In the Chinese (Cantonese to be precise) edition, there is no mention of "personalities" in the movie at all. in fact, the movie plot made every effort into believing either ghosts really do exist or the detective is totally insane. the viewer has to watch to the end to figure out those werent ghosts.
the english translation immediately gave away in the tagline that those were personalities. >.<
I'm a Cantonese. The director never wanted the watcher to be left in the dark. "saam mor" which is what the script refers to those "personalities" as, translates to inner demon. It was mention many times that he has the special ability to see the inner demons of others. The subtitles didn't away anything to a watcher whether he understood Cantonese or not.
The director never wanted the watcher to be left in the dark ...That ear -severing scene left me in no doubts about the sanity or otherwise of the titular character.🐭 share
Inner demons. Cool. Thanks!!
...Also, I hope you're ok in Hong Kong. The political climate has changed quite a bit since 8 years ago when you wrote this message... And, although this is surely not the largest problem over there, I really hope the Cantonese movie industry will be able to keep its liveliness and lucidity...