Kika and Law of Desire by Pedro Almodóvar

I once had a conversation about the American writer, John Irving. The man said that he thought there’s a fine line between literature and, what he called, tacky, manipulative entertainment. The World According to Garp is what he summoned to define the closest literature could approach that line. I did not agree, at least not about John Irving, and it has never tempted me to pick it up again and give it a second trial. But I certainly find his statement very useful today. Because whenever I caught an Almodóvar film, the idea of that fine line always popped up in my head.

His movies have never been disappointing. It’s always entertaining. It always brings something that’s very uniquely Hollywood from an earlier era, while at the same time, approaches its audience with its own language and uncomforming way of storytelling. There’s always a touch of enlightenment at the end. While the movies on the whole never bore, always bring out chuckles and laughters, it’s always assuringly apparent on the good movie side from the line, which though fine, is never blurring. I’m certainly very disappointed that I’m So Excited has not yet landed in Taiwan. But there is a small Almodóvar film festival showing his earlier works, if you’re looking to get a dose of Almodóvar.

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Kika was originally released in 1993, starring Verónica Forqué as a young make-up artist. And the story evolves around her reminiscence of a complicated earlier incestuous relationship with a photographer and his step father. The focus on female sexuality is obvious. It also puts a delicate, almost vulnerable spotlight on the topic of restless obsession, sensual and intellectual.

Kika’s imdb page

“Man falls, deceived
By the other first; Man, therefore, shall find grace.” -Paradise Lost by John Milton

I hope this is a fitting quote. Like Broken embraces "Los abrazos rotos" reminds me of Kika (or could be it’s simply Almodóvar), I also feel some of his other movies could be the driven essence and extended caption derived from Law of Desire"La ley del deseo”. However, the 1987 movie is nothing but the prototype of endless sequels, and without a doubt, each one of his movies is original in its own light. Traumatic and unlikely in its circumstances, yet he could have been talking about you and me, the heartbreak from the loser of the love game, the women vulnerable yet strong, the men fragile but broken. And in this one, it also brings you a little bit of Hitchcock.

Law of Desire’s imdb page