The film is titled The Shape of Water, which was released last year. A classic love story between the beautiful and the ugly. It's something like the kind of King Kong-like movies (1933, 1976, 2005), Beauty and the Beast (2017), or Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), which del Toro said inspired the movie this time.
The main character: a silent woman, and a sea-monster whose costume design resembles Abe Sapien from Hellboy (2004) -dir film directed by del Toro. The two met at a secret facility of the United States government. Elisha, the mute woman, works as a janitor there. While the monster is the "secret asset" under investigation for weapons against Russia. The year of the background is 1962.
Having two main characters who both can not talk is not a challenge for del Toro. Their love story has to be assembled in such a way that it can still 'talk' even without words. Moreover, this is not the story of ordinary human love-there is a monster character that must be designed like a human, but still quite grim and different to be called a monster. Everything is done so that the unusual love story that can make sense of the audience.
The result? The Shape of Water is welcome. Various awards diboyong del Toro, most recent he got 7 nominations at the Golden Globe, and managed to win as the best director. The other good news, he also became a favorite Academy Awards, for bringing 13 nominations in this year's Oscars-most movies nominated.
The reason is not difficult to guess. As Oscar won the Moonlight last year-complete with a misplaced incident of the winner who made headlines-this year's entry of The Shape of Water became the flagship of political allegations.
This year, the protests on Trump are also still the main highlight of Oscars and Hollywood artists. Make the presence of The Shape of Water so superior feels reasonable.
First, because the main character of this film is a mute woman, from the bottom of the economy. Elisha's character became the proper symbol symbolizing the progressive movement of women in the last two years that continues to resonate in the US. In this movie, although he has no power, she dares to smuggle the Assets in the name of humanity, and not afraid of Strickland, the boss where he works.
Strickland himself (played by Michael Shannon) del Toro deliberately described as a symbol of Trump's current power: government, men, and whites. Implicitly, through the Strickland character, he also wants to show the privilege that the group holds has long been there and real.
The dispute over the power of minority versus minorities is clearly del Toro. At least through other protagonist figures: like Giles, Elisha's gay neighbor; Zelda, a black woman from the lower classes; and the Asset itself-which symbolizes the distinction, which must still be respected and treated equally without torture and discrimination.
Another reason this movie became a favorite in the Oscars is because it is the work of del Toro, the world-renowned director who came from Mexico-one of the countries most often called Trump negatively during his campaign and his reign. Del Toro's victory in Oscar-the biggest movie party in the US-will be a symbol of the biggest protest for the president of Hollywood artists.