I thought she was genuinely sadden by the fact that the new suspect does not have a mother.
However, my friend was telling me that she was crying because, since he has no mother who would examine the case like her, the case is definitely closed for her son. She cried because her son became completely innocent, ending her long arduous journey.
What do you think?
I agree with your friend's opinion.
The new suspect case is very similiar with her son's case.
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Hmmmm I thought her crying was realising at this point that her son did kill the girl.
Maybe(?) the new suspect (the retarded kid) put the girl in the position she was in so the village could see she was bleeding, which another character suggests, while their are a coulple of scenes that suggest the retarded suspect slept with her previously.
Well that my initial impression upon seeing that scene.
Also I felt she was realising that her murder of the guy who said he witnessed the murder of the girl by her son was in vain, and she could no longer deny what her son had done despite convincing herself of his innocence or handle her own guilty feelings about what she had done.
The retard was convicted because of some blood on his clothes, but if I remember rightly there was no other conclusive evidence. We see her son, in one possible scenario, dragging the girl up the steps but we don't see what he does at the top.
Perhaps the director deliberately left the story open for interpretation like this...
Unless I've gone mad I think the above reason for her tears, and depressed frame of mind after that scene, is certainly possible.
It's a great film, and a good story focussing on the mother.
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Sorry for my poor English.
She found out that his son actually was the murderer.
And the new suspect looked like a mental disorder too, which looked even more serious. She knew that the new suspect was not the murderer, and he had mental disorder so he was forced by the incompetent police, but she wanted to release his son, and wanted to believe that his son was not a murderer.
but she also felt sympathetic feeling and asked him if he had mother.
so of course she cried, to me, that's the saddest scene of whole movie.
Agree with meyers.hence the final scene where she puts the needle on the inside of the tigh to "get rid of the pain(guilt)"
share^ Agree. She was crying not out of relief, but out of remorse and immense guilt that this boy was in the exact same situation that her son was in, only that he is truly innocent and has no mother to care for him. She realizes that she was responsible for condemning him to a life in prison.
shareI agree with this explanation. I believe with was a messy combination of pity for the young new suspect's life situation, and guilt that she loves her son so much she is willing to let an innocent take the fall.
shareWow, now i really regret reading the spoilers but wow, sounds like a brilliant ending. i must watch this
shareShe was sadden because another innocent "village idiot" had taken her son's place for the crime. Very sad really...
shareYour friend is half right, kimkegaard. I don't think her tears were tears of happiness at all. The remainder of the film shows her dealing with her guilt at what has happened before, as the final shot shows, she finally decides to move on and let go of the pain in her heart.
Hye-Ja is the mother who is always caring for her son, and takes up on her search initially in order to prove him innocent. At this point, she (and the audience) assume that a guilty person is free and an innocent has been jailed, so she sets out to set things right.
Of course, justice was served initially, and Hye-Ja's actions only serve to make the scenario we believed earlier become true. Now not only one, but two murderers (Hye-Ja and Joon-Do) walk free, and an innocent (JP, the new suspect) is imprisoned.
JP is mentally handicapped, like Joon-Do, and Hye-Ja realises that he doesn't have anyone to care for him like she does for her son. He is doomed; no-one is going to strive to find the truth and prove him innocent like she was willing to do so for her son.
In the prison, facing JP, she realises the tragedy of the boy's situation and has immense empathy for him, and at the same time is horrified by the realisation of what she has now become.
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Yes, I agree that Hye-ja's mother character cries because she finally realizes what she has done. On the quest of proving her son's innocence, she ends up killing an innocent man when she realizes her son is actually guilty. And the mentally-disabled kid is doomed, especially when she KNOWS this kid is innocent.
Come to think of it, this movie is pretty *beep* up. You've got two people completely getting away with murder, and the mother and son relationship while purely parent-child, it borders on semi-taboo (how they sleep together)
Both Hye-ja and Won Bin were absolutely brilliant actors though. Their chemistry was impeccable.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film.
So the new suspect was "retarded"?
I did not notice?
Is this pure speculation based on the fact that he looks awkward?
Or perhaps I was just sending one too many text msg's to my GF while watching.
His mom wants to visit the new suspect so she can see what he's like.
She wants to see the guy that is going to jail, so she can set her son free. She wants to justify defending her son, and she's hoping somehow this will help.
Maybe she wants him to be a total jerk? Make her feel less guilty.
Regardless, she is going there to see what he's like, and she hopes he has a mother that loves him, too. It's like her way of saying she knows his mother would understand her actions; motherly-love.
On a related note, at the end of the movie, she "heals" her heart on the bus, but why is she on the bus exactly?
Is she abandoning her son?
Or is she healing her heart, and having a little bit of fun before she returns home to him?
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awesome movie ! quite obscure twisted film that unfolds with every layer til its final act.
only part i wasnt crazy for was the final scene where Hye Ja give herself the acupuncture treatment in her inner thigh, her technique to heal the 'inner demons'. i mean, there was no other way to end it with the elements the film presents, but something about it didnt feel right. a bit cliche even, specially when Do Joon finds his mom's 'kit'.
like someone else said earlier, at the end of the day its about 2 murderers walking. just that the 2 ppl in this case happened to be about a semi-retarded kid with a mother that had a tuff life with guilt over the fact she tried to kill her son and herself but failed which has lead to her over-protectiveness and infatuation-like love for her only son and would do anything in her power to protect him and his naive nature.
The ending reminded me of Oldboy - they both knew the truth of things and instead of doing the right thing, they chose to pretend/forget the truth and just live on as if nothing had happened.
sharewell, i m an intern doctor. and i can say that guy has down syndrome. you can almost say this when you look at him. i ve seen like hunderds of patients like that one. also police guy suggests the same thing in the movie when he says "he is not normal"
for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome
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I think the reason she cried was because, even though this disabled kid didn't have a mother, he wasn't a murderer(he didn't kill that girl at least). It was her fierce and perverse love that made Yoon Do-Joon a murderer. "Beat up anyone who calls you a retard." The absence of a mother isn't always as bad as having a psycho mother. I think she realized that. She may have cried as well because, as ugly as this kid is, apparently he could get laid, but Yoon Do-Joon(who's attractive I guess)couldn't. I also got the impression that Do-Joon's slowness was the result of that poisoning, which makes that scene all the more powerful.
she knew the down syndrome kid was innocent. the kid doesn't have a mother, so there is no one to love him and care for him the way that she does for her disadvantaged son. she also knew that she could/should set him free, but won't to protect her son.
share@minortrout
She may have cried as well because, as ugly as this kid is, apparently he could get laid, but Yoon Do-Joon(who's attractive I guess)couldn't.
well first she noticed JP was a kid with mental disabilities like her son
then she asked JP if he had a mom or any parents and he said no.
then she started crying because she knew JP didn't have a mom like her who would do anything possible to save her son.