MovieChat Forums > Restless (2011) Discussion > Japanese guy meaning?

Japanese guy meaning?

posted 12 years ago by Bloody_Mary9
6 replies | jump to latest

I liked the storyline of Japanese guy ghost but I'm afraid I didn't get the whole deep meaning of his occurrence.

At first it seems like he just invisible friend who is more like second personality of main character.

But after a while I realized that he was a separate person (not literally) with his own background story, religious/political beliefs, feelings etc.

So they both sticked together after ones coma experience.
That make sense in terms of other movies where ghost with unresolved issues could find a way to stay with livings through some spiritual individual or whatever...

Well what happened in the end? Can she see him as well? What does that mean?

For some reason I want to know was it all just in the head of boy or it was real paranormal connection with other dead person...

Any thoughts?

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] moiestatz 12 years ago

Spoilers ahead.

From how Van Sant filmed Hiroshi in more than one instance, it seemed the camera's POV was objective. I especially recall the scene in the cemetery where Enoch had a hammer or something. Thus, I believe the ghost was real; Hiroshi wasn't just imagined. More proof to this hypothesis was that Annabel saw Hiroshi at the end.

From a story perspective, the side story of a ghost supports the main story that is about death, especially at the ending where Hiroshi's letter tells the audience one of the messages of the film, which is about death and love.

One more thing, Enoch and Annabel had a fight when Enoch told her there was nothing after death, that he lied about Hiroshi. Hiroshi's presence comforted her and maybe more importantly the audience: yes, this film is about death, but existence does not end in earthly death.

[–] TabbyS 12 years ago

Facebook has ruined me. I want a "like" button on IMDb.

Tabby S.

[–] GreyHunter 11 years ago

Not willing to leave anything unambiguous, Van Sant also gave us the Battleship scenes where Hiroshi always seemed to know what Enoch was thinking, i.e. where the battleship was. That's a potential hint that Hiroshi was just an extension of Enoch's own mind.

Granted, the preponderance of evidence favors the "Hiroshi was real" hypothesis. Which, in a way, is a pity. It dramatically detracts from the pathos if you have a built-in escape mechanism, i.e. confirmation of life-after-death and the continuation of the personal ego. At that point, well, of *course* Enoch finds a bit of peace. He no longer has to view mortality as a permanent break between himself and others. Kind of a cop-out, really, an easy answer to a difficult question.

[–] mjburrage 12 years ago

The scene where Annabel collapses in her kitchen, shows Hiroshi watching through the window, and Enoch is elsewhere (at the cemetery).

So Hiroshi is not something that Enoch is imagining.

[–] blacknyellowsquid 11 years ago

Well at first I naturally assumed he was fake...either Enoch was schizophrenic, or just had this imagineary friend as a coping mechanism after his parents' deaths.

But by the end I was like...okay, no...I think he is real! For the sake of this story, we just have to accept that yes the ghost was really there.

That's what I thought but I suppose it's not cut and dry.