January Movie Digest: Sakaling Maging Tayo, Born Beautiful

There are dozens of little things in JP Habac's Sakaling Maging Tayo that feel very familiar. It's a quirky, talky millennial romantic film, a genre that has gained popularity in the past few years. It takes place in a scenic location: Baguio, also the setting of romantic comedies like Labs Kita, Okey Ka Lang? (1998). It even reuses the trope of one of the characters chasing after the other as the latter gets on some sort of public transport (though in this case, it's tweaked a little bit.)

Yet at the same time, Habac injects his own spin to liven things up a bit. Sakaling Maging Tayo is only partly a love story. Like his previous film, I'm Drunk, I Love You (2017), the film serves also as a reflection of the numerous insecurities young people face as they cross into adulthood, though framed from a different perspective.

In contrast to the previous film, Pol (McCoy De Leon) and Laya (Elisse Joson) are both starting out in adult life (the film even makes it a point to make them freshmen instead of the graduating students of I'm Drunk, I Love You). Here, they suddenly face problems bigger than just grades and acne: Laya is faced with life-changing responsibilities, and Pol encounters relationship issues for the first time. The youthful impulse here is to run away from these problems and not face them. Indeed, Laya and Pol dare each other throughout the film with numerous tasks, but ironically cannot face their own problems head on.

The film holds its breath, hesitates a bit, and dwells in what ifs, the title itself reflecting that notion. It is only when both characters take that one first step forward that things begin to resolve themselves. That's basically what adulting is: being unsure of what is to come, with no one to hold your hand, but daring to go forward anyway.

The follow-up to Jun Lana's Die Beautiful (2016) was originally a TV series. Somewhere along production, the series was transformed into a feature film. And while Born Beautiful is a completely joyous, pleasant enough movie, echoes of its TV past still remain.

The film follows Barbs (Martin Del Rosario) following the events of Die Beautiful. She works in a funeral parlor, doing makeup for the dead. The film then goes into three story arcs, each relatively self contained. Though the film has been reworked to fit into the film format, the episodic nature of the story arcs can be seen in the final product, and the ending will prove to be too much of a tease for some. (I propose a beki  cinematic universe style crossover for the next installment).

But that's beside the point. The film is hilarious, offering humor that is irreverent, edgy, and purposeful. The team of Jun Lana and Perci Intalan have used mainstream cinema to talk about gender topics and issues, notably last year's Ang Dalawang Mrs. Reyes and Distance. Born Beautiful is no different: it's a positive portrayal of a person coming to terms with her own gender identity, and it does so in an entertaining, relateable way. There's also some discussion about sex work, though that particular sideplot isn't fully formed - yet.

Born Beautiful is a very fun ride, and it is mainstream cinema that I wholeheartedly welcome. Though the film runs into a couple of hurdles in its transition from small screen to big screen, it's enjoyable as a whole.

A Tale of Two Dirty Cops: Temper (2015) vs Simmba (2018)

How does one depict a heroic villain? One particular case study highlights the balancing act needed to effectively tell such a story without alienating part of the audience in the process. Temper was a 2015 Telugu language film directed by Puri Jagannadh and starring Jr. NTR. The film is about a dirty cop, Daya, who comes face to face with the fruits of his evil deeds and becomes the cop he was meant to be. Although it suffers from a shaky first half, the second half of the film quickly pays off in multiple ways, and the film is a decent watch. This type of story is not unknown to Indian cinema in general; in fact, the beginning of the film is self reflexive: Daya is shown to have been inspired by cop movies starring Jr. NTR's relatives, notably his uncle Nandamuri Balakrishna and his famous grandfather N.T. Rama Rao*. Ironically, it shows that such flamboyant depictions of policemen in media aren't ideal role models or rooted to reality.

The 2018 remake of Temper, Simmba, takes this self reflection and takes it into completely over the top territory. It's kind of fitting, considering that Rohit Shetty, Bollywood's king of over the top schlock, directed the film. He directed Singham, the film that singlehandedly introduced me to Indian cinema. The first half of this remake is more comedic and more musical, and Ranveer Singh approaches the corrupt cop character in a different, almost flamboyantly wacky way. But Simmba's treatment of the villainous hero ultimately reveals a major problem with Rohit Shetty's cop characters and his views on justice.

To defeat the villains in 2018's Simmba, the main characters of the film commit what is called an encounter killing. We in the Philippines would call this an extrajudicial killing, which carries with it a lot of negative cultural connotations. Admittedly I don't know how Indians view encounter killings, but this translated negatively to me. It completely took me out of the film and I enjoyed it far less than its predecessors.

To be fair, having cops take the law into their own hands isn't a new thing, especially with this director. Rohit Shetty has done this before with both Singham and the sequel Singham Returns, but it's never been as blatantly portrayed as it has been here. The film creates several contrivances to try to justify the notion that our protagonists had no choice, and that this was the only way for them to attain justice. The film also adds an additional layer, adding social commentary on violence against women on top of what already exists. The reasons for dispensing justice, given the manner by which it is dispensed, come off here as a bit flimsy. Puri Jagannadh's original version, on the other hand, offers a saving throw to our protagonists that conveniently take them out of this predicament. The protagonists of Temper still do some pretty shady, ethically iffy things, but they still function within the logic and moral standards established by the film (shaky as they are).

And that is why while Temper has a weaker first half, it is ultimately the better film in my view. The remake takes one step too far and crosses the line into dangerous populist sentiment. Perhaps, one could argue, a film like Simmba is escapist fantasy, and the questionable acts committed by its protagonists only work within that universe. Of course, in a clearly black-and-white world where evil must be vanquished and the good guys are truly good, perhaps these methods would be tolerable. But in the real world, one cannot match evil with evil. And given what is happening today, the shenanigans of Simmba and company hit a little too close to home.

*perhaps fortituously, one of N.T. Rama Rao's first movie roles was that of a police officer.