I am one of those who loved fairy tales when I was young. We have a collection of fairy tale books that I would often take out and look at the pictures. It was more fun when my Dad used to read it for me whenever he had time after work or during weekends. I didn't have a wild imagination when I was a kid. Unlike the others, I wouldn't see myself as one of the main characters. I was just a mere spectator as I am now whenever I read or watch something.

I just finished watching Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto Del Fauno) on DVD. As an adult, I thought I wouldn't like it because I've already outgrown childhood fairy tales but the movie proved me wrong. It is the kind of fantasy film that draws young and old people alike. It is dark, enchanting, magical and has a brutally sad ending that it left me teary-eyed.

The Plot

The movie opens as a fairy tale. A young girl who's wounded and almost lifeless on the ground travels in the fantasy world she created. It was set in 1944 after the Spanish Civil War. The young girl, Ofelia was travelling with her pregnant mother, Carmen to the country to live with her stepfather, the brutal and sadistic Captain Vidal. At nightfall, the imaginative young Ofelia encounters a fairy and together they went into the labyrinth and into the pit of the maze, a faun surfaces and tells her that she is a princess of the underworld where her father awaits her. But the girl has to do three difficult tasks before she could go back to her kingdom. In the series of events, Ofelia befriends the servant, Mercedes who is a communist sympathizer and a sister of one of the rebels. In a dark and violent world, young Ofelia tries to live in her magical world so that she could do her tasks and survive the harsh reality of life and hoping that she would one day be with her father, The King.
It was a sad ending, Ofelia lost her life in the hands of her cruel stepfather, Captain Vidal.
Upon the series of events that transpired in the young girl's life, she is once again free...