MovieChat Forums > Ruang rak noi nid mahasan (2003) Discussion > Correct interpratation of the final Scen...

Correct interpratation of the final Scenes, Spoilers!


Actually I think im right, so i made a new thread ^^


He didnt hung himself, this was only to show his mental state.

The last thing what actually happend was he jumping out of the window. He doesnt jump to death, he just got himself out of there. We dont know if there were balconies. This theory is way too far fetched.

Now we got two alternate endings, but either are just thougths, possibilties the director left us to play with.

1) Police Station and Jail
The book was lost. This is the biggest evidence, the scene aint real.
(the knife wasnt from noi, as suggested here earlier, it was his kitchen knife, the weapon his brothers best thing was cut off)

Second thing, there were smokes. This is merely to show HIS alternating. (opposing to nois change in the "second possible ending".

Alltogether I dont think this scene is likely to happen.

2)Osaka

Noi changes aswell. She uses the ash tray, works at a regular job, she has a nice home which is also neat.
Its not like she chan choose her job. Once ur in the milieu, theres no easy way out. And she was all alone.


Those two possibilities are like worst case scenario and happy ending. Either unlikely to occur.

And lets not forget, he is a smart guy. He wont get caught. Im sure. But Noi wont work at a regular job either. It my opinion, its not black neither white, their future is grey.
Hell get to osaka someday (remember thes scene in the convertible), she will be still working her job, but it will work out somehow. Thats what the Fishtank during the credits with the two happy fish, swimming around each other, meant.

Thanks for reading, im glad i could share.
sincerely yours Mike

/edit
thats why noi is waiting at the airport. He aint that stupid go on airways, when the police is at his home, with three bodies. He'd get caught right away.
So she waiting there is the last actual scene what happens.

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Just watched the movie.
Read a lot of different interpretation in threads and they all make sense.
Here is my own personal understanding of the last scene.
Kenji gets caught by police and he says "This is Bliss" and smokes a cigarette. He falls in love with Noi
and finds a reason to live. He thinks in future to survive the sentence in thailand and return to Osaka to meet Noi someday. The end scene of japan is imaginary one which he thinks of after his release. Noi's appearance changes a lot when she's shown in japan scene, that shows a long period has gone. He hopes to get released someday to see Noi and feels the bliss of life.



This is just another take on the ending part.

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Came to the same conclusion, anirudha.

I'll swallow your soul!
Liberals suck...

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I disagree that you are correct, for there are no correct interpretations to any literary work, simply different ones (those being held by the majority and those being the resistant). An example of an alternate/resistant reading (the melancholic ending) would be:
Kenji dies when he jumps out of the window (there is nothing shown that he could have landed on - simply a BIG fall). And the scene where he is shown in the detention of police is his limbo/purgatory - a moments wait before the bliss that is death (according to the character himself). The items on the table are perhaps the material sums of his life - the items he will use in his judgement. The moments that occur in this suggest that his idea of bliss (i.e. death) would be seeing Noi again. A sign of love perhaps, showing the justification to his otherwise unfulfilled life and that perhaps he was not a "failure".

Reasons why some may favour this interpretation over yours.
In your interpretation, the title of the film has diminished relevance, where in this case Noi is left alone (her name meaning few or one if I recall correctly) and she is indeed herself the lizard whom is alone (supported by the green she wears frequently [the typical colour with which a child draws a lizard]).
Additionally, Kenji is shown smoking whilst being held by the police - a rather sudden change to the choking he exhibited slightly earlier. Perhaps this is his bliss- for not only is it a reminder of Noi, but what is more relaxing that a cigarette?

At the beginning of the film (where Kenji is obviously unhappy - shown through psychological instances such as the symmetrical nature of his life/excessive cleaning - particularly the scene where he spends more time cleaning the sink at the library than washing his own hands) Kenjis life is pretty busy, at every moment he gets to himself he is shown trying to commit suicide. His approach to suicide is interesting - as though he is subconsciously unwilling to die - his noose is pulled down with a simple yank, and you cannot suffocate yourself with a pillow (you will pass out and release grip before you die or even suffer brain damage). Perhaps he was not in a place where he was comfortable with dying, and yet at the end - when he had spent time with noi, and life had slowed down considerably - he was. Theres a lot less irritating noise (such as the ringing of his door at his house) at the latter end of the film - to the point where it becomes simply non-existent - to support this also.
As though following newtons law - you see kenji at the beginning as the last life in the universe, and at the end you see Noi as the last. Has anything really changed? Perhaps I am beyond the looking glass at this point.
If you want, I can throw in the whole reincarnation thing for the two fish in the tank and say that they both died. But then again, what he experienced in the film could be attributed to bliss, so another person could say that he actually did hang himself (although I do not believe this to be the case). The dominant reading is probably that the story is about how life is bliss (whether or not this is because of the infectious disease in peoples brains known as hollywoods romance or not is up for debate).
Food for thought. You can support almost any interpretation, and any interpretation is indeed valid.
Of course, I haven't really read many peoples interpretations of the movies let alone the director etc – making me quite ignorant. However, in this ignorance I can enjoy this film for what it is – an aesthetic slice of 'real life' in which both nothing and the most extraordinary happen. This in itself is bliss.

