Pan's Labyrinth - It's A Test, To Me.

2006) ★★★☆☆

Pan's Labyrinth's not boring for sure, but I don't think the little girl's journey back to her underground kingdom is intriguing and imaginative enough to stand as a classic (I'd rather prefer Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away). It's however, quite an inspiring film shifting us to and fro between the real world and the fairy-tale one. It's hard to tell which is real and which is not, so you'd better keep an open mind while watching.

Is the girl really the Princess that runs out of her kingdom by accident? Or is she just one of the ordinary girls suffering from the civil war itself in Spain in 1944? Is what she's been through in the real world just a test as the key to returning to her kingdom? Well, it depends how you look at it, and what you believe in. But one thing for sure, it's a fairy tale that doesn't have a happy ending to most of the people or kids who have long been poisoned by the 'happily ever afters', coz it involves deaths and sacrifices.

We all wanna live and don't wanna die. That's why we're bound to be sad when we come across death. But have we ever realized that there'll be no death if there's no birth? That we're here for a reason? That death is not an end? The way you look at life would decide how you feel about this film. Frankly I felt a bit touched by its message: how death could be such a comfort instead of something to cry for! Wake up, laymen!