The ending did not clearly state whether Charlie’s life or death and the existence of gold coins. As for the ending, I prefer to make this interpretation: Charlie found the gold coin the first time he entered the water, then put the gold coin in the oven, tear off the oven sign and stuffed it with his daughter. In his pocket, asked his daughter to buy the oven with a credit card, and then went out and surrendered himself so that her daughter could get away with gold coins, but when he went ashore, he realized that all he did was to prove to his daughter that he was chasing a great dream. , So he jumped back into the river altogether, maybe the way to escape from the river is recorded in the diary, maybe he prefers to live in that dream. Finally, my daughter bought the oven, got gold coins, saw naked chinese guys and gold coins on the beach in California, believed her father's words, and found that the most important thing in life is to chase her pursuit of a dream that is higher than reality. In addition, it is hard to say whether Charlie died or not. Subjectively, I am willing to accept the story of his death.
Of course, there is another cruel and unreasonable interpretation: Charlie did not find the gold coin in the river, but he had hallucinations and thought he had found it, then tore off an oven label and stuffed it to his daughter, telling her that the gold coin was in the oven. Then the daughter bought the oven. Although she didn't find any gold coins, she found naked chinese guys, so she believed that her father was not a lunatic, he was just chasing his own dream, even though the dream was unsuccessful.
Although there may be other interpretations, I think the first version is more reasonable, and some details can actually support this ending.
As for why the director did not clearly state the ending, I think there are two reasons: one is that the content of the ending itself is much smaller than the film’s expression of the dream itself. The process and psychology of Charlie’s second dive are what the film wants to express, whether he has won gold coins. It doesn't matter; the second is that a hazy ending saves a lot of continuation, which makes the structure and narrative of the movie more impactful.
Another question is, why is the film called the King of California? When I first saw the name and cast, I thought it was Douglas who was going to play some ruthless role. I didn't expect it to be a warm movie. The film didn't really give the answer until the last five minutes when Charlie jumped into the river for the second time. His daughter said: California's name was compiled by a writer. He portrayed people's beautiful Spanish golden dream with the word California. So the king of California probably also means the master of dreams, or the king of dreams.
What is a dream? What is California? It is people's longing for everything above reality. Why are we alive? Because we have to prove ourselves to the people we care about, because we have to chase our dreams. Where are we going after all? To live the life of our own dreams and chase the dreams of our own.
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