she be set free..? I suppose through some third door..?

Yes, it's a bit of a mystery.

They used a lot of improv in this movie, and I think Wayne Wang decided this scene's overall quality was strong and more useful as-is. Perhaps they did another take where the farmer's daughter story was explained better, but that scene wasn't as good overall.

i agree with the other post about the story being about the importance of what is not there rather than just what is. but i felt it was good the way it was. more detail would've placed more on the actual story rather than the moral and the idea is to get you to look back at whats missing from the movie (any real information on chan maybe) and what that means.