《水形物语》：治愈的暗黑童话

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

墨西哥制片人吉尔莫·德尔·托罗以拍摄“怪物电影”而闻名于世。在他所执导的电影中，往往会出现超乎大众想象的奇异怪兽。

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.

这位导演常常运用视觉冲击来推进故事情节，但却很少像在《水形物语》中那样赋予这些怪兽人性。在电影《水形物语》中，清洁工哑女和海怪的感情纽带相当治愈。

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.

人类角色几乎总是德尔·托罗电影关注的焦点，而片中的怪兽则为观众们带来了震撼的视觉效果。《水形物语》中的海怪一角就像其他人类角色一样丰满，在电影中有着重要戏份。

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.

故事讲述了女清洁工艾丽莎·埃斯波西托的故事，由于童年时受了伤，她无法开口说话。上世纪60年代，艾丽莎在美国巴尔的摩的一处研究机构工作，机构以科研为目的对一只海怪进行秘密研究。艾丽莎的生活十分孤独，只有清洁工同事泽尔达和上了年纪的邻居吉尔斯是她的朋友。她和海怪渐生情愫，而当发现研究机构打算杀掉海怪时，她尽其所能帮助海怪逃跑。

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.

在某种程度上，艾丽萨和海怪都是无人倾听的失声角色，但两人都试着与彼此进行无言的交流。与此同时，他们还带着观众见证了一段不同寻常的奇妙爱情，触及了孤独、爱与人类与生俱来的偏见。

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

影片中，怪兽的意义已经超出推动情节的作用 —— 它为人类上了一课。

“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.

“电影和广告的世界不断地告诉人们无需辛勤工作，你应该有着完美的头发与牙齿，而这些怪兽告诉人们，世间允许不完美的存在。”德尔·陀螺表示。