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AdrianChm (4)
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Me too, and yeah, makes sense we continue in one place -- thanks!
Now, on a Bluray this is translated as "The rat fell into the trap". However, one online translation service, and a Korean-English fan on Reddit claim it's "He took the bait". Does not really matter, the meaning is the same, but FWIW I think the Bluray misses a nice connection to the theme of "bait".
What could this "taking the bait / falling into the trap" mean? What does the Shaman mean by this?
Well, his scene is between the phone ringing and the hero's visit to the hospital, hugging his "cured" daughter. It's clear to me that the "bait/trap" is both the viewers and the hero's belief that now that the Japanese man is dead, the curse/demonic possession is taken off the daughter. "And then they lived happily ever after...".
This is the only explanation that makes sense. Sticking to your hypothesis, however enticing and intriguing, makes this scene ...honestly I have no idea what. If the Shaman knew it was a trap (i.e. no, the daughter is not fine, she's still possessed) *and* was a good man, wouldn't he warn the hero immediately? He never does that. The only thing he does - later - is to cast shadow and doubt over the Woman in White. Which ultimately makes the hero not believe in her, and tragically die (with a hope he finds peace in the afterlife).
So, The Wailing is a horror film about deception, and collecting all the evidence it seems to me you were the one deceived... Which only proves how fantastic that movie is.
Ignoring the director for a moment, I could also simply argue that too many things do not add up if we go with your interpretation. Just one example:
In the beginning of the movie we see the Japanese man using two hooks for a bait. Ok, for now it's either that this is a hint that there will be two evil entities working on a victim here, or -- your version -- two good entities cooperating in their fight against evil. But "bait" is the important element here.
Much later, you have the Shaman explaining stuff to the hero of the movie:
"If you go fishing, do you know what you'll catch?"
"No."
"He's just fishing. Not even he knows what he'll catch. He just threw out the bait, and your daughter took it. That's all it was."
The director said once that the movie was inspired by the string of deaths of friends/family, some not from natural causes, and he was his way of dealing with the randomness of death. He knew how these people died, but could not figure out the whys. Here we have his attempt at the answer: that there is no logical explanation, it's all randomness.
Anyway, back to the movie. So, this is a nice parallel to the opening of the movie. The bait. If we go with "they're both bad, and the Shaman is helping the demon" it all works. With your hypothesis, things start to look puzzling. But for the sake of this discussion let's assume that for some reason things still work. Fine.
Then comes the crucial scene. The Japanese man dies or "dies" hit by the car. At the end of that segment, we see the hero's phone ringing. It's his wife. Very soon, we learn that she was calling him because his daughter is cured, yay!
Right after we see the phone ringing, the Shaman steps out of his house and says this: [url]https://pastebin.com/xbJRDTBX[/url].
(TBC)
(Copying myself from TMDB forum for convenience and with links)
Great work, nice to see this level of engagement, but I have to disagree.
Now, I love different interpretations and would never forget the fight over the ending of Shutter Island on IMDB forums. And I love how we have at least three reasonable hypotheses on The Wailing:
1. She was bad, they weren't
2. She was good, they weren't
3. Everybody was bad, it was just demons competing
I dislike using the quotes from the movie makers themselves, because these tend to kill some of the charm. However, when they exist, I cannot ignore them. Here's the director ([url]http://screenanarchy.com/2016/06/interview-the-wailings-na-hong-jin-questions-for-a-mastermind-of-evil.html[/url]) on the Japanese man:
> Actually, xenophobia has nothing to do with it. Here, the figure of the father wants to defend and protect his family from a great threat. But what is this kind of threat? The father isn't someone who is defending himself with a shield from something like knives coming before him. He's more like someone who is hiding in a castle and must defend his castle. Strangers invade yet he doesn't know if they are allies or enemies. This was the kind of threat that I wanted to express. It's like a hidden threat deep inside. I felt that this would be more terrifying than a dynamic threat - something dwelling inside and not visible. I wanted to show this threat through someone with similar physical characteristics to Koreans. This is why I cast a Japanese actor. [b]As time went by he would reveal his true nature[/b] and we would realise that he is different and that even communication is impossible. I wanted to express the fear coming from this impossibility of communication.
This fits the idea that the Japanese man was possessed by the demon, and was possessed from the start. Nothing else works.
(TBC)
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