yunfei

24.1.07

		Pan's Labyrinth
		this is the most hyped foreign film of late 2006 (bagging multiple awards for best foreign film and multiple oscar nominations). and if this is also the best foreign film of 2006, i'm pretty disappointed. (of course theoretically, it couldn't possibly be the universally recognised foreign film of last year because there's little miss sunshine contending, which i unintentionally missed and expect to be far superior, and memories of matsuko which gets my nod for the title) no doubt the cinematography and artistic direction is the best i've seen for a long time, after lemony snicket's (because i missed the black dahlia, the prestige and have yet to watch the illusionist). which would, i guess, explain all the oscar nominations (because the soundtrack is also awesome), save the best foreign film one. the oversaturated colours and brilliant CGI is what thrills me, if you didn't manage to follow the trend. but of course, i'm also in awe of the artistic direction in 300 despite the monochromity of it all, but that would be for another review. back to the subject on why the film, imho, is a waste of time - there is little character development, despite the stellar performances of Sergi López who plays the Captain, and perhaps Maribel Verdú who plays Mercedes. precious screentime was instead wasted on presenting awkward scenes which do not add to the integrity of the film: waddling through mud under a tree, an asterile amputation and complaints of burnt coffee. favourite scene: dinner with pale man. assuming a logical explanation to every turn in the plot, questions to be answered include: is this a fairy tale based in the setting of an uprising, or a political commentary reflected by a fairy tale? do the quests fulfilled by Ofelia actually symbolise something deeper, in either case? chong explains that the quests are a manifestation of Ofelia's desires under the harshness of the situations she was presented with: (1) being her predilection to oppose her stepfather's wishes and (3) being her urgency to escape with her brother. i argued that (2) was probably her waking up hungry in the middle of the night. i wonder too, if there are parallels drawn between Ofelia in Del Toro's Pan's and Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. after all, both suffer from psychosis (the former hallucinates and the latter goes crazy) and both die by the end of the tale. in conclusion, i feer there is nothing deep about this film, and reading too much into the themes only give me a headache. an oustanding film, it just didn't touch me the way it should. ps. click has an Oscar nomination for Achievement in Makeup. lol :D Labels: film

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