Comparing Endings: “El Orfanato” (“The Orphanage”) and “Rule of Rose” (warning, movie spoilers!)
Posted by PokerNemesis in UncategorizedNow that the movie “The Orphanage” (“El Orfanato”) is available on DVD, I think it is a good time to compare the endings.
Whether or not you may think that there have been influences of one work on the other, I think that you will find that the ending of “The Orphanage”, which is quite different from the ending of “Rule of Rose”, can none-the-less bring considerable light to bear on a question that has been of great concern to many players of “Rule of Rose”. That question is:
“Why does Jennifer leave Brown behind in the rickety shed in the last scene of the game?”
The protagonist of “The Orphanage”, Laura, cannot bear to not be together with her beloved dead son, so she takes an overdose of medication and kills herself. Her spirit can now dwell with the spirit of her dead son in the orphanage.
I’ve heard it said that “The Orphanage” can be interpreted either as a ghost story or in psychological terms, but I think that the film-maker has really heavily weighted the movie toward being a ghost story. The audience is, I think, supposed to believe that Laura’s suicide isn’t so bad… because she and her son can now be together.
Rule of Rose, although in some ways seeming to be like a ghost story, is (in my opinion) more heavily weighted towards the psychological: Jennifer is dreaming, not awake and encountering real ghosts. But the choice she has to make, about whether to embrace life or to somehow try to “be” with her dead friends in the orphanage, involves similar alternatives to those faced by Laura.
Jennifer could try to choose to join Brown, Wendy, Gregory, and the others in the “heaven” of the “Once Upon A Time” chapter… but to do so would be to choose not to live. Her friends are dead.
And because the game has a psychological interpretation, rather than a ghost story interpretation, we know that Jennifer, by trying to stay with her friends, would really just doom her friends to the non-existence of being forgotten because she is the only person who remembers them, the only person who can keep the memory of them alive. If she commits a “love suicide”, then they all disappear.
As sad as it may seem, that Wendy remains behind the locked front gate of the orphanage, and that Brown remains tethered inside the rickety shed, the only life-affirming thing that Jennifer can do is to lock her friends in her heart and return to the real world with her fond memories of them.
~
To read about the similarities between “Rule of Rose” and “The Orphanage” read my blog-post: “El Orfanato” (”The Orphanage”) and “Rule of Rose” Similarities (movie spoilers!)
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Amazing! I never would have understood much about this game without this site.
That was so sad and beautiful!
It makes so sense.
Welcome Tita!
Awesome as always PN!
But The Orphanage isn’t out yet in the UK and I didn’t get a chance to see it at the pictures *weeps*
I finished watching the movie today and thought about a part near the ending. There is somewhat of a similarity as to when Laura takes off the medal that her husband gives her and when Jennifer takes off her brooch in ‘The Funeral’, though it’s for different reasons. In my opinion, for Laura, when she rips off the medal, it’s a sign of her giving in, wanting to be with her son and the other orphans. For Jennifer’s case, it seems to be a sign of her courage, as she won’t give into them and tries to get away. A simple theory (not nearly as complex as the others here…) that itched my mind while watching it.
Mere coincidence? It probably is, but it was an interesting movie.
I was unaware this was a mystery. I always thought that as what happened. I cried so hard when i finished! But I’ll have to track down a copy of this movie…
“the only life-affirming thing that Jennifer can do is to lock her friends in her heart and return to the real world with her fond memories of them”
That’s exactly what my friends and me made out of the ending when we finally puzzled everything together – that her dream is a way of uncovering all those memories she has blocked and surpressed, and after fighting the bad things, keeping the precious things in her heart – a place where Wendy never betrayed her and where Brown is safe.
I’ve played “Rule of Rose” about a year ago. I just come to know about the movie “The Orphanage” while at the cinemas, and realized that this movie is related to the game. I mean, just look at the banner, the kid with sack and also the title itself. So I watched the movie right away!
I didn’t really understand the ending of the game as I was to caught up trying to save Jeniffer from the ugly creepy creatures.
However, I totally gets the idea for the ending of ” The Orphanage”, but it seems too different from “Rule of Rose”…However, your review has definitely made me understand the similaritied and also differences between these two….Thanks!
However, did “The Orphanage” get its story plot from the game or vice versa? Or it’s somehow just a coincident? hrmmm..
I wonder..
Welcome, MaryaM!
MaryaM wrote:
I wonder too.
For more on that topic, see another blog-post of mine (and the comments on it): “El Orfanato” (”The Orphanage”) and “Rule of Rose” Similarities (movie spoilers!), Jan 21, 2008.
yea when i first played it, i was like,”wait why is she locking up brown to starve and die?” but then i realized she has to keep him “locked up” in heart so his memory can stay alive, even though he , himself, is not
Welcome, Sara!
