iWant and Chill Movie Digest (Ma, Glorious)

There is a boy, wandering in the forest. He encounters a strange tree that grants him wishes. But there is a caveat: every wish has consequences.

It is to Ma's credit that there isn't a single jump scare in the entire movie (okay, maybe one, but not really). It instead builds up its scares through establishing an atmosphere of dread, so much so that it all explodes in bloody fashion during the climactic finale. And rather than conclusively establishing a distinct evil entity that we should be scared of, the true sources of evil in Ma come from places of good: filial piety and motherhood. That makes the film even more disturbing. Kenneth Dagatan, fresh off his Cinemalaya success with the short film Sanctissima, reuses some of the themes and tropes of that film, but rearranges them in unique and interesting ways. Granted, there are some plot points that are left by the wayside (what happened in the cave all those years ago?) it could be the film not trying to spoonfeed its audience. 

Despite its lean running time of 72 minutes, Ma leaves quite the impression. It is one of the year's most interesting local horror films.

The S.O. and I were talking the other day about the Taiwanese drama Meteor Garden. In her words, works like Meteor Garden are like porn for women: a fantasy wish fulfillment narrative about an otherwise unremarkable girl who manages to charm a number of handsome boys, eventually wooing and changing the alpha boy for the better. In some ways, Connie Macatuno's Glorious is also fantasy wish fulfillment (though done in a different way.) Who wouldn't want to step into the shoes of the most beautiful 45 year old in the Philippines? Who wouldn't want to be the love interest of a guy as hunky as Tony Labrusca? I wonder if the film would have been as effective if the lead female character was plain, or if the love interest was just some dude on the street. So far, all of the opinions on the film have been written by men, and I wonder if female audiences enjoyed it.

But objectively there are some things about the film that fall flat. Because it's structured to be an idealized narrative, the film has difficulty finding reasons to separate the couple, even though it doesn't have to. Ultimately the main "villain" of Glorious is society itself, as well as perceptions both internal and external. But that doesn't translate well, either. The film shoehorns a conflict during the last act that feels awkward, then fast forwards through what looks like pretty important exposition.

***

As for the app itself, the iWant app for cellphones works well on mobile devices, after a shaky launch day. However, the desktop version simply refuses to work at all. As some people (myself included) would prefer watching movies on a larger screen rather than a dinky little cellphone screen, having the movies on desktop would be really useful.

Kung Paano Siya Nawala

Near the beginning of Joel Ruiz's Kung Paano Siya Nawala, Lio (JM de Guzman) considers giving away an appliance belonging to his mother (Agot Isidro.) His mother hesitates, as it holds sentimental value to her, but she eventually relents. The idea of attachment permeates this film from beginning to end, embodied mainly in its central characters. On one hand, Lio suffers from prosopagnosia or face blindness, a complex medical condition that prevents him from recognizing faces properly. Because of his condition, he is socially awkward and has difficulty forming lasting friendships. He meets Shana (Rhian Ramos), who is Lio's complete opposite: she is friendly and has a lot of friends, but tends to drift from one person to another.

Ultimately, the film isn't just defined by its protagonist's condition: Lio's face blindness is more than a gimmick, as  it serves as a device to tell another story: a love story about two people who desperately try to make their relationship work, as their respective dysfunctions threaten to tear them apart. Lio defines his life by his illness, and we see the world through his eyes, with characters changing form from one moment to the next. He is crippled by the insecurity that Shana will disappear, wanting to know her entirety - a futile, even foolish exercise. Shana struggles to understand Lio's condition while also grappling with her own personal demons. Both lead actors are fantastic in their respective roles, both of them expertly portraying characters with wounds they would rather hide than show to the world. It's a career-best performance by Ramos, with de Guzman matching her at every turn.

The film also demonstrates how others see us, not just as a name and a face, but through other things, deeply emotional, abstract things - as feelings and emotions, as cold noodles and warm blankets, as the smell of a lover's hair, as the soft cadence of her breathing as she sleeps, as the faint smell of cigarettes, as a short glimpse of her nape, as the softness of her lips, as the warmth of her body, her head on your shoulders, tears falling down her eyes, deeply moved by a beautiful song. And the film creates irony as well through this notion. Even though the mind forgets a great majority of people, there are some people, regardless of circumstance (or perhaps directly because of circumstance), that never fade from memory.

