The Mystery of the Female Corpse is the film debut of Spanish director Oriol Paulo, starring the likes of Belém Rueda and Hugo Silva, which conquered the audience with its exquisite plot design, strong emotional portrayal and profound exploration of human nature, and became one of the rare excellent suspense films in Spanish cinema.
Paul successfully transitioned from screenwriter to director for The Mystery of the Corpse and was nominated for Best Newcomer Director at the 27th Spanish Goya Awards (2013).
"The Mystery of the Female Corpse" tells a revenge story cloaked in emotion: a female corpse mysteriously disappears, involving the interests behind the emotions, and as the secret is gradually revealed, people's love, desire and hatred are intertwined, and the good and evil of human nature are re-examined in the balance of social justice.
Paul is a screenwriter who knows how to grasp the psychology of the audience, setting the plot of the movie ups and downs, bringing the audience a strong sense of "reversal".
Most suspense films use non-linear narrative methods, breaking the audience's habitual thinking mode, and scattering the complete information into fragments of information, thereby mobilizing the audience's enthusiasm for watching the movie. This film uses a large number of flashback shots to explain the background of the matter and the character of the characters, which play a complementary role. The following is an analysis of the plot design from four aspects:
1. From - the disappearance of the female corpse
The film begins with the morgue night guard running wild in the woods, and as soon as it comes up, the audience is emotionally nervous. From this, the case of the disappearance of the female corpse was introduced. The inspector, who had just taken leave, rushed to the scene overnight, and the husband of the female corpse was also summoned by the police to the morgue for interrogation.
Details such as the destruction of surveillance at the scene and the change of the password in the control room indicate that someone deliberately stole the body. And who is the biggest beneficiary of stealing the body? The husband of the female corpse became the biggest suspect.
2. Inheritance - the "resurrection" of the female corpse
The male protagonist deliberately concealed the infidelity from the police and created the impression of husband and wife and beauty. However, the male protagonist who is a thief with a weak heart, stimulated by poison bottles, invitations, mobile phones, wine glasses and other items, has the idea that his wife is not dead, but the idea of setting up a situation behind his back.
3. Turn - the female corpse was found
The male protagonist confessed to the inspector the fact of cheating and murdering his wife, and thought that everything would be fine if he found his wife after the "resurrection". It turned out that the wife had really been poisoned by herself. And the cheating little three actually did not check this person, which suddenly made people wonder whether the male protagonist was really schizophrenic.
4. Unity - Revenge for the truth
In the last few minutes of the film, the plot reaches a climax - the inspector explains the truth to the male protagonist at the time of death: ten years ago, the male protagonist and his wife caused the death of his wife in a car accident, and ten years later, his daughter incarnated as "Xiao San" approached the male protagonist and set out his inner secrets, so he conspired with his daughter to take a perfect revenge.
Just like Cao Xueqin's "grass snake ambush line" in the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", director Paul laid the groundwork layer by layer in the early stage, connecting the seemingly unrelated characters of the inspector and the male protagonist, using puns to suggest, plot metaphors and other ways to foreshadow the ending of the film and the final fate of the characters.
Like Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, the film's love and revenge are intertwined, staging a tragicomedy of love and revenge.
1. The back of love is hate
The male protagonist, Alex Uloa, a former college chemistry teacher, met a successful female entrepreneur, Maca, during a vacation, and the two fell in love and entered the marriage hall.
Macca used her wealth to transform her husband, Alex, into the head of a lab owned by her company, and lived a carefree life, as evidenced by buying him all kinds of clothes and his beloved motorcycle.
Perhaps the woman is too strong and controls everything about her husband: from work to what she wears to the banquet. Arix longs for freedom in his marriage and his relationship with his wife, Maca, gets worse and worse. Although every day is empty and snake, but the heart is gradually drifting away.
After meeting the young Carla, Alix falls in love and is stranger to his wife. In order to obtain his wife's property, he did not hesitate to conspire with Xiao San and came up with a vicious plan to poison and kill his wife.
When fiery emotions go to extremes, they will have great destructive power. Love comes to an end, and the corners turn into hatred. Such examples abound in real life, and we cannot but be vigilant at all times.
2. Love and revenge cannot be combined
Carla enters Alix's life in order to find out if Alix was the culprit who killed her mother. In the process of contact, Carla developed a real relationship with Alyx.
When she discovers that her lover is actually her own mother's killer, Carla has a complete breakdown. On the one hand, it is necessary to find the justice of being late for the mother, and on the other hand, it is necessary to endure the grief of losing love.
Carla conspires with her father to lead Alix into a trap step by step, subjecting him to a fair trial as he is destined to be. But in the process, Carla has been hesitant and uneasy. Among them, there are a few details that are more telling: she hesitated when poisoning Alix and reminded him that this may be a trap, dangerous, and it is best not to go; when pretending to be hit by a car on the phone, she shed tears of heartache.
Love and revenge are entangled, making the two parties who should have met each other become the object of love, putting the character in a dilemma of fate. No matter how you choose, there will be regrets, but this is also what can shock people's hearts.
There is an old Chinese saying: Evil causes accumulate, and blessings and good fortunes are celebrated. This is to persuade people to abandon evil and follow good, and there is both a beautiful moral exhortation and a sufficient basis for reality.
If Alex and Maca hadn't chosen hit-and-run during a driving accident, and if Alex hadn't chosen to cheat when his marriage went wrong, the tragedy in the movie might not have happened. But the wrong choice ultimately has devastating consequences. So how can such a tragedy be avoided?
1. Face the problem head-on
"Gold has no feet, no one is perfect." There are elements of selfishness and cowardice in human nature, and when encountering real problems of interest, it is actually human nature to escape and withdraw from the heart.
Alex and Maca's choice to escape responsibility during the hit-and-run is indeed a rather selfish act, disregarding the lives of the Inspector's family, and eventually leading to the death of the Inspector's wife, leaving a happy family in tatters.
Running away doesn't really solve the problem. Although Maca and Alex did not want to remember that bad time, this memory was carried like a cross in the depths of their hearts, leaving them at peace.
To overcome the impulse of the self, one must face the problem head-on. Because evasion is not the solution, it will punish it at a greater cost in the future.
2． Try to improve the problem
The same goes for Maca and Alex's marital problems. Alex chooses to escape from the rift in his feelings, gaining disguised satisfaction in infidelity, but also putting the marriage in a doomed situation.
His wife, Maca, is a highly controlling person, and although she can grasp her husband's emotional dynamics by hiring detectives and other means, she hopes to communicate emotional problems with her husband Alix. However, Alex is unwilling to communicate, so that the gap between the husband and wife relationship becomes wider and wider, and eventually embarks on the road of revenge.
In fact, what can't be talked about in marriage? The color of the suit, the itinerary of the vacation, the arrangement of the work... Everything is negotiable. The real long-term marriage relationship must be a compromise after communication, respecting each other's choices and hobbies, and each giving up some power in exchange for a comfortable space for the two to get along.
Problems will inevitably occur in life, and only by trying to use a variety of ways to improve can we avoid problems like snowballs, getting bigger and bigger, and becoming unmanageable situations.
"The Mystery of the Female Corpse" is a wonderful suspense movie, which makes people gain a strong sense of cinematic pleasure in the ups and downs of the plot. But more importantly, through a story of perfect revenge, the film preaches a simple and simple value: all good is practiced, and all evil is done.
Although we are not sure that good people must have good rewards, bad people often do not have a good end. If you don't want to tilt to the bad side on the scale of human nature, then face the problem in time at the beginning of the problem and correct the problem, otherwise it will really be: small mistakes will not change, and great disasters will come.