More Thoughts on "INCEPTION"

MORE THOUGHTS ON "INCEPTION"

I just recently saw "INCEPTION" for the third time and a few more thoughts came to me:

*After Saito had awaken aboard the Kyoto train, I noticed a slight smirk on his face. Earlier, he claimed that Cobb and Arthur's failed extraction on him had been an audition. Had he been aware of Cobb's assignment to do an extraction job on him from the beginning?


*Cobb first admitted to Saito and Arthur that he had experience with inception. Yet, he never admitted to whom he had pulled an inception job upon, until later in the movie. And that person turned out to be Mal. Since Mal was the only person upon he had done an inception job, who taught him how to do one? His father-in-law? Or are all those familiar with lucid dreaming and dream incubation, trained to perform an inception?


*While watching Arthur and Eames interact during the planning stages of the inception, I got the instinct feeling that those two were competing for Cobb's respect and confidence - like two rival siblings competing for "Dad's" affection.


*I also noticed something else - namely the expression on Ariadne's face after Arthur had kissed her. Her expression seemed to be a mixture of false outrage, amusement and a little thrilled.


*What exactly is Cobb's totem? Everyone knows that the spinning top was Mal's totem. Was Cobb's totem a wedding ring? I noticed that whenever he was in a dream state, he wore a wedding ring on his left hand. Yet, whenever he was in what was regarded as the real world, he did not wear a wedding ring. Cobb certainly did not wear a wedding ring after he and Saito finally awakened on the Sydney-to-Los Angeles flight.