Edward Scissorhands is a fantasy romance film directed by Tim Burton. The film premiered in the United States on December 14, 1990, and won the 18th Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
Tim Burton has been called an alternative genius in Hollywood, whose work is grotesque but has the magic to fascinate the audience. When people think of his films, they say "gothic," "dark," and "weird." The characters in his films are eccentric, and the shapes and costumes are exaggerated, but his works can always touch the hearts of the audience and touch people's tears.
Watching more documentary movies, I can't help but sigh, watching a movie is like watching a person's life. Looking at Tim Burton's fantasy film, the exaggerated character modeling made my eyes light up, the visual novelty caught people's attention, and the good and evil of human nature reflected in the film hit people's hearts, causing people to think and give people inspiration.
"Edward Scissorhands" mainly tells the story of a robot named Edward who lives in a mysterious castle, and a middle-aged woman who sells cosmetics, Peggy, mistakenly breaks into the castle, finds Edward, and takes him home. Edward later falls in love with Peggy's daughter but can't get together.
The film centers on the emotional line between Edward and King, and begins with a series of events that occur after Peggy takes Edward home. Edward began to be welcomed by the townspeople, and was eventually ostracized and driven away by the townspeople, reflecting the good and evil of human nature.
"Edward Scissorhands" is not so much a fantasy love movie as a film that reflects the good and evil of human nature. I will deeply interpret the charm of this film from the lens language, symbolism, and theme presentation.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, Lens Language: Two lens languages hint at Edward's psychological changes — from loneliness to human acceptance, and finally being ostracized and driven away by humans, Edward returns to the castle</h1>
(1) At the beginning of the film, Edward hides in a corner, hinting at his inner loneliness
Edward was a robot whose inventor taught Edward human manners and poetry, and also taught him when to smile and when to be silent. However, before the inventor could install human hands on Edward, the inventor died, leaving Edward, who already had a human mind but a pair of scissor hands, to live alone in the castle.
In the mysterious and gloomy castle, Edward lived alone. A middle-aged woman selling cosmetics, Peggy, mistakenly breaks into the castle, and Edward hides in a dark corner.
When Peggy was startled when she found Edward and wanted to leave, Edward said: Don't go.
This shot hints at Edward's double loneliness: first, the absence of relatives, the inventor who made Edward has died, and he has no more relatives. Second, friendship is absent, and Edward lives alone in the castle, without friends. At the same time, his heart longed for someone to talk to him.
(2) When Edward is ostracized and driven away by the townspeople, he returns to the castle, hinting at his inner contradictions
For one of Kim's requests, Edward sneaked into Kim's boyfriend's father's mansion and did not reveal the truth after being arrested by the police, lest he affect his sweetheart.
Later, Edward is mistaken by the people around him as a dangerous person who deliberately robs the property, and the more he wants to do good, the more he is misunderstood, and the whole town demands that Edward be expelled, and even Peggy thinks that he should return to the castle.
Edward injured Kevin by mistake, and the whole town surrounded him, making a lot of noise, and he was terrified. He looked at Jin with grievances and reluctance in his eyes, which hinted at the double contradiction in his heart. For one thing, Edward didn't want to hurt anyone, he didn't want to be misunderstood by Kim, but he didn't know how to explain it. Second, Edward was reluctant to leave Jin, but he had to return to the castle, before the town's people chased, and then there was a police chase, he could only hide back in the castle.
From the above two shots to hint at Edward's psychological changes, from loneliness, desire to integrate into humans, friendly with humans, to being rejected and driven away by the townspeople, it reflects the selfishness and hypocrisy of the townspeople.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, symbolic techniques: the reflection of symbolic environment and secular humanity</h1>
(1) Color contrast, small town houses and castles have a strong symbolic meaning
Through the close-up, the long-range view, we can see that the houses where the people of the town live are colorful, and even their cars are colorful.
The town is visually warm, harmonious and comfortable. The people in the town seem to be hospitable, but they actually like to play right and wrong.