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I just thought that the Osaka scene actually happens, sometime in the future. During the movie there were non-linear sequences, such as when the scene that shows what happened to Nid wasn't shown until after Noi and Kenji are at the hospital. So, even though Kenji is shown in handcuffs after the Osaka scene, that doesn't mean that the Osaka scene is only Kenji's fantasy. Also, since none of the Yakuza deaths were really his fault, I don't have reason to assume that he will be incarcerated for a very long time.
I actually thought the movie was sort of comical and uplifting in general. Kenji's awkwardness around Noi made me laugh.

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@justtocomment

I have read hundreds of interpretations on this site over the last hour or so, and your take on the interrogation room is about the one that best sums it up to me.

The only person in the film to whom all the items on the table in the interrogation room are relevant, is Kenji. Therefore I took it to be his reflection while waiting for his final judgement... the pugatory/limbo idea hits it on the nose I think.

On top of that, nobody, police, yakuza or otherwise, would leave a gun and knife on the table within arms reach of someone they'd just apprehended.

Secondly, I don't think Noi got on the plane. She is alone in the airport waiting. She doesn't look like she is going anywhere. Maybe she has reconsidered her future. The scenes of her in Osaka are Kenji's projection of her future ... and his immagining of a reunion that will never take place.

Suicide in Japan is often an honourable way of saving yourself from becoming a burden (meiwaku) on other people, as well as for other reasons. He knows his past will never escape him, he'll always be on the run, and his love for Noi would be impossible in life, yet perfect in death. He's attained his 'Bliss'.

Furthermore, the book and teddy in his backpack are again, both only items relevant to him, supporting the idea that the scenes in Osaka are all in his mind. She never saw the Teddy, nor the book, so she certainly wouldn't recognise them.

He was pretty lousy at suicide, but as he escapes from the window, he is freed by his own death, and by his own doing, nobody else's, again something honourable in Japanese culture. We know he sees the transition between lives as blissful, and that is how he is able to imagine a happy ending.

For both characters, their meeting and influence on each other allows them both to move on. Maybe she is inspired to face her demons and clean up her act, he realises he can no longer run away from his past, so he is able to finally break away from it in the only way possible.

There are parallels in this film to the French film "A Pure Formality" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110917/ another good movie to see.

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There is a pool outside his apartment so he does not die jumping from his window. The evidence will support his story so he won't spend much time locked up and then eventually he finds Noi in Japan. Pretty simple really. I don't think there is anything mysterious about the film at all.

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I agree, it's kind of annoying how people over-analyze in here. It's very straight forward, and very brilliant.

Him smoking the cigarette is to show that he's letting go and liberating himself. I'd say the panorama in the jail is to show his transcention from his old self to the one he became after he met Noi, with the "This is bliss"-note lying amongst her things, meaning that bliss nowmore is Noi or love.

That's my take on a few things. He doesn't die, maybe the meet with Noi is his fantasy while in jail, but even so it indicates that it will happen so it doesn't really matter if it's fantasy or not.

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I saw this movie several years ago then watched it again for a film discussion group. 2nd time around I saw more of the fun/play in it. Everything from the deliberate ambiguities to the gun pointed in the toilet bowl. "Freeze!"

The ambiguities make for discussion, something most all filmmakers want. Take the open bathroom window. It doesn't show a safe exit only suggests an escape. We supply the rest.

I also noticed something I'd missed the first time around. Came to this board and found someone who actually asked, why didi Kenji flush the toilet? Went back to the DVD for that specific scene in the bathroom. Kenji hesitates before flushing. The scene shifts to the 3 Yakuza in the living room. Several seconds pass before they hear the flush. It made me re-think the ending.

Suppose Kenji knows exactly what he's doing? We've already seen he's quick witted in survival situations. As another poster here points out, facing his brother's killer, Kenji turns out the lights and gets the edge on the guy. So maybe what he's after is getting those Yakuza captured by the Bangkok PD. That explains the dead body of the pimp. Then there's the other 2 rotting corpses. The rule of home invasions applies. You come in my house, gunning for me and mine, I got a right to kill you. It's self-defense.

He'll be questioned; thus the scene in the police station. But right there at the end, puffing on that cigarette, Kenji smiles and I got the sense I'd seen a movie about the metamorphosis of a man's mind. That's where the movie begins when he's suicidal; and it's possible to say that's where it ends too, in the dreamy eyes of a romantic.

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The abiguities esablish mood, and create the dreamy atmosphere which carries us along on this hopeless journey. They both have ruined lives, which can only end badly for both of them. The ending, with Kenji in custody daydreaming about Noi-he goes to meet her, she is happy, settled, which is highly unlikely considering her past. I think we in the west need to understand the Thai's deep belief in the Buddhist concept of 'karma'.

Although they have found something in each other, it is not enough to change them or redeem them and that is the tragedy.

He takes a smoke, and we see the effect Noi had on him. He smiles because at that moment he feels the joy that she has left him with. They dont actknowlege it, they might not even know it, but they have both met their soulmate. These two characters, doomed from the start, find thier piece of happiness if even for a moment. Symbolized by her house, messy and neglected until Kenji comes along and cleans it. She has most probably grown up here, parents and now her sister gone. She dances around the house in that surreal scene, her memories fly around her and she is a child again. Innocent, peaceful, but deep down she knows she has done too much damage and she can never return.

I cannot help but only see this rather negetive ending, but thats how I like it.

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