Cinema One Originals 2018 | Paglisan

Cris (Ian Veneracion), a former theater actor and playwright, lives with Alzheimer's disease. His wife Oreng (Eula Valdez) has sacrificed everything to take care of him, but it's understandably taking its toll. When their son and his partner come to visit, and when Cris is tapped to perform in a musical theater presentation, the stress becomes too much to bear.

I've seen my share of love stories on screen this year, and the animated musical Paglisan ranks among the best of them, because it talks about the kind of love that sticks and endures, the kind of love that is selfless and ever-giving, the kind of love that starts like any other love, but matures into something greater. It's also one of two films this year that talks about the end of that love, or perhaps, an indication that while our bodies and minds may waste away and decay, love remains.

And when one thinks about it, Carl Papa's films have always juxtaposed the physical degradation  of the body and the robustness of the soul, contrasting that which is fragile to that which is resilient - in his earlier film Manang Biring for example, a woman dying of breast cancer still retains her love for her daughter. In this film, we have two lovers who want to love each other, who still love each other, but are constrained by the limits of their own minds and bodies. These constraints seep into their individual insecurities, especially during one heartbreaking song where Cris hopes that his tired wife will still love him when she wakes up.

The simplistic animation reflects this degradation: while it starts off properly colored and designed, the colors begin to get blurred, and these colors struggle to keep up with the outlines of the characters. Even the backgrounds get more and more abstract as Cris' mental faculties begin to fail. But this is capped off with a poignant moment, an affirmation of love delivered in one single line, and I think it's one of the best moments in Philippine Cinema this year.

Paglisan is a treat to watch, and it's my favorite Cinema One film so far in this year's edition. In the face of all these mumblecore neon-lighted love stories, it stands out above them as something unique, emotional, and heartfelt.