摘 要

作为2018年奥斯卡最佳影片奖得主，《水形物语》以成人童话为主题，讲述了冷战阴影下多元文化群体的孤独与渴望,也通过“人与野兽”的话题来展露人性和十九世纪六十年代各群体的文化冲突。本文借鉴前人对多元文化主义的观点和分析，从多重人物塑造、复杂情节结构、多样拍摄手法入手，分析《水形物语》这部电影中多元文化主义的特点、冷战对人物生活的影响以及多样化拍摄手法的作用和效果，从而阐释《水形物语》的美学价值及其丰富的多元文化内涵。

关键词：《水形物语》，多元文化主义，人物塑造，情节结构，拍摄方法

Contents

1. Introduction...............................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration..................................................................................................2

2.1 Multiple characterizations ............................................................................3

2.1.1 Alisa: a mute....................................................................................................3

2.1.2 Giles: an old gay painter.......................................................................................4

2.1.3 Zelda: a black woman............................................................................................5

2.1.4 Richard: a white governor.....................................................................................6

2.1.5 Dr. Hoffstetler: a spy abandoned by his country...................................................7

2.2 Complex plot structure.............................................................................................8

2.2.1 Beginning: Relationships of multiracial characters...............................................8

2.2.2 Process: Mermaid appeared...................................................................................9

2.2.3 Climax :Rescued mermaid;Multiracial conflicts.................................................10

2.2.4 Ending: Let mermaid go.....................................................................................11

2.3 Diverse shooting styles...........................................................................................12

2.3.1 Background music...........................................................................................12

2.3.2 Voiceover.............................................................................................................13

2.3.3 Picture colors.......................................................................................................14

1. Conclusion...............................................................................................................15

Works Cited........................................................................................17

Bibliography......................................................................................18

An Analysis of Shape of Water

From the Perspective of Multiculturalism

1. Introduction

As the biggest winner at the 90th Academy Awards, Shape of Water won the best picture award and numerous other honors. Director Guillermo del Toro also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director. “ He (Guillermo del Toro) is good at using all kinds of metaphors in the film, expressing the main emotion of the film through complicated metaphors and symbols, and conveying the idealistic feelings in the combination of magic and reality,” wrote the ninth issue of contemporary TV in 2018. With exquisite and mysterious images and attractive ‘monster’ theme, Shape of Water tells the love story between a dumb cleaning lady in the cold war period in 1963 and the ‘god’ merman in the amazon river who was captured for experiments, and integrates diverse cultures and conflicts throughout the whole film.

The roles are clearly set in Shape of Water. Each role represents a single cultural background and plays a distinct part in the film, in which none of them can be replaced. Zhang Caiyun analyzed the implicit expression of each character’s human nature through some detailed actions and expressions in the movie. For example, when Alisa, the female character in the film, describes a mermaid in her sign language, she says: “ when he looks at me, the way he looks at me, he doesn’t think I’m missing anything. He doesn’t think I’m incomplete.’’ This is the encounter and compatibility of two lonely souls, which then composes a romantic mermaid fairy tale. Romantic elements are an important part of Hollywood love movies. As Tong Zijing said: “ the film begins with a dim underwater environment, with green bubbles rising continuously, followed by an underwater ecological environment, and a lamp dotted in a narrow corridor. The constantly moving lens has a sense of exploring the story with the audience.’’ According to Tong Zijing, dreams are expressions of desire or the unconscious, suggesting the direction of the film. Dark red and faint green picture also gives the audience a sense of hazy romantic feeling. In the movie, Hollywood movie clips have been used for many times. When Alisa and her friend Giles get along, most of the movies they watch belongs to the golden age of Hollywood. And after being rescued from the institute, merman watches Baahubali in the down stairs of the cinema. The director tried to utilize this scene to bring romantic elements to the audience; And when Alisa imagines herself dancing with a mermaid solo, in her imagination she transforms herself from a low-level cleaner into the heroine of a romantic drama. This scene also pays tribute to the Hollywood movie Follow the Fleet. In reality, on account of physical disability, Alisa could never sing You’ll never know to the hero. The director used this scenario to ease Alisa and the audience. The Minnesota Daily marveled at the director for using the word “water” as a metaphor, praising the director: “ The film Shape of Water sounds like ‘fish’, and Guillermo skillfully ‘drives’ it.” Love has thousands of shapes like water, maybe you can't touch it, but it will gently embrace you. ‘Water’ here not only refers to the water in the heroine’s bathroom and the water pool where he stays, but also represents the unify of multiculturalism backgrounds and disabilities.