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.