sky
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Pan's Labyrinth
You guys have to see this movie. It's really good. It's my favorite movie in the whole world. I really think you guys will like it.
Pan's Labyrinth
The movie opens with a fairy tale. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl who loves to read, lies on the ground, bleeding, while the narration explains
that Princess Moanna of the Underground Realm, curious about the world above, escapes to the Earth, where the sun blinds her and, forgetting her past,
she weakens and dies. Nonetheless, her father retains hope that her spirit will eventually return to him.
The story then cuts to post-Civil War Spain in 1944, with Francisco Franco firmly in power. Ofelia has traveled with her pregnant mother Carmen
(Ariadna Gil) to join Captain Vidal (Sergi López i Ayats), her new stepfather and father of Carmen's unborn child, at his post in the mountains where
he is rooting out Spanish Maquis guerillas, on the North-West Spanish Region.
Ofelia discovers a stick insect that she believes to be a fairy. It follows her to the mill where Vidal is stationed. Ofelia chases it into an ancient
labyrinth nearby. Ofelia meets Vidal's housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú), who treats her kindly. Later that night, Ofelia overhears Mercedes and
the local doctor conspiring to help the rebels. Upon her mother's request, Ofelia tells a surprisingly mature story to her unborn brother, a fable
about pain and loss, and the promise of eternal life. After waking her in the middle of the night, the insect appears in Ofelia's bedroom where it
changes into a fairy and leads her outside and through the labyrinth. There, she meets a faun (Doug Jones), who says that he believes her to be
Princess Moanna. He gives her three tasks to complete before the full moon to ensure that her "essence is intact" so that she can return to her
father's realm.
Ofelia completes the first task of retrieving a key from the belly of a giant toad that lives deep beneath the roots of a fig tree. Ofelia is becoming
more worried about her mother, who has been ordered to stay in bed as her condition has worsened. The faun tells Ofelia of a magic way to restore her
mother to health : Placing a mandrake root in a bowl of fresh milk underneath her bed. Meanwhile, her stepfather is proving to be a brutish, violently
cruel man. Ofelia then undertakes the second task of using the key to retrieve an ornate dagger from the lair of the Pale Man (also played by Jones),
a grotesque, child-eating monster who sits absolutely silent and motionless in front of a large feast. Although she was gravely warned not to consume
anything, she eats two grapes, awakening the Pale Man, who eats two of her fairy friends and pursues her. She narrowly escapes by drawing an escape
door with a piece of chalk. However, infuriated at her disobedience for having eaten the grapes and causing the fairies' death, the faun refuses to
give her the third task.
Events in the real world take an even grimmer turn as Vidal captures and brutally interrogates a rebel. The doctor who has been staying with them to
help Carmen is ordered to tend the wounds of the tortured rebel, so that he can be interrogated further. Instead, at the rebel's request, the doctor
kills him to end his ordeal. Vidal kills the doctor for his disobedience and betrayal, angered by the doctor's statement that only a man such as Vidal
could practice such blind, unthinking obedience with no concern for the consequences. Just as the doctor dies, Carmen goes into labor and starts
hemorrhaging after the discovery and burning of the mandrake root. She dies in childbirth, but delivers a healthy son—Vidal had said that if only one
could be saved, that it should be his son. Vidal discovers that Mercedes is a spy, and he captures her and Ofelia as they attempt to escape. Ofelia is
locked in her bedroom, and Mercedes is taken to be tortured; however, she frees herself using a hidden knife with which she stabs and slashes Vidal,
though not fatally. She then flees but is caught. At the last moment, the rebels, her brother among them, arrive and rescue her.
The faun returns to Ofelia and gives her one more chance to prove herself. He tells her to take her baby brother into the labyrinth. She then uses the
magic chalk to escape her room and sneak into Vidal's room. She drugs Vidal and grabs her brother; although disoriented, Vidal chases her through the
labyrinth while the rebels attack the mill and Mercedes searches for her. Upon reaching the center, the faun tells Ofelia that the portal to the
underworld will open only with the blood of an innocent, so he needs a drop of her brother's blood. Ofelia, unsure of his intentions, refuses to allow
her brother to be harmed. Furious, the faun berates her and vanishes. Vidal finds her, takes the baby and shoots Ofelia in the stomach. She falls to
the ground, bleeding.
When Vidal leaves the labyrinth, the rebels and Mercedes are waiting for him. Realizing that he will die, he calmly hands Mercedes the baby, and
starts to make a request that they tell his son about his heroic father, but Mercedes informs him that his son "will never even know his name." Pedro,
one of the rebels and Mercedes' brother, shoots Vidal in the face, killing him.
