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The Ending

labcat

(Spoiler alert)

Do you think it's possible that the villain wins in the end and the happy ending is still a dream?

What makes me wonder about the ending is that after supposedly winning the villain:

  • Yuan finds that he has lost his watch, the last-resort tool that he uses to exit dreams.
  • He has used his skills so much that he is on the verge of dying in one scene, but in the next scene, he is already well. 
  • The music in the tomb visiting scene gives this dream-like feeling, and some other things in the scene don't make sense as well (e.g. why does he go back to the car even before lighting the incense, why do the words on the tombstone say that Fang's body is not there?)
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Becky

Hi Labcat! Thank you for creating the discussion board  ^^

The way I see it, there are several possible endings:

  1. The happy ending that is shown. Yuan and Chen Si get to enjoy some alone time together until Chen Si's condition deteriorate.
  2. Yuan had used all of his energy to trap Fang into using all of his. Hence Yuan suffered the same fate as Fang, and died together. That last scene was Chen Si's imagination. Reason for this is: if Yuan were still alive, he would be lighting the incense at his family's tomb, and the words were only at the left side of the tombstone while right side was blank. It could be that Yuan's name was written at the right, but Chen Si imagine his name was not there. Yuan's behavior in the car was strange too. Yuan was holding what seem to be a hot glass bottle of tea with his bare hands...
  3. Same as above but Yuan had not died, he was in a coma. Hence the left side of tombstone was left blank, to put his name on it eventually...
  4. There were a few references about dreaming after Fang died and the city was back to normal (the journalist ended his article with "have a sweet dream", Chen Si's last line was to go to dream land), so Yuan might still be trapped in a dream-within a dream-within a dream.... a la The Inception. His missing pocket watch seems to imply this.

Does anyone else have other ideas? Or notice more details? Please share!

The drama also had a rather big plot hole that was not explained:- when Yuan was recovering his past memories, he saw his young self falling into the hole at prison, and walked into a cave of treasures. In the center of the cave, there was an elevated platform and a bright circle of light that was pulling him towards it.... drama never fully discussed this part. Or..... was he sucked into that circle and caught by aliens? And everything that happened after that (the fire, the escape, how he learned to be a dream master, etc) was aliens exploring his mind and created a false reality, like Dark City (1998)....?

PS: Matrix might be more popular, but the best movie in this genre is Dark City. Highly recommend to watch this movie if you haven't  ;)

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labcat

Oh yeah, I remember the ball of light now, after revisiting Episode 20. I remember being puzzled by it too, but I later just took it to be part of the dreamscape and forgot about it. It's also odd that Yuan got all this informing by entering the dream of one of the men who were at the prison. But the man couldn't have known what happened to Yuan as a boy when he was alone after falling into the hole. Also, the scenes of the time Yuan spent with his mother were not likely witnessed by the man too, but Yuan saw the scenes after entering the man's dreams.

There is something cryptic about the mother too, though I'm perhaps imagining things.

Another thing that I find weird is the young Bai's behavior. Why did he risk his own life to go into the hole to save the boy? He doesn't seem to be such a noble person even if he's not all-out villainous. 

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Becky

You are right, it is indeed strange why Bai would save the child, yet burn down the prison? To save someone requires compassion; setting a place on fire and letting so many people die is denying compassion (and conscience too).  I re-watched EP 18, and the first time Yuan saw a child in Bai's mind, Bai denied there is a child in prison, that there is no children. Initially I have thought this was becos Bai was defending his memories, and wanted to block the truth of the kid and cave. But if, both of them were indeed in the cave and were absorbed by the light.... as in taken by "aliens"..... and everything else after that was just alien experiments with humans.

Both Yuan and Bai had the Dream Master (Yuan's teacher) entered their minds and blocked off parts of their memories. Could it be to block them from remembering the part when they were "taken"? Played with their memories on what exactly happened when they entered that hole and cave.

The city has a consistent fog, giving it a misty and mysterious atmosphere. What if this is to ensure none of the people in the city can see clearly? At the beginning eps, someone said Jiang city likes to dream.... The drama has a surreal feel to it. 

Lol, I'm going with the sci-fi, alien theory now  -_-"

Need the director and scriptwriter to explain the drama....  XD

 我分析的越多，越走边了   ′(⊙_⊙)？

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labcat

Maybe the explanation is simply that the writer planted a lot of stuff for plot development later but never got to them again or got rid of them. Then again, things like the ball of light seem too deliberate. The child had to act like he lost consciousness, and the CG people had to add it in as well.

The "whole thing is just a dream" angle is possible, given what was done in Psych Hunter whether it's aliens or not. lol

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emmagucci

  I think that Yuan lost consciousness and is trapped inside his mind without the watch.  Chen Si also can't move somewhere in the near future because of her illness. So she entered Yuan's dream (like she did in the hotel) where they both are doing well (he stopped drinking alcohol) and can be happy until their bodies die. 

 OR both are dead and are going to paradise together.  He was waiting for her, because he died first, when she followed him by taking her own life... Both finals wouldn't have passed the censorship, because they're too dark. 

 I was curious about the white ball as well, I thought it gave the Dream Masters their unique powers or something. 

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