The film tells the story of dictator Franco’s loyal pikemen who continued their terrifying reign in Spain in the later stages of World War II. Ophelia was taken by her mother to her stepfather who was a Captain Phalangis. During the roundabout battle between the guerrillas and the Pikes, Ophelia was told by Pan Shen that he was the princess of the underground kingdom and had to complete three difficult tasks before returning. In the end, the guerrillas won, and Ophelia arrived in her country.
The whole movie consists of two clues. The main line is Ophelia's three tasks, and the secondary line is the process of guerrillas defeating the Pikemen.
Good and evil are embodied in one thought.
War is a massacre. It is difficult to distinguish who is right and who is wrong, justice and evil. Beside each coffin, there are elegies and mournings of relatives. These mournings also eclipse the beauty of the spring year after year. But when people face the same situation and different manifestations of things, they can always tell whether they have good intentions, whether it is a dissipated haze or a falling star. In the film, the director's attitude towards guerrillas and pikemen is reflected in two representative figures. One is the internal response of the guerrillas in the army and the maid who takes care of Ophelia's life. One is the captain.
When Ophelia got out of the carriage, the captain sneered at her. Of course, this is also understandable. It is difficult for a man who has been fighting for many years to have a deep father-daughter relationship with a little girl who is not relatives, let alone the daughter of his wife's ex-husband, he will be full of resistance, so that later on. Dissatisfied, she yelled at Ophelia and said that she was a "wild species", which was at best a failed father image. Women always have a natural sense of responsibility and protective desire for children, just as natural as the shade will always be left under the leaves. Coupled with the emotional accumulation of getting along day and night, and the gratitude to Ophelia for not betraying her, the relationship between Ophelia and the maid is naturally much better than the relationship between her and her stepfather.
However, when the story develops to the end, Ophelia flees into the maze with her younger brother, and when the captain furiously raises the gun to kill her, it can no longer be explained by ordinary human emotions. No amount of anger can make a person. Bear the heart to attack the unarmed little girl. In war, one cannot simply say which is right or wrong, but it is impossible to give any excuses to his behavior if he is so cruel and cruel to face a child. It is true that the feeling of his son being snatched can be experienced, but the murder to vent his anger has fully demonstrated his cruelty and annihilation of humanity.
The maid had a completely different attitude towards the captain's child. Naturally, in the chaos of the fighting, the guerrillas may have also killed some innocent Phalangists. But if it is said that they are as cruel as a captain, then they absolutely have no need and obligation to go back and save Ophelia, who is not a relative, she can't bring them any benefits or money, and save her is from the people's heart. The kind nature makes the ruthless war full of human touch. Just like the fierce thrush in the legend, even if the throat drips blood, it will still sing its life song. This is its habit and it is a matter of course.
Hope is born out of despair.
According to Jaspers's point of view, "tragedy is a great measure of mankind's defeat." Tragedy is not pain, nor is it the fate of the inevitable end of life. He even believes that the tragic atmosphere in the tragedy is not originally the mood of the mood. As the Greek scientist Hamilton said, tragedy is the process by which the life state of a great person goes to a trough. When Dante named his work "God's Comedy" (this is a literal translation of the name of "The Divine Comedy"), he also complied with this law. Because the image of Dante in his works is from the burning hell through the painful purgatory, being baptized by the river, and going to heaven. This upward process should be named a comedy.
Of course, there is no need to divide a movie into tragedy or comedy, but you can use this as a reference to see if the director is trying to elaborate a positive or negative attitude.
Putting aside the fantasy world of Ophelia, the structure and rhythm of this movie are actually established and extended on the secondary line, that is, the battle between the guerrillas and the government forces. These guerrillas, who must have existed in reality, were slaughtered by the Phalangists at first and had no power to counterattack. They only hid everywhere, like a shadow hiding in the dark. Later, they successfully ambushed the soldiers who chased the maid and achieved a small victory. In the end, according to the plan, they cooperated inside and outside, attacked the enemy camp, and achieved great victory. This process is an ascending process, like the humble, crescendo to high-pitched notes in a movement, it feels like a long and tragic but still full of hope. In the struggle, their equipment was out of order and there was almost no medical treatment for their injuries, just as their leader had to have his thigh amputated when his wound was infected. In normal times, the unsettled income is like a wandering soul, I don't know which time after a fierce battle will fall and never look at it, but these sufferings are the final victory. This is the so-called hope, to support their forces that are still fighting stubbornly after the death knell rings.
The director's intention is reflected in this structural setting. Many times a person with a different story will taste different meanings. The director expresses his views through this structure, so that it does not affect the audience's own spatial imagination, and can also explain their ideas well.
War always brings people weeping, closed coffins, throwing white roses, and sad steps, which are all called despair. But it is in this desperation that the movie presents people with hope. Although Spain has to wait thirty years to see the underground country they are looking forward to, just like the fascist represented by the captain, it will not be a small one. The chopper kills the same.
Give me a piece of chalk, I can go anywhere
and watch the main story again. Movies often confuse the real and illusory worlds, both true and false. Although it is only a small detail, the appearance of that piece of chalk has completely pulled the movie into the real world of magic. When Ophelia was imprisoned in that hut, how could he reach the captain's room without anyone's help? If it is not a miracle, it can only be said that these fantasies actually exist. The magic of that piece of chalk made the illusory kingdom come to life.
