Move Thee Reviews: An Original Mixture of Fantasy, Horror, History and Drama

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 2011)

Pan's Labyrinth, the winner of three Academy Awards including Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Makeup, is set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. In 1944, widowed Carmen moves with her young daughter Ofelia into the house of her new husband, a cruel fascist captain named Vidal. Finding her new life hard to bear, Ofelia seeks refuge in a mysterious labyrinth and encounters Pan (a faun), the half-man, half-goat creature of mythology, who tells her she is actually a long-lost princess of a magical kingdom beneath the earth. However, in order to make her way back and be reunited with her true family, she must accomplish three tasks Guillermo del Toro, Director of Pan's Labyrinth, says, "I've always preferred genres to be mixed. For me, Pan's Labyrinth is therefore a drama rooted in a context of war, with mythological elements grafted on." Hardly can we find a political drama in the guise of a fairy tale. It is simply an original and subtle mixture of fantasy, horror, history and drama. The main themes of the movie are as follows.
1. Cruel reality VS Magical world The real world is much scarier than the underground fairy kingdom. The real "monster" in the film is Captain Vidal, who cold-bloodedly murders two innocent peasants. Comparatively speaking, Pan (the only Ancient Greek god who have tasted death and is able to "panic" others), the Pale Man (whose eyes are on its hands), the giant toad (symbolizing lust) and eerie fairies are less fierce.
2. Dictatorship VS Free will Fascism is an authoritarian regime favoring complete obedience to authority, while republicans are in pursuit of freedom. Meanwhile, Ofelia exercises her free will and makes several decisions on her own in the movie.
Capitán Vidal: You could have obeyed me! Doctor: (his last words) But captain, to obey - just like that - for obedience's sake... without questioning That's something only people like you do.
3. Reality VS Imagination The brilliant ending is like an ink-blot test. Whether the ending is a tragedy or not depends on your own interpretation. Audiences are advised to pay attention to the magic chalk, the mandrake root, the narrator, the story books, Ofelia's reaction while meeting Pan, the moving walls in the labyrinth, the fairies transforming themselves from praying mantises, etc. A detailed discussion can be found in the following website. Indeed, the director believes the fairies in the movie are real, but he also agrees with those believing those monsters are just imagined by the desperate girl who is eager to escape from the traumatizing reality. Two interpretations also make sense, which makes the ending an unforgettable one.
As there are some violent scenes in the movie, parents are advised not to see the movie with their children and they should bear in mind that it is much different from Harry Potter. As an adult dreamer, I was fascinated by the two-edged ending, symbolic images, astonishing visuals and mesmerizing music. The lullaby hummed throughout the film adds melancholy to this darkly disturbing, but deeply affecting mixture of different genres.