Some directors have a particular preference for certain subjects.
Such as "The Shape of Water" director "Top" , Guillermo del Toro.
From "House of Ghosts" to "Hellboy", from "Pan's Labyrinth", which made him famous internationally, to "Pacific Rim", a Hollywood production, "monster" has always been the most personal theme of "Top".
And this "Shape of Water" finally justifies his "monster" movie
First, the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, and then the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The Oscar statuette is also opening its warm embrace.
As he said when he was awarded in Venice "I believe in love, I believe in life, I believe in movies", his "monsters" are always more "loving" than people .
The story is set during the American Cold War in the 1960s, and the protagonist "dumb girl" Eliza works as a cleaner in a government experimental center.
One day, a humanoid aquatic creature was sent to the laboratory. Eliza discovered that the creature could communicate with her and fell in love with him.
When she learns that administrator Richard is going to kill him, Eliza decides to help him escape from the lab.
That's right, the literal "monster" is that ugly looking aquatic creature.
He was found in South America, where he was regarded as a god. But in Richard's eyes, he is a beast, and it is up to him to decide whether to live or die.
But the marginalized people represented by Eliza were not "monsters" in the society at that time?
Eliza is dumb, Eliza's cleaner friend Zelda is black , and Eliza's next-door neighbor Giles is gay .
Deaf, disabled, gay, black. . . . Not to mention that era, even today, some people still regard them as "monsters" .
Another type of monster may not be so obvious.
That is the "beast in clothes" that Richard represents .
Richard holds an important position, is well-dressed, has both children and drives a Cadrack, a model of successful people.
When he confronts Zelda, a black cleaner, his arrogance and rudeness are disgusting, and he is completely unaware of it.
Speaking of God, he said that God created humans in his own image, then looked at Zelda, a black cleaner, adding : "I think maybe (God) looks a little more like me."
When the Soviet spy Hofstede persuaded Richard not to kill the "monster" in every possible way, he tried his best to persuade him that the "monster" had ideas and could communicate.
Richard actually said, "Don't black people and Asians have ideas and can communicate? Don't we still kill?"
In his logic, Anglo-Saxon white people like him are human, like "God".
Black people, gay people, disabled people are all the same as "monsters".
As long as it doesn't look like him, it's a "monster" to some extent .
Eliza has a different view of the "monster" than Richard, and to her, the "monster" is the same as her.
Also can't make a sound, can only communicate with body movements.
And when the "monster" looked at her, Eliza felt for the first time that she didn't lack anything, and she didn't feel that she was incomplete .
"Every time he sees me, he is very happy, what he sees is the real me." , Eliza excitedly "speak" to Giles "listen" in sign language.
In the eyes of the "monster", she who can't speak is no longer "incomplete", she feels that she is finally "complete" .
This, she decided, was -- "love," love that transcended race .
When marginalized people and incomplete aliens come together, "love" can fight against the darkness of the world.
That's why The Shape of Water is considered a modern fairy tale .
Fairy tales are always old-fashioned. The prince and princess lived happily together after going through all kinds of hardships and dangers.
Old -fashioned, but that's the romance of fairy tales - something old and beautiful that still makes people believe and be moved by it .
Fairy tales are enduring, and love transcends race.
Thanks to "Top", the big boy with "love" and "childlike innocence" in his heart, used a fable about "monster" to tell the most innocent thoughts in his heart.
Let us feel the "love" that transcends race in the purest way .
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