for together (2016): Ending Explained

Quick Recap

For Together (2016) follows the tumultuous relationship of Ho Po-Wing and Lai Yiu-Fai, a gay couple from Hong Kong whose passionate but volatile bond leads them to Argentina in search of renewal. What begins as an adventurous trip to the Iguazu Falls quickly unravels when they get lost, stranding them without funds to return home. Their breakup exposes the cycle of separations and reconciliations that defines them—Po-Wing's reckless promiscuity clashes with Fai's quiet endurance, turning their shared exile into a pressure cooker of jealousy and resentment.

Fai scrapes by as a doorman at a tango bar in Buenos Aires, while Po-Wing drifts through fleeting encounters, often dragging Fai back into his orbit. A violent incident leaves Po-Wing battered after a theft gone wrong, and Fai, despite his bitterness, nurses him back to health in their cramped rented room. This fragile reconciliation is short-lived, tainted by accusations and unspoken wounds. Fai loses his job after confronting Po-Wing's assailant and shifts to a Chinese restaurant, where he forms an unexpected friendship with Chang, a wandering Taiwanese coworker who offers a glimpse of stability amid the chaos.

As tensions peak in a heated argument over Po-Wing's passport, the couple fractures irreparably. Po-Wing recovers and leaves, while Chang departs on his travels. Fai, having saved enough to return home, grapples with the emotional debris of their time in Argentina, setting the stage for a poignant, solitary closure to their shared story.

What Happens in the Ending

The film's final act unfolds with a quiet inevitability, shifting from the couple's volatile intimacy to individual paths of quiet reflection. After Po-Wing fully recovers from his injuries, he and Fai erupt in their last major confrontation. Fai, weary of the endless cycle, withholds Po-Wing's passport, refusing to enable another impulsive escape. Hurt and defiant, Po-Wing packs his things and moves out of the small rented apartment, leaving Fai alone in the echoing space. This marks the definitive end of their cohabitation, a physical manifestation of their emotional parting.

Sometime later, Chang announces his departure from Buenos Aires to resume his global wanderings, leaving Fai with a bittersweet farewell and a sense of lost camaraderie. Fai, meanwhile, has scrimped enough money from his restaurant job to afford a flight back to Hong Kong. Before departing Argentina, he fulfills a long-deferred dream by traveling alone to the Iguazu Falls—the very destination that symbolized their failed adventure at the film's start. The majestic cascades, roaring with untamed power, provide Fai a moment of solitary awe, a stark contrast to the couple's earlier chaos.

Back in Hong Kong, Fai's journey includes an unplanned stopover in Taipei. By chance, he wanders into a bustling night market and sits down at a food stall run by Chang's family. Recognizing photos and mementos from their brief friendship, Fai shares a quiet meal there. In a subtle act of connection, he pockets a photograph of Chang from the booth. As he leaves, Fai muses to himself that while he may never see Chang again, he now knows exactly where to find him—holding onto this thread of possibility without committing to pursuit. Meanwhile, in a parallel moment of devastation, Po-Wing returns to the empty Buenos Aires apartment, realizing Fai has left for good. His heartbreak hangs in the air, unspoken and final.

The Meaning Behind the Ending

The ending of For Together is a masterful meditation on letting go, where literal separations underscore profound emotional truths about love's impermanence. Fai's solo visit to the Iguazu Falls serves as a symbolic reclamation: what began as a shared fantasy of harmony becomes a personal rite of passage, the waterfalls' relentless flow mirroring the cathartic release of pent-up grief. This isn't triumphant resolution but a contemplative acceptance—the water's power erodes Fai's illusions, washing away the toxicity of his bond with Po-Wing without erasing the affection that once fueled it.