The film does stumble along the way, with some scenes feeling clunky or roughly edited during the film's latter half. Character decisions may feel jarring or out of place, but it all falls into place by the end. Ultimately they feel like nitpicks compared to assessment of the larger whole.

Local romantic films continue to evolve as we traverse the landscape of Philippine Cinema together, and films like Kung Paano Siya Nawala are steps in the right direction. It resonated with me on a deeply personal level, and I consider it one of the year's standout films.

Undas '18 Movie Digest: My Hero Academia: The Two Heroes, All Souls' Night, Suspiria ('18)

Do you like My Hero Academia? Does your kid or young relative like it? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then congrats, you are the target audience of this film. My Hero Academia: The Two Heroes feels like your standard franchise anime movie: a feature length-sized episode about our intrepid heroes going on a fun side adventure during their vacation or downtime. It won't have any real significance to the main plot (such anime movies rarely do) but you (or your young relative) won't care. It's formulaic to a fault, but it's really entertaining, especially if you're a fan to the series. Add to that some decent moments for a number of relatively ignored side characters and we have a film that's worth watching, at least for fans of the series.

Who chooses Andi Eigenmann's projects? I'd seriously like to know, because that person isn't doing a decent actress any favors. All Souls Night could have been an interesting film that makes a statement about domestic violence and how the victims and abused are made to stay silent in the face of their torment. However, that really doesn't translate well in the final product. As a horror film, it isn't really that scary. There is no atmosphere of dread, only stupor. There are no scary creatures, only Allan Paule with a rat tail and a face that looks like it's been buried in ink toner. It's boring and tedious, especially in the last act of the film, where a five minute chase is turned into a twenty minute long slow-motion clusterfuck of boredom. There are two nameless men whose only real purpose is to get killed. There are sound effects here that sound like they've been downloaded from a comic sans-laden geocities site for royalty free sound effects.

The end of this film literally ends with someone spitting at the camera. Well, I wish I could do that too, to this film.

(NOTE: Some spoilers for Suspiria.)

The fact that all of the main cast of Luca Guadagnino's remake of Suspiria are female only reinforces its strong feminist message: this is a film about women, mothers both real and supernatural, and the bonds that tie them together.

However, at the same time, Guadagnino gives the Argento classic a solid foundation, veering away from its predecessor's esoteric nature. In some ways, it is Guadagnino's most political film, perhaps a response to the dreamy idealism of his earlier film Call Me By Your Name. It sets the story in Cold War-era Germany, where people still struggle with the specter of the Nazi era. Yet this is a film that resonates strongly with the events of the present day.

There is a witches' coven in this film, a social structure that is traditionally feminine, lead by and for women. But this social structure has been corrupted: the leaders keep the younger generation subservient and ignorant. There is a false image of democracy. Voting takes place, but the ballot is rigged, with the wrong people maintaining their power because of a perceived sense of righteousness or entitlement. There is repression of both truth and free expression. These are the creeping hallmarks of authoritarianism and fascism, instruments made by men, corrupting this society of women from the inside. Only when, through bloody revolution, these corrupting elements are removed, only when true freedom is given, only when the masculine is removed and feminine, yonic power is restored, does everything fall back into place. 

Dance then becomes an instrument both of control and subservience, and of freedom and revolt. Dance becomes a weapon for both change and homeostasis - hands and limbs become conduits of their power. After all, dance utilizes the form of the human body for expression, and this film explores the extremes of that form in the guise of body horror. There are scenes where these conduits are defiled for exploring freedoms repressed by religion or authority. There is a subliminal urge in this film to revolt against oppressive systems and reject rigid systems of authority, systems that still cast their shadow on society to this day, like a fading attestation of love etched on a summer home.

However one decides to appreciate this film - either as straightforward arthouse horror or as something else entirely - the 2018 Suspiria manages to do something amazing with its source material. It's one of my favorite films of the year.