I definitely found that as the finale to the film to be really bizarre, because one of the things that Hideko is liberated from is being forced to enact porn scenarios from erotica novels by her uncle. The bells come from one of those books, so I would have expected the character to be as disinterested in that as the others; it should still be tainted with it's promenance and the memory of her having to read it to the gross audience. Maybe the director was trying to make it into a 'but she's CHOOSING to be in this pornographic scenario!' thing.

Before going, I had heard that the director had the set cleared for the first sex scene and had a woman (?)filmographer shoot it, and I thought that one was pretty good compared to nearly all mainstream lesbian sex scenes I've seen. I can't remember it that well now though. The bells one at the end though, seemed to come out of left field for me in how unnecessary it was.

...I really liked Carol though, I went and saw it in theatres 3 times.