Cinema One Originals: Dayang Asu, Tisay, Lily, People Power Bombshell

It's a dark, dark world in Bor Ocampo's Dayang Asu, where corruption seeps from every corner. The film does have a loose plot, but it's more concerned with immersing us into this world. Nobody is completely innocent in this grimy milieu: there are only victims and victimizers. And the victims, unless they fight back, they get fucked real hard.

And yet the scariest thing about it is that these things happen in real life (Remember Jalosjos?) This is closer to reality than it is a parallel universe.

Given that most of the 'protagonists' aren't exactly saints, it's hard to sympathize with any of them. But that becomes the point of the movie. When survival becomes the only option, you have to become the monsters you despise - otherwise you become another corpse on the road.

The film's questions linger with you. It doesn't really explain why these people are acting this way, only that this world exists. It leaves you to ponder how it all ended up like this, if it's a fucked up quirk of human nature and we're all doomed to walk the same paths.

The film relies on an ensemble cast, and special mention goes to Ricky Davao, who goes from his usual recent lovable dad roles to a twisted perversion of that same role. Junjun Quintana, who had a really good acting year in 2015, is good, but he's relegated to the sidelines until the very last act of the film.

The film is relentlessly heavy, exhausting even. Even a few moments of levity may not be sufficient to keep you from drowning in its darkness. But to those with the stomach to dive its depths, Dayang Asu asks very relevant questions about the justness of our society as a whole.

No poster, enjoy a Nathalie Hart pic instead.

Tisay, Borgy Torre's latest directorial effort, is filled to the brim with technical polish: crisp, beautiful visuals, a great soundtrack, decent acting from everyone involved. Its titular character (Nathalie Hart, a.k.a. Princess Snell) is a streetwise bookie making her way through the world. She's ready to use whatever is necessary to get what she wants. It's always been a selfish game for her, but her encounter with a up and coming semi pro basketball player tips that game ever so slightly off balance.

The film generates a decent amount of tension as the parties involved get into a dangerous and deadly game worth hundreds of thousands of pesos. This is Nathalie Hart's first major role and she delivers for what it's worth, oozing a bit of sex appeal and edge at the same time.

However, the film does have flaws. it is built upon an awkward romance that isn't developed  as well as it should be, preferring to dive in headfirst into its main story after only a few minutes of the two characters meeting together and bonding, and that really drags down the rest of the film. There's a lot of violence in the movie, both sexual and otherwise, and at times it crosses the line into ridiculous territory. After the nth time someone gets raped or maimed, it becomes distracting.

Like the previous film in this post, Tisay is a film about surviving in a shitty world. The entertainment value mainly stems from the question of whether or not Tisay is finally doing something for someone else for a change, or if she's still the same person from the beginning of the film. Tisay may not have hit the buzzer beater, but it still manages to score points in overtime for a close win.

Lily is not really a horror film, and leaving this preconception by the door enhanced my appreciation of the movie. It's more of a revenge flick with supernatural elements, presented with a uniquely regional flavor.

It's based on an urban legend, used by numerous mothers and yayas in the Visayas in the past to justify why little kids should go home early. The film is non linear, taking us on two different narratives: in the 90's, Manuel discovers a strange woman in the forest. In the 2000's, we see him with a different woman, with Lily hot on his tail, a bloody swath of bodies in her wake. Pieceing together the fractured plot and figuring out a) why Manuel and Lily separated b) why Lily has a gash across her face and c) if Lily really is a supernatural creature or just a revenge-obsessed woman is half the fun. But even then, the film throws in all sorts of curveballs, where in the end none of the narrators may be reliable, their truths hidden under drug induced trances or lies.

Some of the film's regional contexts may be lost on a non Cebuano viewer. Luckily the S.O. is from Cebu, who filled me in regarding these smaller details. Some of the references (like casting Porto, a character in Cebuano TV,) are tongue in cheek, while others (the sigbin, a chupacabra like creature that feeds on blood and charcoal) are closer to home.

Its visual presentation is quite interesting as well, with a bit of a punk sensibility to it. There are some points in the movie, however, whose presentation seemed to either be a bit too rushed or too stylized, such as the end of the film. Lily is an interesting flick, best viewed with no preconceptions. It represents the variety regional cinema can bring us that capital-centric films simply do not have.

Speaking of preconceptions, I came into People Power Bombshell: the Diary of Vietnam Rose thinking it was a documentary. In reality, it is more of an anti-documentary in experimental form, where reality, fiction and metafiction meld into a strange metahistorical experience.

The film is mostly formless, but it follows Liz Alindogan's thoughts as she tries to complete the (ultimately incomplete, IIRC) shooting of Celso Ad Castillo's The Diary of Vietnam Rose.

Within its anti narrative I saw postcolonial western influences on our cinema and a struggle for relevancy and identity in an age where irrelevance and homogenization threaten society. It reflects itself on its frames, designed to look like they came from old or ruined film stock, also a characterization of our collective fading memory and grip reality.

That's just my take on it, since with these experimental flicks you get only what you can take.

The film does have a few technical issues, such as some frames where it seems like the effects layer was not dragged over the entire frame. Otherwise it looks like the filmmaker got his desired effect.

People Power Bombshell may prove a challenging, even frustrating watch. It requires a certain knowledge of the history presented, which I admittedly am not completely aware of. But, like with all pieces of abstract art, people can find beauty in it. Your mileage may vary.

note: made a small edit at the end of this post.
note 2: made an edit at the Lily post, sabay pinagalitan ako kasi hindi daw ako nakikinig ng mabuti. hehe