Director, producer, screenwriter and novelist Guillermo del Toro was born in Mexico on October 9, 1964, in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco.

He began filming in his hometown when he was a teenager, combining this activity with his studies at the Instituto de Ciencias. At that time he made the short films "Doña Lupe" (1985) and "Geometría" (1987). For ten years he specialized in makeup design, which led him to create his own company, "Necropia", in collaboration with his great friend and animator Rigo Mora.

He was the founder of the Guadalajara International Film Festival (previously called Muestra de Cine Mexicano en Guadalajara), and created the production company Tequila Gang.

His debut feature, "Cronos" (1993), won nine Ariel awards, including Best Film and Best Director, and won Best Screenplay and Best Actor at the Sitges Film Festival.

"Mimic" (1997), was his second feature film and his first work produced in the United States.

Later he undertook new projects fusing fantastic effects with historical fables and used symbolic elements, such as "El espinazo del diablo" (2001), a film with the collaboration in the production of the brothers Agustín and Pedro Almodovar and "El Laberinto Del Fauno" (2006), winner of three Oscar awards (Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Makeup), which achieved his consolidation at an international level.

Prior to "Pan's Labyrinth", Del Toro returned to vampire films by directing "Blade II" (2002) and made "Hellboy" (2004), a film based on Mike Mignola's comic book. In addition to his work as a director, Mexican Guillermo del Toro has also produced several films, including "El Orfanato" (2007), directed by J. A. Bayona.

He returned to directing with the sci-fi action film "Pacific Rim" (2013). He later released "The Scarlet Summit" (2015), a nineteenth-century ghost story; and "The Shape Of Water" (2017), a fantasy starring Sally Hawkins for which the Mexican won an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director.

"The Shape Of Water" also won the Oscar for best film of the year 2017.

In 2019, as producer and screenwriter, he released "Historias De Miedo Para Contar En La Oscuridad" (2019), a film directed by André Ovredal that adapted a book by Alvin Schwartz. A year later, he produced with Robert Zemeckis the film "The Witches" (2020), an adaptation of a book by Roald Dahl.

In 2021 he released as producer the DreamWorks animated film "Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans" (2021), a film based on his own 2015 book that Guillermo co-wrote with Daniel Kraus.

Also in 2021 he produced the horror film "Antlers: Dark Creature" (2021). Other books written by Del Toro are the so-called Darkness Trilogy, co-written with Chuck Hogan and consisting of the novels "Nocturna" (2009), "Oscura" (2010) and "Eterna" (2011).

He collaborated again with Hogan on "The Hollow Beings" (2020). Also from 2021 is "The Alley of Lost Souls" (2021), a film based on a novel by William Lindsay Gresham starring Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper.

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  • Ideology [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Reaching the end of the first duel arc. There are a boatload of parables and symbolism about unhealthy relationships and possessiveness packed into this thing. But even with that being slapped across your face every episode (sometimes literally), I wonder how many people still miss it.

    • Cromalin [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      oh man. the first arc would for sure be in my top 10, and it just gets better imo. wrt people missing it, the entire dub crew apparently missed that juri was gay somehow, until crispin freeman (touga) pointed it out. which duel/episode/character/whatever was your favorite?

      • Ideology [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Wait , how did they miss that Juri is gay? I could feel it through the screen even in the dub. I guess I'd have to say Juri's fight is the most interesting, narratively. But Kaoru has the most important lesson of being a chill relatable character who lets his obsession with reclaiming childhood love dehumanize his perception of others. IMO it's a great thing to show kids.

        The downside is that this show was definitely not designed to be binge watched. The first time I saw the hand-drawn 3-point-perspective scenes I was very impressed. Then I lol'd every time they replayed it shot-for-shot.

        • Cromalin [she/her]
          ·
          3 years ago

          here's the interview. i have no clue how they missed it. i agree that juri's fight has the most going on, but i'm a sucker for the nanami episodes. i'll never forget the first time i was watching the show and the kangaroo showed up.

          i really like the repeated footage, but it is funny to see. i don't think many shows in the 90s were meant to be binged, and at least this doesn't have 5 minute recaps at the start of every episode. it does have recap episodes, but you really shouldn't skip them, since they sometimes have new information or plot stuff.

          • Ideology [she/her]
            ·
            3 years ago

            If the straights weren't so destructive I'd find their naivety cute.

            • Cromalin [she/her]
              ·
              3 years ago

              this was in a kids time slot in 1997, so they couldn't literally spell out 'juri is a lesbian' but that episode makes it as clear as possible. apparently there were a bunch of people in the fandom in the late 90s and early 2000s who also didn't get the memo that this isn't a purely heterosexual show. there were massive flame wars that only live on in the memories of the participants, though i don't think anyone really tries that anymore. i think the movie was enough to make most of those people leave.

                • Cromalin [she/her]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  the movie is great, but it's weird. even more stylized in its storytelling than the show. it's also allowed to show the characters kissing, since it's a movie.

                  incredibly mild movie spoilers

                  it's sort of a retelling of the series that goes in different directions.

                    • Cromalin [she/her]
                      ·
                      3 years ago

                      i bought it used for 2$, and it was super worth it. if only the series itself was a little cheaper, then i'd definitely buy it as well.