Mercedes and the rebels enter the labyrinth to find Ofelia dying, in a reprise of the opening scene. While Ofelia's blood drips onto the altar that
was the gateway into the underworld, the scene flashes to a dream-like state: Ofelia is reunited with the king (Federico Luppi) (her deceased father,
resurrected) and queen (her mother, alive again) of the underworld. The faun is there, as are the fairies. Ofelia learns that by sacrificing herself,
instead of her brother, she has succeeded at the true final task, proving herself to be the Princess Moanna and achieving immortality. The moment
Ofelia learns she is the Princess in the underworld, she smiles; at that same instant, in the real world, she dies. The final scene shows a small
white flower blooming on the fig tree where the giant toad lived, slowly coming back to life. It represents the traces of her life as a mortal on
earth.
Due to many people not knowing if she had truly died at the end, in an interview, del Toro clarified that, in his own view, the fantasy world isn't
only Ofelia's imagination; the Underground Realm does exist, and in the end, Ofelia does actually escape to the fantasy world (where she would be more
happy to live in than the real world).
Here's the trailer and website:
http://www.panslabyrinth.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYiSlkvRuw
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Feybie
yaReads Editor
Posts: 8266
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Really? I watched about 2/3 of this movie and thought it was BORING!! It was so slow. maybe I should give it another go, what do you think?
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dragonfliyah
YA Obsessed
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Registered: 17-11-2008
Location: Sydney
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Yeh I got the DVD and couldn't get into it. Maybe I will try again...
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sky
YA Obsessed
Posts: 741
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really. It might just be me, but there's something about it. I personally loved it. I love the directors works
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Feybie
yaReads Editor
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A good friend of mine also loved it. So maybe its one of those films that you love or hate. I didnt hate it, but I just couldnt get into it.
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dragonfliyah
YA Obsessed
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Thats like me, I couldnt get into it.
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sky
YA Obsessed
Posts: 741
Registered: 16-11-2008
Location: under your bed. I bet you didn't know that!
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Mood: I love techno music
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probably...everyone has their own styles....lol. Well I thought I just add it, just in case someone wants to look more into it....smiles
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Feybie
yaReads Editor
Posts: 8266
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Thanks Sky, I know that some of our members are into this kind of stuff, so thanks for the addition 
yareads.com
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sky
YA Obsessed
Posts: 741
Registered: 16-11-2008
Location: under your bed. I bet you didn't know that!
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Mood: I love techno music
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no problem
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xStephx
Administrator
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I really liked this movie! :D It was way interesting. And its in Spanish!
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Ivy
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I've seen it and liked it too. It's like one of the Grimm Brothers fairytale. It's dark.
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sky
YA Obsessed
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That's what i totally love about it. It's not only dakr, but it's also like. It's a battle between misery and beauty, but also that in the end, it's
her choice. I think Guillermo del Toro does a wonderful job when he films his movies. It's always a mixture where fairy tales inside the human world.
It's a connection between the two.
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AmberRose
Wordsmith
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I just bought the DVD today Sky. Finally!
haha
I'm going to stay up and watch it either tonight or tomorrow.
It finally went down in price so that my mum let me get it. Yay.
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Feybie
yaReads Editor
Posts: 8266
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Location: booksville
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I think I need to give this another chance. I only watched about half of it and turned it off. Maybe I should try again.
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sky
YA Obsessed
Posts: 741
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Location: under your bed. I bet you didn't know that!
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totally should...made me cry in the end. But i love that movie
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jen.xx
YA Freak
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i absolutely love this movie, so artistic, so beautiful, and the story is simple, yet the director gave such an amazing visual impact which made the
story seem much more deeper.
L o v e O f M y L i f e
ღ
Currently reading: ღ
ღ Tea
Mind, Tea Life by So[Censored]su Sen ღ
ღ jen.xx
ღ
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Aine82
YA Bibliophile
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i saw this in theaters on opening night. i own it but haven't watched it. it's hard to watch hard-core rater-R movies with little ones running around.
i was disappointed in this movie for 1 big reason. there was not enough fantasy elements.
SPOILERS BELOW
i didn't like the war stuff, and i hadn't realized that was even going to be in there until my friend told me as we were standing in line with our
tickets. there was way too much of it, and the torture parts. ick. not my thing. vamps and weres tearing into each other... ok. men torturing men just
for the heck of it... not ok.
the little girl was amazing. and i cried at the part where the guys with the eye hands killed the little faery. broke my heart. i thought the
comparisons between faerytale and real life was interesting. and i like how the end was left open to interpretation. did she go to faerie? or was it
just her imagination? i think she went to faerie.
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x. Jessica-Louise .x
YA Obsessed
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I love this film also loved the orphange! I love subtitled movies!
Edward, Eммεтт, Jasper, Jacob, Seth, Ian, Jared,
Dιмιтrι, Mason, Peeta, Gαℓε,
Rhage, Heath, Erik,
Stark, мαяcυs, Valek, Seth, Niαℓℓ, Henry
Boys in books are just Better ♥
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