Hey guys I’ve got another random theory, pardon the lack of ability to interperet the symbolism, but consider this.
Jennifer is obviously on a quest to recover her memories (well or maybe she’s just playing a game with the kids, or maybe it’s all really happening, I never did figure that one out). Let’s look at a few things “Joshua” is Jennifer as called by Gregory, presumably because he wants to pretend she is his dead son. We encounter Joshua in the game, a little boy who disappears part way through the game. We also encounter a bear named Joshua. All very confusing. Obviously the doll known as the Red Rose Princess is symbolic of Wendy, and hence the Bear Prince is Jennifer, further explained by Wendy saving Joshua and Jennifer at once and confiscating “that dangerous thing” which I presume to be his gun.
Anyway, losing the topic.
Jennifer is lead by Joshua/Wendy/herself to recall “a promise she made to her dear friend”, in this case Wendy. She wants to remeber the promise she wants to be loyal to Wendy, therefore when she ties up Brown, not only is she showing her true love for Wendy, but she could, plausibly be stopping herself from finding the dog, and hence the chain of events that led to the toos fallout and the coming of Stray Dog.
I know the subject matter isn’t exactly the same as this blog’s discussion, but it was the closest I could find. I haven’t actually played the game, so I need someone who HAS played the game to clear up something for me. I would like someone to confirm if the scene depicted in this picture (www.geocities.com/ruleoftherose/JenRain.jpg) happened at the very end of the game (after the final cutscene in “Once Upon a Time…”, I mean). I’ve read various summaries across many sites that all usually end along the lines of “… and Jennifer left Brown tied down to the shed to protect his memory. The End”. They never actually mention Jennifer’s fate after the events of the game. The image depicts Jennifer as hugging a dog that looks like Brown in the rain, seemingly back in the park the game started in. Since it wasn’t raining at the beginning of the game, and Jennifer din’t know then that the dog was (supposed to look like) Brown, I can only conclude that the scene happened at the very end of the game, and the only way that could be possibly is Jennifer did indeed return to her proper place/time/whatever.
Welcome Adrian!
None of the park scenes are in the game, nor do they fit into the plot-line anywhere: they all occur only in the pre-game video.
The park scenes are clearly a dream sequence. The plot of the game can also be shown rather convincingly to be a dream sequence. But there is nothing to indicate that these two dream sequences are part of the same dream. There is no real connection between them except that there are elements from Jennifer’s forgotten past in both of them. But we have no clue, from what we see in the game itself, where, if anywhere, that park exists. It is probably a just dream location, and Brown’s presence there is purely a dream event (that is, Jennifer and Brown were very probably not ever in such a park together during her true past).
I think that the pre-game video was created purely for promotional purposes (it was the game preview shown at E3), and I think it was designed to create an emotional flavor that reflects the game, rather than give insight into the game’s actual plot.
So Jennifer’s fate at the end of the game is essentially unknown and up to the player’s perception? And the game does truly end at the final cutscene of “Once upon a time …”? Of course, if the game is taken to be a dream with a purpose, and the purpose was fulfilled at the end of the game, it would be probable that Jennifer “woke up” from it. But there isn’t anything in the game to confirm that, is there?
Adrian asks:
I think that one can make a case that Jennifer expects to wake up, but we really don’t know anything about where Jennifer is, or what her circumstances are, outside of her dream. People commonly suppose that Jennifer actually fell asleep on a bus, or in a park, but all we really see is her dreaming of waking up in those locations. And Jennifer, in fact, dreams of waking up many times, and in many places, throughout the game… it is just the standard way that she begins a new dream sequence.
The idea has sometimes been broached that Jennifer might be dead (although it is certain that Jennifer survived the orphanage massacre). I give my opinion about this idea in my blog-post: “Is Jennifer Dead?“
I just watched The Orphanage and I just realized something. Benigna, one of the caretakers in the movie, is in some ways like Gregory in the aspect of the loss of a child and both went a bit nutters afterwards. She went crazy, poisoned and killed the children, but Gregory went just plain crazy, but none the less killed the children. I think Gregory kept his son’s body someplace and Jennifer found it, like the hiding spot “Tomas’s House”. Or, like Benigna, made a doll of Josh and talked to it from time to time, until Gregory found Jennifer and mistakened her as Joshua. If he mistakened her, then Joshua must have been a femme boy for that theory.
Welcome Kitten of the Rose!
