The Ending *SPOILER*

Liu Xiaochun ran away and allowed the girl the spot in the competition. The last scene has Liu playing in the subway the same concerto as the girl is playing in the competition, which is really not very possible unless the symphony is playing VERY loudly. All of the professor's other pupils have lost sight of their love of music and their reason for pursuing it in the first place, so Liu got out while the gettin' was good... more or less.

Sugary and idealistic? Quite, but it is an incredibly effective scene and caps what I felt was a wonderful film.

I think you might be a little confused. The boy never went to the competition. He ran away before, and the other violin-playing girl played in place of him. He ran to the subway station to see his father INSTEAD. He didn't like the professor's teaching intentions. The boy realized that the professor only wanted to become famous through the boy's excellence--he wasnt't interested in the well-being of the boy. The boy played for his LOVE of music and didn't want to learn from someone who had these kinds of reasons for doing what they are doing. He just wanted to be with the two things he loved--his music and his father. It's kinda like what his first teacher taught him--that he shouldn't play when he is unhappy. That is one of the main themes of the movie. *Only play when your heart desires.* Basically, only play music when your heart is in it. Remember the other girl who also took lessons from the boy's second professor? Well, the professor told her that she didn't put "feeling" into her music; that she just played the notes and that he couldn't teach her feeling. On the other hand, he told the boy that he had the feelings for music. This is what made him a prodigy.

I hope that's helpful!! :-D

The boy didn't play in the competition, he ran away to be with his father. The girl says something to him when he was about to play and when she shows him his mother's violin about her just finding out how much she loved music. That was what gave her the feeling that she needed to put in her playing to play in the competition. The boy got the feeling he needed while playing in the subway by imagining what prof. Yu told him about his father not being his actual father. So, in short, they both (the boy and the girl) got the inspiration that they needed in order to put the feeling back into their music and both got what they wanted: the girl played in the competition and the boy went to be with his father.

I don't believe either Yu or Jiang were his father. All that would do is add an unneccesary, and ultimately unbelievable, plot twist. It would distract from the whole point of the movie. Liu Cheng was his father, blood relation or not.

Hmm, as pleasant as the idea of following your heart and staying true to your love of music sounds, I still think it was too idealistic. The way the fgilm dealt with it was idealistic. I don't believe it's the case that all renowned musicians have no souls and only play for fortune and fame. It just feels as if the main character's final actions suggested that this was a given. I know the teacher was the culprit but it feels like thye boy just gave up. In fact, I was dissapointed with the ending. The thought of the young man simply going back to the country with his father and possibly remaining in obscurity just didn't appeal to me. I suppose this isn't what happens but I just felt like the film built up to the young boy reaching the top (with noble intentions of copurse) and then the ending just deflated the experience for me. Although, I'm happy he was reunited with his father, it just made me question the entire point of the film.