Truth. Despair. Freedom. Terror. Splendor. Memory. Passion. The seventh Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival is underway, and it's about time for some movie watching. I don't think anything can match the sheer volume of content I reviewed last time, but I'll try to do what I can with the time I have.
AMOK
There seems to be something about Pasay Rotonda that makes it an attractive setting for movies like this. With its sprawling walkways and chaotic hustle and bustle it becomes a character of its own. In recent memory I can recall the film Rotonda, which bears a passing similarity to this entry in the New Breed Category, Lawrence Fajardo's Amok.
Amok is an interconnected tale weaving together the lives of several people and how their actions affect each other. While some are simply living their lives as normally as they can, some enter the Rotonda at a distinct turning point in their lives. As the film draws into its inevitable climax (the "Amok" hinted by the title) this single event will send ripples through all of the characters, changing them either for better or worse.
An experienced ensemble cast including Mark Gil, Dido Delapaz, Garry Lim, and Archi Adamos (among many, many others) play the various characters that inhabit the setting of this film. They all bring their characters to life, making us sympathize with at least some of them in the limited time they have with their respective vignettes.
And it is the cast of characters that serves as the central pillar that holds the film up: from washed-up actors to dirty enforcers to a proud father and son, all of these characters have one thing in common: they are either the perpetrators or the recipients of an "injustice." Some try to cheat the system already in place. Some try to cheat others, offering them hollow prizes in exchange for their souls. And that is one of the central themes of the film; screenwriter John Bedia describes this injustice (and I paraphrase here) as the "source" of the characters' "anger" (translated as 'init') that compels them to do the things they do. Ironically the man who perpetrates the 'Amok' that sets up the climax seems to be the only person who acts on this injustice, albeit with violence.
Last year, when I reviewed Astig, I saw many cliches that were beginning to eat away at the artistic integrity of films with similar concepts and settings (cliches that would eventually get parodied in one of the other films in this year's festival, but that's for another review.) Astig taught me that a film could be technically excellent but lacking in other things, when concepts are regurgitated again and again so as to seem artificial in themselves.
Luckily this film avoids these pitfalls and uses the Rotonda as a canvas with which to paint this interesting tale, using poverty and social injustice as matters of fact instead of emphasizing them, almost to the point of blatant exploitation. The movie is NOT about how people are sooooooo poor. The movie shows us what IS, and that is to me, true art.
One thing though, and this is something of a nitpick... given a revolver with six bullets, how the heck do you reload and where do you get those bullets...?
7.5 headshots out of 10.
Amok Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ppXJETZQM
Shorts B: Hanapbuhay, Oliver's Apartment, Immanuel, Debut, Hazard
Hanapbuhay
The punchline of this story is important, so I'm not spoiling anything. The point of the film is, even when times are rough, deep inside, true men have integrity - and that may be the most important thing of all. Excellent comedic timing, well paced, technically sound, what can I say. Best short of the festival. 5 broken bottles out of 5.
Oliver's Apartment
Oliver is a man with severe OCD and germophobia. A postcard then sends things spiraling out of control. Although technically sound and done with no dialogue at all, this particular short sends its message decently. However there is a bit of confusion if the girl and the postcard sender are the same person. The film kind of spent a bit too much time on Oliver instead, which I guess was sort of the point, but it left some things confusing in the process. 3 neatly arranged pills out of 5.
Immanuel
This short is unique in that it is a science fiction film; in five years of going to this festival, I have never seen a sci-fi film in Cinemalaya before. The film portrays a dystopic future where oxygen is of such limited supply that it is rationed to workers very strictly. No work, no air. And having extra children (especially if they're not regulated) sucks too. Say what you want about the concepts of the film and its parallels to current issues on reproductive health and population control, there's lots to debate about here. The film is presented gorgeously with stark contrasting colors and shadows, cool hues of blue and silver and gray giving off an appearance/effect similar to that of film treated with a bleach bypass process. 3.5 O2 crystals out of 5.
Debut
Rather than telling you about the plot of this rather simple film, we had a little debate about the nature of this film as a cleverly disguised metaphor or not. One of my friends noted that the emphasis on the money received kind of made us see the movie as is, instead of as a metaphor or abstract representation of something else. Still, something to think about when watching this really short film. 3 ribbons out of 5.
Hazard
Mikhail Red's film last year, Harang, was one of my favorite shorts in recent years. This new effort, a simple looking father and son story that soon spirals wildly out of control, is a whole different monster entirely. It took a while after watching the film that it is basically exactly like what the father said - that the son knows nothing about how the world works, and in the end, the father is the one who is held accountable for his son's mistakes. It's just that this film takes it to the maximum extreme level that it can take the concept. 4 dead bodies out of 5.
