My classmate and I had the pleasure of watching the premiere of Pepe Diokno's movie, Engkwentro, in glorious hi definition. And we totally did need that hi def, given the visuals the film was going to deliver. So, was it good? Was it bad? Let's find out.
The movie centers on the topic of organized death squads - bands of vigilantes supposedly authorized by local governments to go and kill dissidents, petty criminals, gang members and even street children. Since the justice system is as impotent as a 90 year old man with syphillis, people tolerate it or even accept it as a viable solution. If the justice system makes you think vigilantism is ok, something is terribly wrong with the justice system.
Richard (Felix Roco) is one such gang member. Before the movie begins, he is targeted by the death squads for some unknown reason (other than... well... he's a gangster.) He plots to leave his house along with his prostitute girlfriend Jenny-Jane (Eda Nolan) for his mother who makes a living in Manila. At the same time, Raymond, (Daniel Medrana) Richard's younger brother, skips school and hangs out with tambays, eventually joining a gang named "Batang Dilim." Unfortunately, Batang Dilim is one of Richard's rival gangs, and as the night drags on, things get more complicated as the gang leader orders Raymond to kill his older brother.
The whole movie takes place in a seaside shanty community that could easily exist in either Visayas or Mindanao, where allegedly most of the death squads exist (the movie was actually shot in three locations near Manila, then cleverly edited together to make it convincing.) As someone who actually has gone to such seaside communities, the look is pretty authentic. The dialogue is also mostly in Bisaya, with a couple of lines in Tagalog. The film makes use of natural lighting, which is nice in the day scenes, but in the night scenes is very dark (hence the convenience of having whatever detail remains shown in hi def.) Now unlike the previous movies I reviewed that use darkness as either a motif or try to portray actions in this background. It didn't work that well in those movies. Here I am glad to say the use of darkness was strategic, it left many things to the imagination, and were not to long as to cause impatience or boredom. Flashes of light punctuate a nervous face or fists flying. Overall I'm impressed.
me with Eda Nolan, who plays Jenny-Jane in the movie.I consider myself a lucky bastard. hehe.
The camera technique is pretty much handheld 'shaky cam,' which gives you the impression that you are actually there walking with the characters and joining in their scenes as silent observers. It's a love or hate thing, and it's been used in many films, most notable in the D-day sequence in Saving Private Ryan. The technique is most memorably panned in a review of Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, where the reviewer describes the technique, and I paraphrase because I forget the actual words, as someone furiously jacking off while holding the camera. It's understandable, since the shaky cam was deliberately used in that movie to make you nauseous. Personally I don't mind the camera handling, and even though in some scenes it does get me a bit queasy and make some action scenes hard to decipher, it's effective.
The director of Engkwentro, Pepe Diokno, and myself,talking about the film and stuff. As he's explaining his
use of the single take effect, I'm pointing out the large zit on my chin.
Also, the movie flows very smoothly. To the unaided eye it seems to be one long continuous take in the style of films like Sokurov's Russian Ark or in one real time series of takes like Kim Ki-duk's Real Fiction. However, there are cuts, but the are seamlessly edited together and you probably won't notice them unless you were really actively looking for them... which my friend and I found pretty impressive.
Acting wise the cast does their job excellently. You really feel as if they are their characters. (The whole setting does help, of course.) One very awesome addition is Celso Ad Castillo, who plays Mayor Danilo Suarez. Although you do not see his character in the flesh, his voice is heard in the entire film, an all pervading 'Voice of God' who talks about peace in the same vein as killing. His schizophrenic speech brings about a feeling of dread throughout the whole film. Also, Jim Libiran (Director of Tribu, another similar movie that deals with gang violence, but in another way and in a different location) has a very important cameo at the end.
The most corrupible aspect of an impoverished, morally ambiguous society is its youth. Vulnerable and stripped of hope even at a young age, these guys are easy targets for violence and crime. Of course, poverty and a lack of education is what brings people do crime, and even now, no one seems to have learned their lessons from history.
The plot never drags or slows down, and it inexorably draws us toward the inevitable ending that punctuates the film with a sense of reservation about the future. Is the reality we face today truly acceptable? And even if we do not, can we really do anything about it?
All in all, a good film, and in my opinion one of the best of the festival entries so far. You owe yourself to see this film; you shouldn't miss it.
2 comments:
just watched it in ccp main theatre. firstly the sound editing was good, obviously dubbed all throughout the movie. It was not really one shot. it was several. the acting was ok.. but not enough was seen of the actors because of the ZOMG lighting and cinematography problems all thru the movie. The radio talks a lot in the movie, where does it come from? Whats with the wowwowee long shot? the steadycam operator should have at least tried to steady the running shots at night. maybe should have used a glidecam?
yeah, it was several shots edited together (like I said in the post.) I didn't notice that it looked like one take until a few minutes into the movie, and shortly after they kind of transitioned into a dark place and that's where I realized they were editing scenes together. Talking with the director later on pretty much confirmed that for me. He told me that the scenes were edited in that 'one shot' sort of way because it was the way it was in the script, with one scene flowing to another. So the decision was made.
The shaking and the chaos when people use handheld cameras for taking your shots is sadly a given, especially if the cameraman was running like hell (I'd say they were going full speed.) I'd say it would probably be too hard or expensive to set up some sort of rig in closed spaces like in this film. People will either like it or not I guess. It makes things either confusing, and whether that is the intent of the filmmaker or not is anyone's guess. (Damn, I should have asked back then... lol)
The 'Wowowee' shot probably is some sort of statement about (against?) the general indifference to poverty and its temporary, stopgap solutions to it... in shows like Wowowee. I remember walking through a shanty town just like this one and people were watching the show on every TV. I asked why and they said they liked Willie helping people or something to that effect and they kind of wanted to be helped too in that way. That's only my interpretation, though.
On the other hand, stopgap solutions to poverty like "Wowowee" can also be some sort of metaphor to stopgap solutions to crime, like these vigilante death squads...
The radio voice of the Mayor is a 'voice of God' thing. Basically, other than talking about different themes in the movie that we can think about (like the legitimacy of these death squads, our reaction/apathy towards them as a solution to crime) it also sends a message to us, the viewers, that this mayor has his eyes on these characters, and there is no escape. And as we can see from the ending, that pretty much comes true. I'm of the opinion that these radio messages weren't for the characters, they were for us. Heh.
Thanks for reading the blog. :)
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