The technical excellence of the film does not need to be repeated here, just to express the breakthrough of Guillermo del Toro in the use of magical realism.
The narrative structure of "Pan's Labyrinth" basically has two clues moving in parallel: the little girl Ofelia's fantastic world of imagination and the dark real world she is in. Ofelia shuttles between these two worlds. It is a bridge that connects two parallel lines that do not want to cross. Whenever a scene enters another reality from one reality, the true and false conversion elements of magical realism come into play. Then, the more beautiful the illusion, the more cruel reality will be highlighted.
If the film continues to follow the above ideas, it can only be an extension of magical realism, without breakthrough innovation; but in the narrative process of Guillermo del Toro, the two lines that should have been self-contained have added obvious loopholes. For example, after Ofelia was confined and guarded, she entered the stepfather’s room and took her brother away. Only with the fairy-tale logic of "the chalk door really worked" can it be explained; but if it is believed that it is the human form given to Ofelia by God Pan The roots of the drunk fairy peach tree held the mother’s vitality and blood, and the stepfather found the dry ordinary root from under the bed was a head-on blow to the previous myth; but the mother of Ofelia just threw the root into the fireplace and burned the human form of drunkenness. Xian Taogen actually screamed in pain, making the audience wonder whether they should believe In Ofelia's "illusion" or the "more normal" logic of reality.
The loopholes in the two lines of illusion and reality can only be explained by the logic of the other line, but the act of "using a completely opposite logic" itself is not a denial of its own logic? Under this circumstance, the opposite states of truth and falsehood, virtuality and reality, illusion and reality are completely merged together. You are in me and you are in me. Magic and reality have completely become two sides of the same coin, and they are inseparable. Can't explain.
At the end of the movie, Guillermo del Toro let Ofelia enter the fairy tale kingdom described by God Pan after being killed. This is simply the magic of the story. It is precisely because of this most obvious hint that the concept of magic realism using traditional magic to serve reality has been completely subverted, the proportion of magic has been greatly increased, and it is the first time to stand on the same status as reality and become a whole. It can even be interpreted as the main thread of the story, which is reality in the physical sense.
In the past magical realism film works, no matter how great the proportion of magic is, the endings are all illusions that return to reality, and beauty belongs to cruelty; "Pan's Labyrinth" has the possibility of anti-traditional interpretation, and magic can truly develop parallel to reality, both It can be explained according to the fact that fantasy is attributed to reality, or it can be analyzed according to reality as the service of fantasy. This is the biggest reason why the end of this film has caused countless tit-for-tat discussions. Guillermo del Toro's breakthrough in magical realism narrative techniques has elevated the status of magical elements, proving that even if the role of reality hints is further reduced, even if cruelty is used to converge towards beauty, these two elements can still be deepened from another perspective. The contrast highlights the profound and desolate theme.
Excerpted from "Fake is true when it is true and false, there is nothing where there is nothing but nothing": http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_495ea38201008uws.html
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