AMOK
There seems to be something about Pasay Rotonda that makes it an attractive setting for movies like this. With its sprawling walkways and chaotic hustle and bustle it becomes a character of its own. In recent memory I can recall the film Rotonda, which bears a passing similarity to this entry in the New Breed Category, Lawrence Fajardo's Amok.
Amok is an interconnected tale weaving together the lives of several people and how their actions affect each other. While some are simply living their lives as normally as they can, some enter the Rotonda at a distinct turning point in their lives. As the film draws into its inevitable climax (the "Amok" hinted by the title) this single event will send ripples through all of the characters, changing them either for better or worse.
An experienced ensemble cast including Mark Gil, Dido Delapaz, Garry Lim, and Archi Adamos (among many, many others) play the various characters that inhabit the setting of this film. They all bring their characters to life, making us sympathize with at least some of them in the limited time they have with their respective vignettes.
And it is the cast of characters that serves as the central pillar that holds the film up: from washed-up actors to dirty enforcers to a proud father and son, all of these characters have one thing in common: they are either the perpetrators or the recipients of an "injustice." Some try to cheat the system already in place. Some try to cheat others, offering them hollow prizes in exchange for their souls. And that is one of the central themes of the film; screenwriter John Bedia describes this injustice (and I paraphrase here) as the "source" of the characters' "anger" (translated as 'init') that compels them to do the things they do. Ironically the man who perpetrates the 'Amok' that sets up the climax seems to be the only person who acts on this injustice, albeit with violence.
Last year, when I reviewed Astig, I saw many cliches that were beginning to eat away at the artistic integrity of films with similar concepts and settings (cliches that would eventually get parodied in one of the other films in this year's festival, but that's for another review.) Astig taught me that a film could be technically excellent but lacking in other things, when concepts are regurgitated again and again so as to seem artificial in themselves.
Luckily this film avoids these pitfalls and uses the Rotonda as a canvas with which to paint this interesting tale, using poverty and social injustice as matters of fact instead of emphasizing them, almost to the point of blatant exploitation. The movie is NOT about how people are sooooooo poor. The movie shows us what IS, and that is to me, true art.
One thing though, and this is something of a nitpick... given a revolver with six bullets, how the heck do you reload and where do you get those bullets...?
7.5 headshots out of 10.
Amok Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-ppXJETZQM
Shorts B: Hanapbuhay, Oliver's Apartment, Immanuel, Debut, Hazard
Hanapbuhay
The punchline of this story is important, so I'm not spoiling anything. The point of the film is, even when times are rough, deep inside, true men have integrity - and that may be the most important thing of all. Excellent comedic timing, well paced, technically sound, what can I say. Best short of the festival. 5 broken bottles out of 5.
Oliver's Apartment
Oliver is a man with severe OCD and germophobia. A postcard then sends things spiraling out of control. Although technically sound and done with no dialogue at all, this particular short sends its message decently. However there is a bit of confusion if the girl and the postcard sender are the same person. The film kind of spent a bit too much time on Oliver instead, which I guess was sort of the point, but it left some things confusing in the process. 3 neatly arranged pills out of 5.
Immanuel
This short is unique in that it is a science fiction film; in five years of going to this festival, I have never seen a sci-fi film in Cinemalaya before. The film portrays a dystopic future where oxygen is of such limited supply that it is rationed to workers very strictly. No work, no air. And having extra children (especially if they're not regulated) sucks too. Say what you want about the concepts of the film and its parallels to current issues on reproductive health and population control, there's lots to debate about here. The film is presented gorgeously with stark contrasting colors and shadows, cool hues of blue and silver and gray giving off an appearance/effect similar to that of film treated with a bleach bypass process. 3.5 O2 crystals out of 5.
Debut
Rather than telling you about the plot of this rather simple film, we had a little debate about the nature of this film as a cleverly disguised metaphor or not. One of my friends noted that the emphasis on the money received kind of made us see the movie as is, instead of as a metaphor or abstract representation of something else. Still, something to think about when watching this really short film. 3 ribbons out of 5.
Hazard
Mikhail Red's film last year, Harang, was one of my favorite shorts in recent years. This new effort, a simple looking father and son story that soon spirals wildly out of control, is a whole different monster entirely. It took a while after watching the film that it is basically exactly like what the father said - that the son knows nothing about how the world works, and in the end, the father is the one who is held accountable for his son's mistakes. It's just that this film takes it to the maximum extreme level that it can take the concept. 4 dead bodies out of 5.
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