Here, the director once again reiterated his intention that this is a story full of hope and that a beautiful country that contrasts sharply with reality exists. Otherwise, there is no need for him to set up such a scene, although it is better to let the story fall into a more elusive situation.
The film deliberately left the shadow of death at the beginning, and the blood gradually flowed back to Ophelia's body, as if the director deliberately stopped the dull death knell and re-ringed the initial wailing. At the end of the story, the seemingly irreversible death is the door to another fairyland, just as Pan Shen said that if she does not have the spirit to dedicate herself to her younger brother, she will not be able to reach the country of happiness. The final scene stays in the real kingdom, inlaid with the light of stars, like a heaven. The director tries to tell people that as long as they fight for their goals and dreams, they will always have their due rewards and a happy and peaceful life.
"All my existence, all everything, all hope and all love always rush to you in deep secrets."
The three wonderful tasks that Ophelia accepted were not based on imagination. These tasks also allude to real life. The action of the guerrillas.
The first task is the most obvious, that is, Ophelia needs to retrieve the golden key in the belly of the giant toad. The withered fig tree represented the suffering Spanish people. The toad symbolizes the cruel and ugly fascism, entrenched in the roots of the tree, drawing nutrients, and devouring the source of life of the big tree. Ophelia needs courage and wisdom in the face of crisis to retrieve the key in Toad's belly and destroy the monster, just like guerrillas fighting against a fascist stronger than them. At the same time, the director also told two parallel stories, emphasizing this connection, that is, the maid stole the medicines from the warehouse and sent them to the guerrillas as supplies. Like Ophelia, she pulled her teeth from the tiger’s mouth. .
The second task is to require Ophelia to go deep into the cellar of the cannibals. The table is full of delicious and attractive food. These temptations are fatal and dangerous. If you touch one of them, it will cause painful consequences. A child like Ophelia who hasn't seen fruit for a long time is like a hungry traveler who is desperate when she sees Qingquan. After all, she can't resist the temptation of the fresh red grapes. In the end, the elf died in order to protect her, and she almost couldn't return to the real world. What this story wants to tell is that as a person with secular concepts and normal desires, it is not unforgivable to be attracted by temptation, as long as you wake up from a dream and know to repent. So Pan Shen will give Ophelia the opportunity to make up.
In this task, the magical piece of chalk is also on the scene. I think everyone hopes that there is such a piece of chalk that can find coolness in the hot sand, find the fragrance among the thorny flowers, and find it when sleepy. A soft hotbed. It carries those longing for freedom, prayers in the dark, and rushes to their homeland.
The last and most important task is to need Ophelia to donate his younger brother's blood to God Pan in order to open the door to the underground kingdom. At first Ophelia just thought it would be fine to bring her brother out. Later when she knew that she needed to kill her brother in exchange for her happiness, she resolutely gave up the opportunity and stayed in this cruel and cold world. This is exactly the self-sacrifice spirit of the guerrillas after being captured, as well as the moral bottom line of human nature, that is, human life is above all else and cannot be deprived of any seemingly legitimate desires. Although the end of persistence may suffer ridicule, shame, and even death's sickle. But it was like the maid still gritted her teeth and refused to reveal the truth after being tortured, and finally fled the camp. When she was forced to desperate by the chasing soldiers, she was rescued by the guerrillas who came up. If she confided in her true feelings, she might have died under the captain's gun instead. The director also wants to use this to explain that those seemingly unbearable sufferings, as long as they rely on a fearless and strong heart, will always let the thunder disperse the haze and bring rainstorms to the dry land.
Illusion of filmmaking
The movie Gaoming successfully wanders between reality and fantasy, imagining countless folds and colors like clouds. This relies on ingenious structural settings. The main line on the surface is full of magnificent imagination, but the rhythm governed by the secondary line ensures the completeness and compactness of the story narration. Such a movie supported by the secondary line ensures that the story is clearly structured, and the positive attitude of upwards is fully reflected, instead of having only three tasks to form a simple and ordinary fantasy story that lacks sublimation. This presents a crescendo to louder singing, "reverberating in colorful tears and smiles, fear and hope". It is the reason why so many people love this movie, and it is also favored by various awards. However, due to the excessive pursuit of such a real and illusory effect, it often weakens the expression of the main line, making the intention of the movie ambiguous.
There are many symbols and metaphors in the movie. Including the previously mentioned, withered trees, ugly toads, and the captain's watch. The captain himself is a symbol, the epitome of fascism. He is cruel and unsympathetic, and uses all means to achieve his goals, although he has some qualities that could be called virtues, such as the perseverance of soldiers. However, just as wisdom becomes the poison on the sharp knife of the wicked, these qualities also become accomplices and catalysts for fascists to do evil. His watch symbolizes the spirit passed down from fascism, passed to him by his father's generation, and he wants to pass it on to his son. Here, he does not have a fatherly love for his son, just as he regards a beautiful mother as a tool for childbirth, the son is only the carrier of the fascist spirit, the individual differences that make people an independent person, and this All the meaning of existence that came has been obliterated.
Film is also very successful in art. Except for the toad that is impressive, it is probably the monster that eats children. A bloodthirsty man-eating demon should have an extremely tyrannical face, but when it puts its eyes on its palm and raised its face, it is full of childlike cuteness.
Ophelia brought a trace of warm color and slight fire to the cold and dark night. She lifted the heavy curtain of war and painted a whole new world with a brush. That era disappeared in her smile.
Please indicate the author: Nine-tailed Black Cat
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