It's not just tears when chopping onions, but once you start crying, you can't stop. Tina was washed out by a large pool of tears.
Since Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" came out, "magic realism" has become the label of Latin American literature and even Latin American art.
This "Chocolate Lover" directed by Mexican director Alfonso Arreo is also very Latin American. Like the title, food and love are its main contents. But under this appearance, it expresses women's struggle and resistance to the ultimate life of backward tradition through magical details.
The protagonist of "Chocolate Lover" is a woman named Tina. As soon as she was born, her father died unexpectedly, and she only had two sisters and no brothers. Therefore, as the youngest daughter, she had to stay at home to serve her mother all her life, and could not fall in love and get married.
In the face of this anti-human tradition, Tina, who was flushed out by tears, spent her whole life resisting, and finally shattered this family tradition completely.
1. A good movie tells a good story, and the plot is fascinating
In "Story", the textbook level of screenwriting, author Robert McKee divides a good story into five parts: Inciting Incident, Progressive Entanglement, Crisis, Climax, and Ending. "Chocolate Lover" perfectly illustrates this process.
First, the Inciting Incident must completely upset the balance of forces in the protagonist's life. Tina and Baidro fell in love at first sight when she was 15. But because of tradition, she can't get married for the rest of her life. The domineering mother arranges for Baidro and Big Sister Tina to marry.
Tina's originally peaceful life was completely broken by love, and she faced the double contradiction between love and family. The huge vortex of life pushes the family into the second stage of the story and progresses into entanglement.
The entanglement is the ordeal that the protagonist encounters. The entanglement of progress is that the protagonist encounters more and more and stronger contradictions, which triggers a series of events that push the protagonist away from his original life.
All entanglements start from the smallest contradiction, and the resistance of the protagonist is strengthened little by little.
Once Tina confirmed that she was in love with Badro, she told her mother clearly and did not hide it. This is Tina's first rebellion against tradition.
Of course, this resistance was trivial, and with a scolding from her mother, Tina was defeated. Moreover, under the operation of his mother, Baidro became Tina's eldest brother-in-law.
After the eldest sister gave birth to her son, Tina helped the frail eldest sister take care of the child. Tina and Bydro want to take advantage of childcare to get close. The mother killed their attempt in time, and in the name of better medical conditions in the city, forced the Baidro family to move out and completely separated the two.
But soon the child died due to unacceptable conditions. This time, Tina broke out with a strong resistance. She blamed the mother for killing the child, accusing the mother of dominating everyone ruthlessly.
This is Tina's second rebellion against authority and tradition. This time the resistance was stronger, but the mother fought back more violently - sending Tina straight to the mental hospital.
At the mental hospital, Tina begins to change. She decided to cut ties with her mother completely. In the confrontation with tradition, Tina began to take the initiative. At the same time, in love, Tina also started a new attempt. She accepts love from a doctor.
Tina, who has changed her family and love relationship, seems to be able to restore peace and create a new balance in her life. But this time the balance was broken again. Mother died.
The death of her mother means that one side of the conflict has disappeared. Can Tina celebrate her victory? Do not! The mother's position was replaced by the eldest sister.
Tina and eldest sister are not only rivals in love, but they are even more at odds with tradition. After the eldest sister lost her son, she gave birth to another daughter and lost her fertility at the same time. The eldest sister decided that this daughter would serve her for the rest of her life and would not be able to fall in love and get married for the rest of her life. Another Tina was born.
Tina will never allow her tragedy to happen again! Tina resisted for the third time. At this time, the forces of both sides of the conflict have changed. Tina represents not only herself, but the next generation, and the future. The traditional spokespersons are the deceased mother and the eldest sister who has a weak sense of existence.
Mother died and everyone went home. Tina and Bydro rekindle their love. However, the mother was always haunted and tried her best to accuse and curse Tina and Badro. Finally, Tina couldn't bear it anymore and revealed her mother's privacy. It turned out that Tina's second sister was actually her mother's illegitimate daughter.
This final blow completely overwhelmed the "tradition" that my mother had tried so hard to uphold. Her soul never appeared again. The elder sister also died of illness.
But Tina wasn't completely victorious yet. She conquered tradition, but lost love.
Tina had agreed to the doctor's proposal. For this reason, Bydro thinks Tina has failed him. Baidro thinks that he chose to marry Sister Tina because it is the only way to get closer to Tina. This is sacrificing for love.
In the face of love blackmail, Tina said loudly: "You are kidnapping me!" At this time, Tina had already completed her independent growth. She will no longer be swayed by any emotion or anyone. She possesses the ability to think independently and to decide her own destiny.
Tina overcomes the two contradictions of the outside world and the heart, thus ushering in the climax and ending of the story. Throughout the film, the escalating contradictions not only promote the development of the story, tell a good story, but also show the charm of the characters, creating a radiant Tina.
2. Good characters promote good stories, and sincere emotions reach people's hearts
The protagonist of a good story should have two conditions: willpower and empathy.
The number of protagonists in a story can be one or more, or the characters can be replaced in the middle, or the protagonists are animals, cartoons or even non-creatures. But no matter what, they should be a character with willpower.