Po-Wing's return to the empty apartment, on the other hand, captures the raw ache of abandonment, his heartbreak a quiet indictment of his own self-sabotage. The film's close in Taipei, with Fai stealing Chang's photo, evokes a tender ambiguity: it's not a romantic pivot but a gesture of preserved potential, suggesting that true connection might lie in knowing rather than possessing. Thematically, this ending probes the moral complexity of codependency in queer relationships, commenting on how societal exile (from Hong Kong's conservative backdrop to Argentina's alien streets) amplifies personal fractures. It whispers that healing isn't reunion but the courage to carry fragments forward, a subtle societal nod to the isolation faced by those navigating love outside norms.

Character Arcs and Resolution

Fai's arc traces a journey from passive enabler to self-possessed survivor. Initially defined by his devotion to Po-Wing—nursing wounds, enduring betrayals—Fai's growth culminates in his independent trip to the falls and the Taipei encounter. By withholding the passport and choosing solitude, he breaks the cycle of reconciliation, emerging with a quiet resilience that honors his needs without bitterness. His theft of Chang's photo resolves his arc not in isolation but in subtle openness, a psychological shift from entrapment to tentative hope.

Po-Wing, the film's chaotic catalyst, embodies unhealed impulsivity. His arc peaks in recovery and departure, but the ending reveals the hollowness of his freedom—returning to an empty space forces a reckoning with the consequences of his recklessness. There's no redemption for him; instead, his heartbreak underscores the tragedy of arrested development, a character psychology rooted in avoidance. Chang, though secondary, serves as Fai's mirror of possibility, his wanderlust arc concluding off-screen to emphasize themes of transient bonds. Collectively, these resolutions highlight moral complexity: no one "wins," but each confronts the human cost of intimacy's failures.

Alternate Interpretations

The ending's restraint invites multiple lenses, particularly around Fai's interaction with Chang's family. One reading sees the photo theft as a budding romance—a queer-coded promise of future reunion, subverting the film's focus on doomed passion by hinting at healthier alternatives. This interpretation frames Fai's knowledge of Chang's location as intentional foreshadowing, suggesting cycles can break toward renewal.

Alternatively, it could symbolize unattainable ideals: Fai pockets the photo not as a plan but as a talisman of what might have been, reinforcing the film's theme of elusive connection. Po-Wing's heartbreak might be read as ironic justice or genuine growth's prelude—does his devastation spark change, or is it just another low in perpetual turmoil? These ambiguities enrich the contemplative tone, allowing viewers to project their own experiences onto the characters' unresolved edges, whether optimistic or melancholic.

Themes and Symbolism

For Together weaves broader themes of displacement and desire through its ending, subverting the romantic ideal of "togetherness" implied by the title (echoing the song's ironic optimism). The Iguazu Falls symbolize nature's indifference to human drama—grand yet isolating, they reinforce exile as both literal (Argentina's foreignness) and emotional (love's isolating grip). The empty apartment stands as a metaphor for relational voids, its silence a commentary on how passion's fire leaves ashes of regret.

Jealousy and reconciliation motifs evolve into ones of self-discovery and societal margins, with the queer couple's story critiquing how external pressures amplify internal flaws. The night market scene, vibrant yet anonymous, symbolizes serendipity's fragility in a globalized world—Chang's photo as a stolen intimacy critiques possession in love. Overall, the ending reinforces impermanence as a human truth, subverting tidy closures to mirror life's messy moral landscapes.

Final Thoughts

What makes For Together's ending so resonant is its refusal to overexplain, trusting viewers to feel the weight of unspoken farewells. In a genre often drawn to grand gestures, Wong Kar-wai's direction (via the provided narrative) opts for intimate devastation, blending heartbreak with glimmers of grace. It works brilliantly for its psychological authenticity—Fai's quiet evolution feels earned, Po-Wing's isolation a sobering mirror—elevating the film beyond melodrama into profound societal reflection on love's borders. For audiences seeking catharsis in complexity, this close lingers like the falls' mist: refreshing, inevitable, and deeply human. If you're unpacking turbulent bonds or queer narratives, this ending demands rewatches for its layered truths.