Wow

I understand now! Tony forgot all the things that caused all his pain (at least he tried), yet he could not forget Hisako and her empathetic feelings about his wife. I think that's the reason he calls her in the final scene, perhaps Tony is thinking about a new beginning with Hisako. I came to understand that, Tony trying to replace his wife and somehow recreate her presence was him just fooling himself and I thought it was emotionally unhealthy. That seems to be the idea being relayed here, in a very ambiguous sort of way, not to be physically alone but to be emotionally lonely is unhealthy. This idea has been explored in films/books before.

The scene where Tony falls asleep on the floor of his wife's old closet, was transposed with a scene of his father sleeping on the prison floor from the beginning of the film, maybe that's some kind of metaphor of how loneliness can be a prison, how we create our own prisons. The director just kinda leaves the story hanging, not in the sense that it felt incomplete, it just does not deliver the ever-so coveted "happy ending", but it does leave a glimmer of hope in the fact that Tony has taken iniative and attempted to call Hisako, That kind of storytelling I find brilliant and it leaves one to contemplate how we make our own choices and suggests the idea that it is in our control to obtain happiness.

The cinematography was interesting also, it gave us a very restricted view of the characters world nevertheless we see just what we need to see. The slow panning shots got boring after awhile but it does not take away anything from this beautiful film.