Tina in "Chocolate Lover" has super willpower. This willpower drives her to achieve her goals.
The three Tina sisters, only she, under the traditional destiny, cannot have the happiness that a normal woman deserves. The eldest sister abides by tradition, the second sister has no traditional restrictions, and is uninhibited by nature.
Only Tina, she meets love and wants to have happiness. She is unwilling to be bound by tradition and has the opportunity to break it. She knew that as long as she resisted, she would have a chance.
Characters lose their appeal if they have no motivation and no chance to accomplish their goals. Moreover, the characters must have at least one chance to achieve their wishes.
Tina and Baidro have tried many times to be together, but because of their mother's strict surveillance, they have never been able to do so. This contradiction and confrontation makes the audience look forward to it. After the death of their mother and the family reunion, Tina and Baidro finally get their wish.
But that's not the end of the story, there are many challenges ahead for them. More challenges bring greater expectations to the audience, expecting them to be together forever.
But Tina's goal at this time is more than that. She not only wants to be happy herself, but also to make more girls like her happy. At this time, the audience has been deeply attracted by Tina. Because this woman looks "like me". She pursues love, pursues happiness, and works hard for it. "I" want her to succeed. Because it is common human nature. This is the empathy that the characters have.
"Empathy," said Robert McKee, in Hollywood parlance, is "here's a guy to follow," or "a guy to cheer on."
Tina is such a person to follow and cheer for. The audience was deeply attracted by Tina's charisma.
In addition, the delicious food and magical temperament of the Latin American world make Tina and the whole film present a mysterious and different style.
3. Exotic food and magical colors add mystery to love stories
The plot and character settings are destined to be a good movie. But the exotic food and magical colors of Latin America make the viewing experience even more amazing.
The title of the film directly refers to the two instincts of life, food and sex. In the film, the two are closely connected and sublimate in the mutual reflection and development, so that the life of the protagonist can be fulfilled.
Tina was born out of the ordinary in the kitchen. My mother was chopping onions. Nacha, an old maid, said: "The onion's tears flowed through the whole kitchen and 'washed' Tina out." After the tears evaporated, Nacha collected 20kg of salt. Since then, Tina has followed Nacha in the kitchen all day.
Tina, who was born in the kitchen and grew up in the kitchen, first thought of food when she met love. For the first time, Tina felt Baidro's gaze, "It was like the dough fell into the hot oil pan. The searing heat penetrated into the body, and the whole body was bubbling like dough."
There are three scenes in the play, through the magical effect of food, Tina's different feelings of love are shown.
The first time was Sister Tina's wedding reception. Tears fell into the dough for the cake as Tina helped Nacha cook. The next day, the wedding guests cried after eating the cake. Everyone can't help but miss their "love of life", resulting in a huge sense of loss and sadness, and the pain and vomiting are endless.
Nacha, who loved Tina like a grandmother, died on the wedding day because she tasted the most poisoned dough in advance. She doesn't want to see the child she loves deeply, because love falls into endless sadness.
The second time was Tina making a rose meal. To celebrate the first anniversary of Tina's official chef, Baidro gave her a bouquet of roses in front of everyone. Mother snapped at Tina to throw away the roses. But Tina held the rose tightly in her arms and let the thorns draw blood on her chest.
Tina couldn't bear to throw away the roses, so she put the roses into the dishes and made them into food. Facing the delicious food made with love, Baidro enjoyed it to the fullest. His mother was picky and said that it was too salty, and the eldest sister left the table with an embarrassed face.
The love code in the food directly penetrated the second sister's body, making her emit a magical rose fragrance, attracting a distant man.
The third time was Tina's niece's wedding reception. This girl, who was raised by Tina, has the sweetest love. The atmosphere of her wedding was completely different from her mother's, just because Tina was in a different mood. Tina was happy for her niece's happiness, and everyone who ate the wedding cake was extremely happy, too, and couldn't wait to enjoy the love as a couple.
Love can make food magical, and love itself is a fire. The scenes that burn for love in the film are also full of magic.
The rose meal made by Tina ignited the love in the second sister's heart. She ran to the bathroom, trying to put out the raging flames, but the bathroom also burst into flames. In the raging fire, the second sister left with the man who came from afar.
Although Tina accepted the doctor's proposal, only the love with Baidro is a fire. After the death of their mother, Tina and Bydro are truly together for the first time. The flames of their love lit up the night sky and disturbed the mother's soul. In order to punish them, the mother made Baidro "get on fire". In the end, Nacha's spirit appeared and healed Baidro's burn.
In the end, Tina and Bydro are burned by love. In the wedding room that Lao Nacha arranged for them, they enjoyed the ultimate late love. Tina and Baidro at this time are like Ariza and Fermina in "Love in the Time of Cholera". They have gone through a thousand sails, and they will stay together forever.
Tina and Bydro's love burns everything, leaving only one cookbook in the ashes. The recipe records a legendary love story passed down from generation to generation as a testimony to women's independence and freedom.
Tina's life is full of magic, food and love are her motivation and allies. I hope every woman can be like Tina, bravely pursue their own happiness.
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