This film looks like a cross-racial love fairy tale that "the love between seabirds and fish is just an accident". Amazing scenes and design (in the same line as "Hellboy" and "Pan's Labyrinth"), retro and warm tone, happy ending, victory of love and kindness. Everything is beautiful, everything is beautiful.
But when you look closely, there are still many intriguing things. The two sides of the story are dumb, gay, and black. In the 1960s, when the story is set, it is not necessary to be treated differently, or to hide its identity and be a human being. On the other side, there is a white middle-aged man who lives in perfection. He has a prosperous career. He has a beautiful blonde wife, a pair of well-behaved children, and the latest Kadelak in "teal blue". Read a book "Positive thinking" ("Positive Energy"?). The true beauty and ugliness of good and evil have nothing to do with these labels. Another example is the sunny and handsome restaurant entertainer and the Russian spy as a scientist. Who can find out that one is full of prejudice and hatred, the other is kind and insists on his own justice. This film tells a simple truth: don't judge by appearance
And the murloc in the film is not a metaphor for the "heterogeneity" of that era? For example, cross-skin/same-sex romances, from the conservative and secular perspective of that era, are they not like falling in love with the water monsters in the Amazon River? And the heroine disagrees with these strange shapes, what does she care about? "When he looked at me, he didn't find that I was flawed. He treated me as a complete individual." In the murloc's heart, those skin colors and appearance are not important, because I don't care about not having those measures. You are perfect in my eyes. Long lonely heart, how can you not be moved when you meet such a person?
The heroine's excellent acting skills are an indispensable part of the film. From a distance, the heroine looks like an ordinary middle-aged woman, her appearance and dress are inconspicuous in the crowd; but if you look closely at the close contact, she is charming, cute, and somewhat mysterious. When falling in love, my eyes twinkled like stars on the bottom of the lake. The heroine is rare to have a girlish heart but is not annoying. The word "girly heart" is really used up, and it feels almost equivalent to pretending to be a nympho and adding a pink filter to life and being unable to take care of yourself. The female protagonist, who is shy but friendly, believes in love and fate, dared to work hard, peeling eggs for little monsters and broadcasting records, turning the bathroom into a swimming pool, a thorough romantic, such a "girly heart", so cute.
I myself like "Pan's Labyrinth" very much, and because of its concept and story, although it is also a gorgeous and exquisite retro adult fairy tale style, it has a better acceptance. Fortunately, del Toro chose the latter between "Pacific Rim 2" and this film. The red and green colors and the warm theme are very suitable for Christmas viewing (I watched it on Christmas night, the small theater in the village is full of empty nest elderly hhhh wearing Christmas sweaters). Of course, there are also several sudden yellow storm shots, but they are always beautiful, clear, and tender.
Finally, I want to add that this cat-cat scene is very important, curious friends, don’t miss it
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