MovieChat Forums > San taam (2007) Discussion > The wandering alter ego of Bun's ex-wife

The wandering alter ego of Bun's ex-wife

posted 11 years ago by MindDepth01
9 replies | jump to latest

Chi-Wai's alter ego wandering around the forest was meant to reflect the character's original mental state before breaking down after he murdered his partner, right? So what was the purpose of the alter ego of Bun's ex-wife?

When Bun finally sees his wife in person at the restaurant, a different alter ego is representing her rather than the one that keeps following Bun around. There's obviously a connection between her and Chi-Wai in terms of psychologically "being lost" due to a cause. What made her change so drastically in the first place?

[–] dark_frances 11 years ago

I believe that the ghost was a cross between the wife's actual personality and Bun's memory / interpretation of her. Also, she was a ghost because he must have had a side that doubted itself, and might have remained anchored in a past where they were still together. It's his personal little demon, albeit one very tame in comparison to the weaknesses and corruption of the other haunted guys.

...Actually, Bun's ghost-wife reminds me quite a bit of the visitor Harey from Solaris...

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

I believe that the ghost was a cross between the wife's actual personality and Bun's memory / interpretation of her.

Yes, that's exactly the way I read the character and why she looks different from the real ex-wife. She was just a manifestation of a psychological ideal.🐭

[–] waldomarek 11 years ago

actually i think the alter ego of bun's ex-wife is one of bun's other personalities: the doubtful, scared one.

[–] MindDepth01 11 years ago

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the feedback.

[–] waldomarek 11 years ago

you're welcome, i'm lurking on this forum because this is a great movie, sadly not many people have watched it (or they don't appreciate it?), always happy to read some people post some new stuff.

[–] MindDepth01 11 years ago

Yeah. Believe it or not, Johnnie To's work in general aren't really that much discussed apart from his fan-base locally and internationally.

That being said, it's always a joy discussing To's films because they make you question his ideas for putting up his stories and the logic behind them: Learning and finding out all the whys and hows of his material. That's how films should be.

[–] darkfrances (47) 3 years ago

After rewatching the movie, I think the ghost-wife is the side of Bun who wants to do what is sensible and more socially acceptable. She's his intuition that he will die, and later that the frightened kid will kill him, that he shouldn't get mixed-up in police business again, that he shouldn't drive a motorcycle after a 7 years break and without licence and so on. She might be the very logic he's determined to ignore in favor of emotions.
But he can't ignore it completely, he's still aware that there is a more decent path he could follow, a more conformist and less devastating one. He's still tempted to "stop being himself", hence he becomes out of synch with himself and develops his own demon.

[–] kesel5588 11 years ago

The alter ego Bun sees is just a mental repression to tell himself that the wife he was with all these years is the real deal. When the real wife hopped into the car, she mentioned that maybe in his eyes she's a cold-hearted bitch(for leaving him). That appearance is a physical manifestation of a cold-hearted woman to Bun. Deep down, Bun knew that he was living a lie. When Bun's "wife" chased his real wife after she left the car, Bun intervened and admitted to himself that no one can hear her besides himself. "She" bids farewell to Bun because he can't lie to himself because he physically verbalized that "she" wasn't real. At that point, the alter ego was dropped and we as the viewer and Bun can see clearly his wife's real face.

[–] luan-38126 10 years ago

Everyone has different personalities, or what I personally would prefer as "faces" (obviously shown in this film). People sometimes reveal their different faces, but sometimes those are hidden. Except the mad guy here can see all those hidden faces, obviously exaggerated by using different a actor for each one.

For me, I think the wife has nothing to do with the main plot (solving the case). She's just there to support the main theme - different faces of human. She was a young innocent/pretty lady when they were married. Then apparently she slowly changed into a more greedy, selfish b****, she wanted money and promotions just like most other human beings would. She used his ability to solve cases but turn around and call him crazy. So the guy can now see her bad side, and he can only hold-on to her innocent pretty soul.

But since mad detective can see all personalities, impossible for anybody to hide. Therefore we can conclude his wife was once the innocent lady he's holding on, she was not born or raised with those greedy/selfish personalities, but rather it's society/circumstances turned her into that.

Samething with the young cop, he started out nice/brave/innocent then slowly developed the other personalities: coward, selfish, and cunning. If the young cop had those personalities earlier, mad guy would have seen them and never helped.

This kinda bring out another moral of the story (at least for me): Even a special person like mad detective with the power to see through people failed to see through the nature of human beings. It was already too late when he finally saw the evil side of the young cop in the end, just before he died. Basically this means there is no way normal human beings can see through others, we will never know who we're dealing with until it's too late... so be careful of ourselves i guess...