that's an interesting thought capo, and could be quiet possible. i have also heard somewhere that noodles might not have realized that it was max. though i don't really buy it cause max pretty much spells it out for noodles. but im a romantic and kind of think it's to do with friendship. also i heard that the whole movie was a dream. because it ends and starts at a opium house, that being the reason that noodles smiles at the end. but i had an idea, at the end max is giving his speech about how noodles was to greif stricken to notice it was someone else, and that the cops were in on it. what if that smile in the end was noodles smiling because he did realise it was someone else's body. what do you guys think.