The director wants to satirize the selfishness and hypocrisy of the people in the town with warm, comfortable colors.
On the contrary, the castle gives a mysterious, eerie, and terrifying visual sense. When you push the door and walk into it, you will be amazed at the paradise, the courtyard of the ancient castle is full of colorful flowers, and the various shapes of green plants are very flexible, cute, natural and peaceful.
The seemingly eerie castle symbolizes beauty and vitality.
Through the strong color contrast of the environment, the director satirizes the townspeople with bright colors and praises Edward who lives in the castle with dark colors.
(2) The contrast between the attitudes of the townspeople toward Edward is a reflection of secular humanity
When Peggy brought Edward home, the townspeople came to see Him out of curiosity. When it was learned that Edward had trimmed plants of various shapes with scissor hands and could also design various hairstyles, the townspeople were friendly and enthusiastic about him, and even worshipped him as a star.
When Edward was mistaken for a thief and arrested by the police, the people around him regarded him as a dangerous person who deliberately robbed his belongings and turned away from him. When misunderstandings grew, the townspeople ostracized him and drove him away.
Such a change has two meanings:
The first is irony. The townspeople adore him because of his unusual scissor hand, and reject him, but also because of his pair of scissor hands, how ironic.
The second is the refraction of human nature. At first, the townspeople lined up to let Edward cut the hair of their dogs and design hairstyles for them, and Edward worked hard and did not take anything. Today, the townspeople collectively reject and drive Edward away, paying no attention to what Edward had done for them.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, theme presentation: poignant story and tragic ending</h1>
Fantasy romance is destined to end in tragedy, and robots and human girls are destined to only love each other, not to keep each other.
When King stood in front of Edward and asked him to hold himself, Edward said helplessly, "I can't do it." "The girl he loves is close at hand, but he can't hug his beloved, let alone keep up with her, such a story is poignant."
Although Edward is a robot, the director has given him a childlike pure mind. His looks and costumes are extremely exaggerated, but his eyes are clean and innocent.
The inventor created him but failed to accompany him; he had human feelings and minds, but no human hands; scissor hands could prune greenery but could not embrace his beloved; he had no ability to discern between right and wrong, but he knew what was good and what was evil; he longed to be integrated into mankind and finally had to return to the castle; he had no malice, but his good townspeople could not see.
The first time I watched it, I thought the ending was good, even if Edward couldn't stay with his beloved, at least they were okay with each other, and they were thinking of each other. The second time I watched it, I felt the sadness of the ending and the compassion of the director. In Edward, we see the purity of love, the determination to never see each other again for the sake of each other's well-being. In the townspeople, we see the evil in human nature, who remember only the mistakes Edward made, but forget all the good he had done before.
The film ends with the beginning, where Edward prunes his plants, ice sculptures, and love in the castle. There is an ice sculpture that is the gesture of Jin when he danced. What cannot be erased in Jin's life is the dream of dancing with snowflakes. Snowflakes symbolize pure love between them.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > written at the end:</h1>
"Edward Scissorhands" is not only a fantasy romance, but also a film that explores human nature. The good and evil of human nature reflected in the film strike directly at people's hearts, attract people's thinking, and give people inspiration.
Director Tim Burton had a closed childhood. As a child, his room was inexplicably nailed to a lot of wooden planks by his parents, leaving only two thin slits for him to see the outside world. Edward in the film can even be seen as the embodiment of Tim Burton: lonely, without friends, lacking in family and friendship.
In human nature, there is no absolute good, and there is no absolute evil. As Dong Qing said when commenting on the contestant Wang Jianning in the "Host Competition": "Hurting and being hurt are sometimes the relationship of opposites and unity, hurting others, sometimes it means destroying yourself." ”
The hypocrisy and selfishness of the townspeople forced the kind and sincere Edward back to the castle, who thought they were smart, but they were actually extremely stupid.
Good movies can see human nature. The human nature reflected in the film is thought-provoking, and the love between Edward and Kim that cannot be kept is touching.