Kitten of the Rose wrote:
Yes, I agree, that seems to be a parallel.
well,
i think that jennifer did not kill herself of being such close friends with wendy. and in fact this is a flash back with all the scary thing that mr. hoffman told the kids before he left. but back to my point.since being such a close friend to wendy jennifer couldnt kill herself. because of wendy. but once wendy kills brown, jennifer hated her, jennifer wanted wendy to die. just as wendy did brown. but when wendy sacrifices herself for jennifer because jenni loved brown not wendy she was so sad as so revealed that wendy is joshua. i know its a bit confusing but thats how i see it.
Ah, very well put.
One question (a very stupid one. . . )
Did Brown actually die because of the aristocrats game? If so, why does Jennifer feel like she owes her “friends” something by keeping their memory alive?
I’m so sorry for asking a probably very simple question, but I’m just not on the same page as everyone else.
Yes he did die. And she feels she owes them something because, if you watch carefully, they taught her who she was.
She feels badly that they got pushed to a far off corner of the newspaper; forgotten; while the media worked itself into a frenzy over her survival.
And then she, too, forgot about them.
Welcome, tokidoki!
Psychologically speaking, she’s just dreaming during her adventures wow creepy but kinda disappointing. Another question though, where did the imps came from in her dream?
NAskikaga asks:
Do you mean: How does the dream-plot explain where the imps come from?
Or do you mean: What from Jennifer’s forgotten past leads Jennifer to dream of imps?
No neither of two. Do you know the notebook of Meg? There was a torn part in the paper that says where the imps came from. I don’t know if that’s part in the notebook of Meg though.
Grr, that ripped page is so infuriarating!!! So many mysteries locked away, right there.
I’ll make a blog-post on the torn page either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Fantastic! That helps me understand the ending much more. I’m working on a Screenplay for Rule of Rose, and was struggling in making the audience understand the ending of the film. Now I’ve got some Ideas to work with. This is a great site. You’ve done well making it PokerNemesis.
Welcome, Paper!
Thanks for the words of appreciation!
I have a question about the last scene of the orphanage. What is the object Carlos picks up? Thanks.
It is the necklace he gave to Laura earlier.
Welcome, jerri!
The ending of El Orfanato is almost identical to the ending of Saint Ange (2004).
Saint Ange is also set in an ex-orphanage, and the movie is open to interpretation. It got some horrible reviews on imdb but I thought it was really rather interesting, and the atmosphere was awesome. Lovely score too!
PS: I feel I should add that even though the movies share similar endings and themes, the stories are different, so if you’ve not seen Saint Ange, give it a try, you might like it. ^_^m/
Thanks for the recommendation, RozenMaiden.
I looked up Saint Ange, a.k.a. House of Voices, on Netflix and found that it is currently among the films that can be streamed for instant viewing.
Okay, everyone remember why Laura’s husband in El Orfanato gave her the medal? For luck if I’m not mistaken. It was said that she would only give it back when she found what she was looking for…her son. Dead or alive (though as we know dead) she found her son. She took the necklace off outside the orphanage on the steps. Then the husband as he is moving stuff out finds the necklace *in* the house on the floor. This makes him happy because he knows and understands that she did not die/disappear in vain. She found what she was looking for and he can by happy for her. This is very important to understand. Just like when Jennifer is finally remembering the reality of her nightmares and chooses Brown over Wendy (this can be understood after Jennifer leaves the Orphanage in the Once a Time Chapter to give Brown his collar and to promise him that she will always protect him until she dies, she completes the bucket knight to watch over him. He is but a helpless puppy tied up (hence a lot of the tying up with rope during the game – Brown had been left tied up – think of the guilt that racks up when a promise is not kept). The main point won is the importance of everlasting true love which belonged to Brown, because of his unconditional love towards Jennifer, unlike the selfishness of Wendy who only wanted to get rid of Brown. Unfortunately for Jennifer after leaving the tragedy of the orphanage however the means over the years she had forgotten her promise, and Wendy was able to branch out towards her (beginning with being the little boy on the bus with the story book) in order to make Jennifer remember – this time in hopes that Jennifer would choose her instead of Brown.
I just wat`hed the orphanage today and may I say it was astounding, Who would’ve ever thought she had accidentally locked her son in the secret downstairs room and having so much guilt she decides to take her own life to stay with her son. I guess the part where she says I wish to have Simon back is her last wish for finding him? after playing their game?
Welcome, mari !
It really is to beautiful and sad to go untold.
Zithromax….
Zithromax combined with other tylenol. Zithromax. Side effects of zithromax. Zithromax antibiotics online….
Okay, so I can see how this echoes, in a way, my perception of the RoR ending. This really puts a finer point, if your will, to my thoughts.
Never heard of this ‘Orphanage’ movie, but I’d be more than willing to take a look.
Some parts are good but like RoR the ending is super annoying.