MovieChat Forums > Salinui chueok (2003) Discussion > Does the detective really have 'Shaman's...

Does the detective really have 'Shaman's eyes'

posted 11 years ago by nitinmohankapoor
7 replies | jump to latest

I mean they just dont tell us!
They cut away from the brother/rapist identification scene, and although he's right in the factory to catch the guy they were chasing but in the climax his eyes dont tell him anything.
Again when he declares his son was playing games on the computer purely based on his 'bloodshed eyes' but he refuses and his mother trusts her son.

Now I raise this point because this trait of the character was revisited several times during the movie and yet its ambiguous about its credibility.
Even in the last scene he looks at us and even after listening to so many interpretations i m still not sure how to take it.
Whats your take on this particular thing?

Forget it,Jake. It's Chinatown

[–] lazzix 11 years ago

No. The pay off to this is at the end of the film when the DNA results came back negative; he asks the suspected killer to look into his eyes to determine if it is indeed him. Sounding defeated he says "*beep*, I don't know" and lets him go.

He identified the other suspect from the chase scene because he got a glance at the woman's underwear he was wearing. He staged the picking him out part to get one up on his partner.

The scene at the dinner table with his family I think he was just being playful.

So no, he never actually demonstrates this ability.

[–] nitinmohankapoor 11 years ago

Yeah I agree with you.
I feel if they had concluded the rapist/brother scene with him identifying the correct person, we would have trust his ability.
On the flipside it would have completely spoilt the scene.

Its just that the last shot of the movie completely relies on this ability but we as viewers are never sure about it.
Yet it was a subtly haunting ending

Forget it,Jake. It's Chinatown

[–] Crown_vic_7 11 years ago

No he didnt have them. He was full of *beep*

[–] chunkylefunga 11 years ago

At the start of the film he claims to have them and he believes this.
But then as the investigation continues he begins to realise that he just see what he wants to see to find a killer and quickly finish a case.

Every suspect that he is sure is guilty turns out to be innocent and so at the DNA scene he completely realises that he does not have Shaman eyes.

[–] nitinmohankapoor 11 years ago

Really nicely explained

Forget it,Jake. It's Chinatown

[–] Ocean_star 9 years ago

He may not have "shaman eyes" but a major plotline of the film revolves around the instinctive investigation style of Park and the sophisticated technical style by the officer from Seoul.

Park proves himself right on more than one occasion. Once in the stone quarry when he catches the guy wearing the red panties merely by looking. And the second time,more interestingly and with beautiful irony is after he comes back to the crime scene at night after buying that charm from the shaman. He's at the site performing this ridiculous ritual on the paper and a man approaches in the dark. When the partner asks him who this is, he replies "don't you know? A criminal always returns to the crime scene"

This is proved true at the end of the film.

[–] 9 years ago

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