In Joseph Laban's latest feature, Baconaua, the sea itself is a force of nature, giving and taking away from the residents of a sleepy seaside village. But other than its slice of life depiction of three siblings after the apparent loss of their father, it goes deeper with its concepts.
The film opens with the Spanish rendition of the Philippine national anthem, and later, the American rendition is heard, both echoes of our colonial past. There's intrigue surrounding the possibility of an 'intruder' after strange things start happening to the beach. The film can be interpreted as a work about postcolonialism, with our relatively insular community shaped by outside forces both old and new. Tying into that is the symbolism of the apple, serving as the neocolonial fruit of the gift of knowledge, bearing deadly seeds within. The village becomes a microcosmic reflection of our country, the villagers, ourselves.
Laban uses elements of magical realism, much like his earlier film Nuwebe, and he does it way better in this film. Also like that film, Baconaua is based on true events, and like many of the films that are showing in this year's festival, it addresses very contemporary issues about how we deal with ourselves and others on a national level. Granted, it gets a bit rough by the third act and it doesn't all come together by the end, but the film ultimately works for the most part.
There comes a time when a film completely wrecks one's expectations. In my case, it's Alberto Monteras II's Respeto. I expected this film to be a lot of things. A local low budget version of 8 Mile, or something along the lines of Jim Libiran's Tribu, or some sort of inspirational movie that portrays a down-on-his-luck hero overcoming obstacles to reach an impossible goal. But what I got instead was something far different, and far better than anything I could have come up with.
Respeto pairs Hendrix (Abra), an aspiring rapper with dreams of making it big, and Doc (veteran actor Dido de la Paz), a talented poet who lived through the Martial Law era. After a rather acrimonious start, the two start having a curious relationship of shared pain. Both have deep scars that still fester - Doc has had his own share of trauma during the dark days of Martial Law and Hendrix is very much a student of the School of Hard Knocks. In many ways, through both poetry and rap, they are very much the same, just as the eras they lived or are living in grow ever more similar.
There's a kind of poetry that lines the frames of this film, whether it be through skillful rap verses or the eloquent repartee of Balagtasan. Contrasted with the beauty of this poetry is violence and death. It's a nice notion to think the world can change for your sake overnight, but it doesn't. Respeto leaves us in a place of uncertainty, where idealism gives way to the cynicism of the real world. And it serves as an answer to the question of why people can't "move on" from things like Martial Law. It's because the wounds will forever be too deep, and too fresh to heal. I don't think Respeto is perfect, but I think it's one of the best movies, local or otherwise, of the year.
It's obvious from the start that Ang Guro Kong Di Marunong Magbasa means well. It tackles the issue of poor farmers' children from remote villages who are marginalized and denied even basic education by their own government. This leads to the kids joining armed rebel groups stemming from this frustration.
The problem is, the film isn't really well made. Its many lapses in storytelling often lead to unintentionally hilarious moments, and this isn't even counting the moments that are meant to be humorous. There's one scene in particular that serves as the most ludicrous (and funny) example of overkill since the ending of the 1985 film Blood Debts (look it up!)
The film makes a lot of bizarre choices. Flashback scenes have a habit of turning into sepia, then back into their original color; as if whoever applied the effects didn't apply it to the whole sequence. Some editing choices during the last half are strange, and the film seems to go on too long after the climax. The "Movement," a nebulous group that's like the love child of Abu Sayyaf and the NPA, looks nothing like either. All of the characters have vaguely Muslim or Mindanaoan names but they all look and act inauthentic.
The dialogue is generally atrocious. Serious scenes have funny lines in them, a sin also committed by films like Hermano Puli. A certain sequence of events that involve torture was met with riotous laughter from the audience because of certain condiment related references. The one bright spot in the movie would be the performances by the actors, given the horrible dialogue. I liked Alfred Vargas, though I thought the casting choice was weird. The kid actors are superb as always (and who got Asintado vibes from seeing Miggs Cuaderno with a slingshot?)
In any case, I really can't get behind the film. But the advocacy it supports is a very worthy cause that we should support, whether you liked the film or not.
***
JOHN TAWASIL AND THE WE WANT SHORT SHORTS SHORTS A REVIEWS METASTASIS OF KARGON INTERDIMENSIONAL DREADNOUGHT 5723.31
Shorts A had a couple of standouts, three ok films and one dud.
Fatima Marie Torres and the Invasion of Space Shuttle Pinas 25 looks really weird on the surface, but it is actually really sweet and funny once you peel back all the weirdness. It juxtaposes facets of the human experience from the grandest of scales (like people going into space) to its most intimate (wink wink nudge nudge).
Sorry For the Inconvenience is short, but I kind of dug it as well. I would have wanted a bit more about the relationship between father and son, but this is ok. It teaches us that many things, even violence, are learned; and that few things match a parent's love.
Lola Loleng is an animated feature about a senile grandmother reminiscing with her granddaughter. The animation is quite pretty. It's a bit broad, and I wanted the film to expand on Lola's stories a bit more, because we only get fragments of these memories. Still, the film can be pretty affecting.
Aliens Ata is shot entirely from an alien's eye view, as if you're looking at the characters straight down from a great height. It's a relatively simple tale about two brothers and their struggles in life. The nature of the shot puts a bit of emotional distance from the kids, which may or may not work in the film's favor, depending on how you read it.
Islabodan has a lot of elements that are clearly symbolic; it's no coincidence that the two warring factions are clothed in yellow and red, and the faction leader names are Makoy and Nonoy. The world of Islabodan is one where everyone uses everyone else in a great, fucked up political game, even when they're literally fighting over trash. That said, I have numerous problems with the film: 1) the comicbook aesthetic looks amateurish (don't use comic sans in title cards EVER), and it makes it hard to follow what's going on in any one scene, 2) the film could have benefited from multiple takes, and 3) the film feels really corny at times.
If the shorts category had a best cinematography award, Manong ng Pa-aling would be a good bet to win it. Those underwater shots are exquisite; some of the best I've seen in the festival. The rest of the movie is ok - it's a tale of obsolescence and the toll that time takes on all of us.
---
Tomorrow, if schedule permits, Raging Calf, and an Exhibition film by Lem Lorca... that doesn't take place in Mauban!?
No comments:
Post a Comment