《水形物語(yǔ)》：治愈的暗黑童話

Mexican Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is known for his “creature features”, directing movies with strange and wonderful beasts that go beyond our imagination.

墨西哥制片人吉爾莫·德爾·托羅以拍攝“怪物電影”而聞名于世。在他所執(zhí)導(dǎo)的電影中，往往會(huì)出現(xiàn)超乎大眾想象的奇異怪獸。

But the director often uses these visual wonders simply as ways to advance the story. Rarely has he thoroughly humanized one of his creatures as he does in The Shape of Water, which focuses on the bond between a mute cleaning lady and a sea creature with extraordinary healing powers.

這位導(dǎo)演常常運(yùn)用視覺(jué)沖擊來(lái)推進(jìn)故事情節(jié)，但卻很少像在《水形物語(yǔ)》中那樣賦予這些怪獸人性。在電影《水形物語(yǔ)》中，清潔工啞女和海怪的感情紐帶相當(dāng)治愈。

The human characters are almost always the focus of Del Toro’s films, with his monsters usually providing something great to look at for the audience. But the sea creature from The Shape of Water is just as well-developed as any of his human characters, and plays a huge part in the movie.

人類角色幾乎總是德爾·托羅電影關(guān)注的焦點(diǎn)，而片中的怪獸則為觀眾們帶來(lái)了震撼的視覺(jué)效果。《水形物語(yǔ)》中的海怪一角就像其他人類角色一樣豐滿，在電影中有著重要戲份。

The story follows Elisa Esposito – a cleaning lady who isn’t able to speak due to a childhood injury. Elisa works at a research facility in 1960s Baltimore, US, which secretly keeps a sea creature for scientific studies. Elisa is a lonely woman whose only friends are her fellow cleaning lady Zelda and her elderly neighbor Giles. She gradually develops a relationship with the creature and when she finds out that the facility is planning to kill it, Elisa does all she can to help it escape.

故事講述了女清潔工艾麗莎·埃斯波西托的故事，由于童年時(shí)受了傷，她無(wú)法開口說(shuō)話。上世紀(jì)60年代，艾麗莎在美國(guó)巴爾的摩的一處研究機(jī)構(gòu)工作，機(jī)構(gòu)以科研為目的對(duì)一只海怪進(jìn)行秘密研究。艾麗莎的生活十分孤獨(dú)，只有清潔工同事澤爾達(dá)和上了年紀(jì)的鄰居吉爾斯是她的朋友。她和海怪漸生情愫，而當(dāng)發(fā)現(xiàn)研究機(jī)構(gòu)打算殺掉海怪時(shí)，她盡其所能幫助海怪逃跑。

In a way, Elisa and the creature are both characters who have no voice so are not listened to, but they manage to communicate with each other without saying a single word. In the meantime, they draw the audience into an unusual yet fascinating love story that touches on loneliness, love and natural human prejudice.

在某種程度上，艾麗薩和海怪都是無(wú)人傾聽的失聲角色，但兩人都試著與彼此進(jìn)行無(wú)言的交流。與此同時(shí)，他們還帶著觀眾見證了一段不同尋常的奇妙愛情，觸及了孤獨(dú)、愛與人類與生俱來(lái)的偏見。

In the film, the monster represents something beyond a plot point – it carries a lesson for us humans.

影片中，怪獸的意義已經(jīng)超出推動(dòng)情節(jié)的作用 —— 它為人類上了一課。

“The world in movies and commercials kept telling you that you shouldn’t sweat, you should have perfect hair, perfect teeth, and the monsters give you a chance to exist in imperfection,” del Toro said.

“電影和廣告的世界不斷地告訴人們無(wú)需辛勤工作，你應(yīng)該有著完美的頭發(fā)與牙齒，而這些怪獸告訴人們，世間允許不完美的存在。”德爾·陀螺表示。