Wow. That whole sequence was horribly written. Its not even misdirection, the flow of events outright LIES by omission to the audience. Then feeds you a ham-handed reversal sequence right after to paint Kurosawa in a better light. He still left Reiko to freeze to death after her fall and deliberately tried to manipulate a teenager into potentially taking his own life on icy mountain range. He's not a good person, he not an antihero, he's just shit.