ABSTRACT
Religion offers solutions to various critical situations recurring in individual lives. Through manifold forms and functions of ritual behavior and cultural interpretations, religion can still be seen to inhabit the deep vales of the landscape of life. Religion is in the tracks of biology, even if it is closely related to aboriginal invention of language, which brought the great opportunity for a shared mental world. This chapter considers the way that four films which have been grouped together under the rubric of “magical realism” purport to deal with death, especially the deaths of the young and the innocent. “Magical realism” is a term used especially of films of Spanish or Mexican origin. Perhaps Like Water for Chocolate is the best-known example of the genre. It is realistic because it deals with the ordinary conflicts and problems of life.
