Cutting an onion is not just about crying, but once you start crying, you can't stop. Tina was washed out by a large pool of tears.
Since the publication of Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, "magic realism" has become a label for Latin American literature and even Latin American art.
"Chocolate Lover", directed by Mexican director Alfonso Areeo, is also very Latin American. Just like the title, food and love are its main content. But under such a surface, it also shows women's struggle and resistance to the ultimate life of backward tradition through magical details.
The protagonist of Chocolate Lover is a woman named Tina. Her father died unexpectedly as soon as she was born, and she had only two sisters and no brothers, so as the youngest daughter, she had to stay at home and serve her mother for the rest of her life, and could not fall in love and marry.
In the face of this anti-human tradition, Tina, who was washed out by tears, spent her life rebelling and finally completely shattered this family tradition.
After the film was released, it was nominated for best picture at the British Academy Film Awards, best picture at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and Best Actress awarded by Lumi Kafanzos, the actress who played Tina.
The film's best storyline and character design are clever, and the whole film has ups and downs and is fascinating. Food and magical elements make the film present a unique temperament, giving the audience the ultimate moving viewing experience.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >1, good movies tell good stories, and the plot twists and turns are fascinating</h1>
In the textbook-level book Of Stories, author Robert McKee divides a good story into five parts: motivating events, progression entanglements, crises, climaxes, and endings. "Chocolate Lover" perfectly illustrates this process.
First of all, the motivating event must completely break the balance of forces in the protagonist's life. Tina fell in love with Badro at first sight when she was 15 years old. But because of tradition, she could not start a family for the rest of her life. The domineering mother arranged for Badro to marry Sister Tina.
Tina's originally peaceful life was completely broken by love, facing the double contradiction of love and affection. The great vortex of life pushes the family into the second stage of the story, progressing in entanglement.
Entanglement is the ordeal encountered by the protagonist. The entanglement of progress is that the protagonist encounters more and more and stronger contradictions, which triggers a series of events and pushes the protagonist away from his original life.
All entanglements begin with the smallest contradictions, and the protagonist's resistance is strengthened little by little.
Once Tina confirmed that she was in love with Badro, she clearly told her mother and did not hide it. This was Tina's first revolt against tradition.
Of course, this resistance was insignificant, and with a word of rebuke from her mother, Tina was defeated. Moreover, under the operation of his mother, Badro became Tina's eldest brother-in-law.
After the eldest sister gave birth to her son, Tina helped the frail elder sister take care of the child. Tina and Badero want to take advantage of the opportunity to take care of the children. The mother promptly snuffed out their attempt and, in the name of better medical conditions in the city, forcibly let the Badro family move away, completely separating the two.
But soon because of the water and soil, the child died prematurely. This time, Tina erupted in a fierce rebellion. She accused the mother of harming the child, of being arbitrary and ruthless in dominating everyone.
This was the second time Tina had rebelled against authority and tradition. The revolt was more intense, but the mother's response was more violent— sending Tina straight to a mental hospital.
In a mental hospital, Tina begins to change. She decided to sever ties with her mother once and for all. In the confrontation with tradition, Tina began to take the initiative. At the same time, in love, Tina also began to try new things. She accepts love from the doctor.
Tina, who changes the relationship of affection and love, life seems to be able to return to calm and produce a new balance. But then the balance was upset again. My mother died.
The death of her mother means that the party to the conflict has disappeared, can Tina celebrate the victory? No! The mother's position was replaced by the eldest sister.
Tina and the eldest sister are not only rivals in love, but also more inseparable in their treatment of tradition. After the eldest sister lost her son, she gave birth to a daughter and lost her fertility at the same time. The eldest sister decided that this daughter would serve herself for the rest of her life and would not be able to fall in love and get married for the rest of her life. Another Tina was born.
Tina will never allow her own tragedy to be staged again! Tina wants to resist for the third time. At this time, the forces of the two sides of the contradiction have changed. Tina represents not only herself, but also the next generation, and the future. The traditional spokesperson is the deceased mother and the eldest sister with a weak sense of existence.
The mother died and everyone returned home. Tina and Badero reignited their love. However, the mother is still haunted, and she does her best to accuse and curse Tina and Badro. In the end, Tina couldn't bear it and exposed her mother's privacy, and it turned out that Tina's second sister was actually her mother's illegitimate daughter.
This final blow completely shattered the "tradition" that the mother vigorously defended. Her soul never reappeared. The eldest sister also died of illness.
But by this time Tina had not yet won a complete victory. She triumphed over tradition, but lost her love.
Tina had promised the doctor a marriage proposal. For this reason, Badero thought Tina had failed him. Baidro believes that he chose to marry Sister Tina because only in this way can he get closer to Tina. It's sacrifice for love.
Faced with love blackmail, Tina exclaimed, "You're kidnapping me!" At this time, Tina has completed her independent growth. She would no longer be swayed by any emotion, by anyone. She has the ability to think independently and decide her own destiny.
Tina overcomes both external and inner contradictions, thus ushering in the climax and ending of the story. Throughout the film, the escalating contradictions not only promote the development of the story, tell a good story, but also show the charm of the characters, and shape a glorious Tina.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >2, good characters promote good stories, and the emotions are sincere and straight to the hearts of the people</h1>
The protagonist of a good story should have two conditions, willpower and empathy.
