Jung Suh is so cute. I believe you are correct about what she's doing there with the Adam and Eve thing.
So do we need to re-visit whether he's dead or alive?
One reason why I think he really is alive is the end scene where the child patient held her hand and pointed to him (although it can be argued that so many things can be said about holding one's hand in the air and just pointing to the air).
lol We can't do something like that guy did. That was amazing. You're right, we don't even know if Min is alive or dead. I might assemble something and post it for the ages. I'm surprised there is nothing I can find on the Internets that actually tries to tackle this complex film. A lot of people just say it doesn't make sense and drop it. I did read an interview with the director who says:
and
I kind of wondered about whether that scene was in the shortened version, but thought I must have just overlooked them. It puzzled me as to whether he was the same old man as was in Min's hospital room (as opposed to an old man who had been in a hospital), but I was "sure" that he was one of the old geezers in the photos on the wall.
I think that one can never achieve that - the nature of this film just doesn't lend itself to a literal or definitive explanation of what is real and what is not. The debate to be had is around the meaning of what is shown.
Yeah, I assume it is both ways: that Song's words were better translated by the Editor; and that Song didn't include that phrase at all, and the editor just added it. You're right "Even the damn interview is opaque!"
Ha! Consistent.
I thought that old man in the hospital was his dad as not much have been said of what happened to him later and why would he have the key to the store.
When I finally saw the scene of the old man give Min the key it felt like it was dad giving over the store to Min. And it seems like a very good illustration of the nature of the film. That scene didn't happen but that thing happened. And it happens before we know it as a thing that could happen.
My assumption always had been that the Tartan release had some scenes added. But the film didn't do at all well on its theatrical release in Korea, and fared better on the festival circuit - I'm guessing that for the domestic DVD release, the distributors tried to cut it down to improve the gore&sex to talking ratio, but the UK distributors were happy to leave the original version untouched.
Ditto.
I contemplated that as well, and it's likely a good assumption. But if so, the bookend of the little boy at the end would be--his son? (Well, he didn't have a son). So part of me thinks it's a representation of Min himself as an old man (giving the key to himself representing his mind trying to make a breakthrough to allow him to remember his ownership of the store, b/c he would have had the key himself the whole time, but would not of remembered it without this psychic assistance), and the boy is a representation of him as a child. Full circle. Also, to support this theory is the fact that Min did not seem to recognize the old man as Father. And we do have support all through the movie of Min not recognizing himself (in the forest, on the phone). But the "passing the torch" from father to son aspect that @sitenoise mentioned could very well be the intent of the scene, and was my initial assumption as well. Another aspect of this movie that we'll never suss out a definitive answer I don't think.
In my notes I jotted down "creepy old hospital dude on ski lift!" so it struck me the same way. And I mentioned back on p.1 that I was pretty sure the central photo on the photo wall was the same old man. His presence seems to be important to the film, so another reason it doesn't make sense that the key scene was cut.
It occurred to me that it seemed that in paring down the film, a lot of the cut scenes were interrelated, like they decided that the layer involving the old man could be removed. Except that they left in the scene connected to the young patient, the "lost one slipper" scenes. Then something hit me - after the funeral, when Min is looking at the camera, there's a pointed shot of him sitting there with one shoe missing.
So you think the Tartan disc equals what was shown theatrically? That would make sense, that's where they got their bits from, that source. And they decided to cut the scenes from the Korean DVD.
They met at the funeral. She ask him for a light.
My immediate reaction when I realized that the Tartan disc would have come out later was that they were indeed scenes that were "originally" in the film, in some iteration, but I hadn't thought they were shown theatrically. But now that you bring it up I think that's probably correct. I'm not motivated enough to go scour all the reviews to see if they were reviewing this or that or the theatrical. It would be only mildly worth it to know that someone reviewing the theatrical version mentions the Eu-ah apple eating scene.
http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm04.html#spiderfor
Oh, I didn't recognise that woman as So-Young. So her father was also killed on the plane?
yes, I seem to recall another reference to her dad being killed on the plane, but there was at least a shot of her (with long hair and more unrecognizable) saying "have a nice trip, dad" right after Min sees Eu-ah off at the airport.