MovieChat Forums > Dai zek lo (2003) Discussion > Your interpretation of the ending? *SPOI...

Your interpretation of the ending? *SPOILERS*


I'm not asking for an explanation here, I've come up with my own for the most part, but was it actually Big who killed the girl? Did her killing even happen in that manner? My take is that the girl most definitely died, but not as shown. Big just saw an illusion of sorts, a sort of paranoid response to his inability to help her as well as his own conflicting emotions. How she died is unimportant, it just happened and we don't need to know why, we are focusing on Big's acceptance of fate, and of karma. Umm, I'm sleepy, so that may be somewhat muddled, anyway what's your interpretation?

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It's just her destiny to die.
It doesn't matter how much Big tried to protect her, once she will die....Big's protection beacame her death

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She knew that it is her destiny to die.
And since Big can't change it no matter how hard he tried, she knew it and instead of waiting for the moment, she chose to look for the killer who killed Big's friend a long time ago. And through the video, we can see that she was really commited to it.

BTW, in the end, since Big knew that he will kill the killer, he chose not to, but instead try to capture the killer. Hence, creating a new karma.

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My girlfriend and I were hashing this out quite a bit. What we agreed on after 20 minutes of discussion was that Big "split" into two selves following his rage at the murder of Jade, and his meditation underneath the tree where he inadvertently killed the sparrow. One "Big" became the bodybuilder a**-kicker who traveled to Hong Kong, questioning his prior interpretations of karma and trying to make sense out of what happened, though he still wishes revenge upon Sun Ko, who killed Jade. The other "Big" remained a monk, kept his robe, and conceived of the karma as an iron law in which Jade deserved to die for offenses in the past life, as did the sparrow, as did Sun Ko the mountain man murderer of Jade (for offenses in his own life-- the murder of Jade, of course), as did Cecilia Cheung's character. So this alterna-Big was the rigid enforcer of that view of karma. When Hong Kong Big meets up with alterna-Big in the cave, it becomes clear is that alterna-Big had the exact same experiences as HK-Big, right up to the point he killed the sparrow in the tree.

So HK- and alterna-Big fight, each one feeling the same blows as the other, until HK-big has the opportunity to execute alterna-Big by the Buddha statues-- when he refuses and breaks the cycle of violence, which is Johnnie Ko's sorta-allegory here. It's a bit confusing after this since alterna-Big then talks about Sun Ko killing Cecilia, and we do see Cecilia confronting Sun Ko in the next scene. But Sun Ko runs away instead of killing her, and it seems to be alterna-Big who crashes the rock onto her head (the crazy laugh and voice seem to be alterna-Big rather than Sun Ko, though they both look similar). Then, of course, the audience sees that this scene was HK-Big's vision, not what actually happened. IOW, since alterna-Big has now disappeared and HK-Big has awakened, HK-Big has a choice which determines what will happen to Cecilia. Since alterna-Big has now been retroactively blocked from existing, both Sun Ko and Cecilia are still alive (alterna-Big had killed them both). HK-Big bides his time in the hills for 5 years, confronts Sun Ko, then sends him to the police rather than executing him by the stream. That's when we see HK-Big donning the new blue robe given to him by the police, then walking out into the snow, which Cecilia also experiences herself (catching the sparrow's feathers in this case) while out on the mountain in a similar outfit as the one her alterna-self had carried out before, maybe ion a hiking outing.

To be honest, this conclusion is rather irritating b/c it isn't rendered too well and it's too damn ambiguous. Ambiguity is fine up to a point, but eventually the director has to make some sense. What seems to have occurred, though, is that HK-Big's experiences in Hong Kong, and his meeting up with Cecilia-- all those indeed occurred. But Cecilia wasn't killed by alterna-Big this time, nor was Sun Ko. So HK-Big nails Sun Ko without killing him, and the whole karma for Cecilia and Sun Ko is changed since HK-Big sees he doesn't need to adhere to his prior rigid interpretation of it. Still somewhat confusing. There are many varieties of Buddhist belief just as there are many Christian sects. But AFAIK the Buddhist karma is generally not interpreted as prescribing a rigid life course based on previous lives. (How did those previous lives wind up with their own life courses, for that matter? What's the "statute of limitations" for how many previous lives, in what manner, affect the future lives?) Rather, the actions of the previous lives have an effect on what a person should do to act according to the *dharma*, the ideal law that HK-Big reiterates outside of the cave. So the karma in this sense provides a set of challenges and guidelines for a person either to atone or build upon (or both) the actions of previous lives. The concept was interpreted interestingly here, but a bit too messily. Johnnie Ko was trying to squeeze in a bit too much, but it's still an intriguing film.

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i disagree with the fact that Cecilia's character was alive. She was indeed dead when Big found her body and her head.

The scene in which she was looking at the flying feathers was a moment before she met her ultimate fate.

humans are made of emotions. And Big fighting with his alter ego showed that he is, after all, a human. He wanted to revenge her death. This alter ego, showed him that sometimes, violence can't solve anything, instead, it created a new karma in which Sun Ko will kill Big in the next life. therefore, this scene was a reminiscent of a chinese phrase saying "there's a buddha in everyone's heart"

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I think the confusion comes with interpreting the part after Big's vision where Cecilia confronts Sun Ko. This must be a flashback as she still has her video camera which you know was left at the bottom of the mountain earlier. Cecilia's character was in fact murdered by Sun Ko and the scene at the end is a flashback of a moment before her death. It was placed there because the director wanted to re-iterate that Big's forgiveness was in keeping with Cecilia's wishes, that there should be no more killing. If he had killed Sun Ko, in a way, Cecilia's purpose in his life would not have been fulfilled.

Thus there was never a material alterna-Big, only an imaginary one which goaded him into a final confrontation with his inner conflicts, ie. that was just Big's vision of what might have been (he might even have killed Cecilia as an instrument of her Karma) or might yet be (he would kill Sun Ko).

As for the version of karma being presented, it is not an unchangeable "fate" since the film proposes that her karma was only resistant to Big's efforts because her sins were too great. I don't find it confusing or messy; only, due to limitations of the vehicle, incomplete. I would agree that it is indirect. The common misunderstanding regarding rebirth in this sense is that Buddhism also declares that there is no real, enduring "self", consciousness or everlasting soul, therefore these are not things that can be reborn. Rather, it is a karmic thread that continues between and through lives which is the vessel for ultimate justice. There is no statute of limitations; but if you can mitigate yourself, you can overcome your karmic burden.

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it was sun ko that killed the girl. big just had a vision when he saw her head.

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the ending just reminded me of se7en.

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i feel that "angry big" was only a vision of the future when big was faced with the girl's death. the 'buddha in his heart' showed him the results of his anger, lest he should kill sung ko like he did the sparrow. therefore instead of chasing down sung ko to kill him, he chased him to save him. so yeah, i think sung ko killed the girl, and big would have killed him if he hadn't had his vision, but since he did, he chose to help sung ko.

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I agree with my_mom_is_on_his_roof. The fight between the two Bigs took place in Big's mind, showing him what a monster he was capable of becoming if he sought vengeance instead of mercy. That killing Sun Ko would be no different from killing Fung Yee, morally.

I feel safer in New York knowing that Phoebe Cates is looking out for me.

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