The number of protagonists in a story can be one or more, or the change of people in the middle, or the protagonist is an animal, cartoon or even non-biological. But either way, they should be a character with willpower.
Tina in Chocolate Lover has super willpower. This willpower drives her to achieve her goals.
The three Tina sisters, only she is destined by tradition, can not have the happiness that a normal woman should enjoy. The eldest sister adheres to tradition, and the second sister has no traditional restrictions, and is uninhibited and unscrupulous.
Only Tina, she encounters love and wants to have happiness. She is not willing to be bound by tradition, and she has the opportunity to break with tradition. She knew that as long as she resisted, she would have a chance.
If the character has no motivation and no chance of accomplishing the goal, they lose their appeal. Moreover, the character must have at least one chance to achieve his wish.
Tina and Badero tried to be together many times, but because of their mother's close surveillance, they never got their wish. This contradiction and confrontation makes the audience expect. After the death of their mother, the family reunited, Tina and Badero finally got their wish.
But that's not the end of the story, and they still face a lot of challenges. More challenges bring greater expectations to the audience, expecting them to be together forever.
But Tina's goal at this time is more than that, she not only wants to be happy herself, but also to make more girls like her happy. At this time, the audience has been deeply attracted to Tina. Because this woman looks "like me". She pursues love, pursues happiness, and works hard for it. "I" want her to succeed. Because this is a common humanity. This is the empathic role that characters have.
Robert McKee says that "empathy" is expressed in Hollywood language, which is "this is a person who can follow," or "a person who can applaud."
Tina is such a person who can follow and applaud. The audience is deeply attracted by Tina's personality charm.
In addition, the gastronomic and magical temperament of the Latin American world makes Tina and the whole film present a mysterious and different style.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >3, exotic food and magical colors, adding a mysterious flavor to the love story</h1>
The plot and character setting are destined to make "Chocolate Love" a good film. But The exotic cuisine and magical colors of Latin America make the movie experience achieve amazing results.
The title of the film directly refers to the two major instincts of life, and the color of food is also. The two are closely linked in the film, sublimated in the development of mutual reflection, so that the protagonist's life is complete.
Tina was unusually born in the kitchen. My mother was cutting onions. The old maid Nacha said: "The tears caused by the onion flowed through the kitchen and 'flushed' Tina out. After the tears evaporated, Nacha collected 20kg of salt. Since then, Tina has been with Nacha in the kitchen all day.
Born in the kitchen and grown up in the kitchen, when she encounters love, the first thing that comes to mind is food. Tina felt Badro's gaze for the first time, "Like dough falling into a hot oil pan." The heat burrowed into the body, and the whole body was bubbling like dough. "
There are three scenes in the play, through the magic effect of food, showing Tina's different feelings of love.
The first time was Sister Tina's wedding banquet. Tina helped Nacha cook, and tears fell into the cake-making dough. The next day, the wedding guests cried bitterly after eating the cake. Everyone can't help but miss their "lifelong love", resulting in a huge sense of loss and pity, and vomiting in pain.
Nacha, who was as distressed as her grandmother was for Tina, died on the wedding day because she had tasted the dough the most poisoned in advance. She does not want to see her beloved child, because love is plunged into endless sorrow.
The second time was when Tina made the rose meal. To celebrate Tina's first anniversary as a full chef, Baidero presented her with a bouquet of roses in full view of everyone. The mother screamed and demanded that Tina throw away the rose. But Tina held the rose tightly in her arms and let the flower thorns scratch blood on her chest.
Tina couldn't bear to throw away the roses, so she put the roses into the dish and made it into a delicacy. In the face of the delicious food made with love, Badro enjoyed it to the fullest, his mother said it was too salty, and the eldest sister left the table with an embarrassed excuse.
The love code in the food directly penetrates the body of the second sister, causing her to emit a magical rose fragrance and attract a distant man.
The third time was the wedding feast of Tina's niece. This girl, raised by Tina, has the sweetest love. Her wedding atmosphere was completely different from her mother's, only because Tina's mood was different. Tina is happy for her niece's happiness, and the people who have eaten the wedding cake are also extremely happy, and can't wait to enjoy love in pairs.
Love can make food magical, and love itself is a fire. The scenes in the film burning for love are also full of magic.
The rose meal made by Tina ignited the love fire in the second sister's heart. She ran to the bathroom to extinguish the flames, but the bathroom burned. In the midst of the raging fire, the second sister left on horseback with the men who had come from afar.
Although Tina had accepted the doctor's marriage proposal, only the love with Badro was the fire. After the death of their mother, Tina and Badero were truly together for the first time. Their flames of love illuminated the night sky and alarmed the soul of their mother. In order to punish them, the mother asked Badro to "set him on fire". Finally, Nacha's spirit appeared and healed Badro's burns.
Eventually, Tina and Badero are burned by love. In the marriage room that old Nacha had furnished for them, they enjoyed the ultimate love that was late. At this time, Tina and Baidero are like Alyssa and Fermina in "Love in the Time of Cholera". They have gone through a thousand sails, and they will eventually stand together and become eternal.
Tina and Badero's love burns everything, leaving only a cookbook in the ashes. The recipe contains a legendary love story that has been passed down from generation to generation as a testimony to women's independence and freedom.
Tina's life is full of magic, and food and love are her motivation and allies to move forward. I hope that every woman can be like Tina and bravely pursue her own happiness.