Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (PPP) begins tomorrow! For one week, watch locally made films (and ONLY locally made films) in cinemas! I've already watched a number of these films in other festivals, so I'll put links to the ones I've already watched. For the films I have watched, some words of speculation.
FILMS I HAVE ALREADY SEEN
I've already seen Ang Manananggal sa Unit 23B during the 2016 QCinema film festival. Reception to the film has been a bit mixed, but personally speaking, I really enjoyed this movie. It's about a guy forming a relationship with a flesh eating manananggal. The film looks absolutely gorgeous; if you saw how nice Sleepless and Can We Still Be Friends looked, you'll be in for a treat here. (Personally if I had a cool romantic movie idea, I'd want Prime Cruz and co. to shoot it because I love their aesthetic.) One more thing for people who've watched the film already: this movie has been re-edited and remastered for the PPP, so I might go revisit this film and re-review it when it comes out tomorrow.
Birdshot was the Cinemalaya 2017 opening film, and I still think it's one of the best local movies of the year. Everything about it is a technical accomplishment, and I will be revisiting this film because I felt I missed out on a lot of things the first time I saw it. A solid recommendation from me.
Hamog was featured in the 2015 Cinema One Originals festival. It's a pretty interesting tale about "batang hamog." It's one of Ralston Jover's stronger works in my opinion and the performances by the young actors (especially Teri Malvar) are all excellent.
Paglipay is one of two entries from last year's ToFarm Film Festival that has found its way to the PPP. Paglipay is a really sweet romance between an Aeta and a college student. The romantic story may be simple, but the film finds ways of letting the romance grow in ways other contemporary romantic films fail to do.
Patay na si Hesus was also featured in last year's QCinema Film Festival. It's no stretch to call it 2016's funniest local film. It's since been re-edited and remastered since it screened last year. I've seen this re-edit and it fixes all of the issues I had with the film when I saw it the first time around.
There's a strange kind of charm to Pauwi Na that made me like it more than I expected. It's also a roadtrip movie like Patay na si Hesus, but there's a bit more drama to the proceedings. It's quirky and sometimes weird at times, too.
Star na si Van Damme Stallone is a relatively light drama-comedy about a mom raising a child with Down's syndrome, but the film is still full of very powerful moments. It features a really great performance from Candy Pangilinan. In addition, it's very pragmatic and respectful towards its subject matter, and that matters to me a lot.
FILMS I HAVE NOT SEEN YET
AWOL is an action film by Enzo Williams, who directed the MMFF Bonifacio film a few years back, which was ok, and last year's the Escort, which was not ok. We'll have to see what's in store this time.
Bar Boys is by Kip Oebanda, who has worked for a number of films, including Shift, one of my favorite films of 2013, and assistant director for Jet Leyco's Bukas na Lang Sapagkat Gabi na. He's also one of the Cinemalaya 2018 directors. The previews look promising, if anything else.
Sherad Sanchez's Salvage was featured in 2015's Cinema One Originals festival, but I didn't get to see it. He's directed slower pieces like Imburnal. The description of Salvage makes it like some sort of horror found footage film, but I think it's far more than that, so this should prove interesting.
100 Tula Para Kay Stella is a romantic movie by Jason Laxamana. Laxamana is probably one of the country's most prolific local directors right now, and his movies are usually conceptually rich, with varying results execution-wise. Either way, he has a knack of making movies that local audiences appreciate, so this might be an audience favorite.
Triptiko is a collection of stories directed by Mico Michelena, who is better known as a cinematographer. This is the film about which I know the least, so I might take a look at this one first.
See you all at the movies tomorrow, and support your favorite films at Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.
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