Rebuild of Kontr@diksyon 4.20 this is (not) a review

this is... actually not a bad poster

If you've read this blog in any meaningful capacity you'd know that the vast majority of pro-EJK films are badly made pieces of shit. This time however, we have someone different at the helm: multi-hyphenate Palanca award winner Njel de Mesa, co-writer of films such as Respeto (!!). Aside from preferring to use the title "Direq" (yes, that is a thing) he also has two giant pieces of tape on his face like he's covering up third and fourth face nipples. I guess given MTRCB standards this is acceptable.

in the future he's going to use DIREQCHKHCKHKKHCHKHC

And the result? Well of course it's trash, but besides that.. you guessed it, it's still pretty much a film written with the logic and reasoning of an angry six year old. (Apologies to all the six year old children I know.) At a whopping two hours and thirty three minutes, it is an absolute slog to go through. It is, however, a nice glimpse into the complicated mental gymnastics performed by these people - gymnastics so convoluted Nadia Comaneci looks like the QWOP guy in comparison. It made me wonder if someone can retroactively take back a Palanca award. It made me thank all the deities Treb Monteras changed Respeto into what it eventually became, otherwise the film might have made Ang Guro Kong Di Marunong Magbasa and Requited look like Citizen fucking Kane.

What happens when a semi-competent person tries to make propaganda? Let us begin a journey into the insanity that is KontrAdiksyon.

Chapter 1. A Home Invasion

Jake Cuenca, an otherwise decent actor who keeps getting drafted into terrible films, plays Alexis. Thankfully, he doesn't jack off into a rock here. He is a staunch supporter of human rights, and the movie begins with some sort of press conference with him saying something to that effect. The film treats his speech like a spongebob meme, because fuck human rights.

All is well and good. Alexis goes home to his hot wife and two kids (one of whom is dressed like an angel, which in Palanca-award winning playwright terminology means... *ruffles through pages* EPIC FORESHADOWING.) 

Suddenly, his front door is blown open by what looks like explosive charges. At once, I thought these couldn't be drug addicts, because these people should have the mental coordination needed to plant explosive charges properly. But since this movie makes little actual sense, of course they are.

In walks a gang of thugs in masks making cartoonishly stupid poses. To further push the point, they do drugs on the dining table, just to emphasize that yes, they do drugs.

So they do the Michael Haneke Funny Games thing, but like if Funny Games was directed by Dinky Doo. Hot wife gets raped, with implication the kid's also getting some premature D. Head gang member (who curiously doesn't do any drugs) gives Alexis a gun, daring him to shoot, then unbuttons his leather jacket because it's hot and there are no electric fans anywhere... revealing that he too, wears a *gasp* anti EJK t-shirt! Now if this were a stupid film, Alexis probably wouldn't have the guts to shoot because the lead gang member is an ally and he "sHoulD reSpeCt hUmAn RigHts." of course he doesn't do that because...

oh wait, he does that. He hesitates shooting because he respects human rights or something.

sigh let me repeat this for the people in the back

YOU ARE ALLOWED TO DEFEND YOURSELF

THIS ISN'T ABOUT PROTECTING VIOLENT CRIMINALS FROM _ANY_ REPERCUSSIONS

VIOLENT CRIMINALS DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED/INCARCERATED

VIOLENT DRUG ADDICTS DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED/INCARCERATED

of course the film/filmmakers are morons, so this goes over their heads. All that duct tape must be sucking out important nutrients for the brain. Instead, as if to mock the critics, his wife cries out "pAaNo nA AnG AdBoKaSiYa mO?" while she is raped.

The official mascot of KontrAdiksyon

Fear is a giant factor in the mentality that goes behind these things. The middle class fear of a home invasion, the fear that makes one lock the doors when an insane-looking or dirty person walks by the car. Can you blame people for losing their mental capacity because of that fear? I don't know. Ask spongebob.

II. DIRE((KAYAKO NOISES)) NJEL DE MESA

Meanwhile a call center agent (Kris Bernal) sidelines as a pusher. She brings over some drugs to a hotel party where everyone's in their underwear for some reason. One of the partygoers (the woman who got the drugs in the first place) overdoses. This is important later, but for the meantime, boobies.

Alexis wakes up in a pool of blood. He's naked in the bathroom. Unlike in Nuwebe, he thankfully doesn't jack off in the shower. Directors need to stop telling Jake Cuenca to jack off in random places, for fuck's sake.

It looks like he's being framed for the crime, but the justice system in this movie is actually quite competent. He has a solid legal defense, and DNA evidence points to his innocence. Despite that, he ignores the lawyer and becomes a full fledged vigilante.

Alexis goes back to the scene of the crime and broods like a two-cent batman when one of his co workers at the anti-EJK advocacy group meets him. He tells him that they won't act on this because the police didn't kill this person. Alexis, not understanding how human rights groups actually work, gets angry. Yeah, because crimes like this are INVESTIGATED BY THE POLICE, you absolute bellend.

III. Direくくくく　Njel de Mesa

Alexis walks into a classroom (?) where drug addiction is being taught as a chronic brain disease that irreversibly changes a person's life. This is a very generalized statement that seems to imply that rehabilitation is a waste of time. But whatever, right.

IV. Jesus take the bong

There's a church scene now. Lou Veloso is saying that killing is bad (generally true) because of the commandments but Elizabeth Oropesa goes total DDS mode, saying that the old testament has been superseded by the new testament's two great commandments, even quoting the first one: "love God with all your heart, etc etc."

This is evidence that the direQCHKCHtor that made this film didn't exactly read his bible because he kinda neglected to understand the second great commandment: "love thy neighbor as yourself." Maybe he was too busy choreographing dances to attend Sunday school.

So if we think killing our neighbor is okay, are we in the self hating business now? Do drug war supporters want to kill themselves or something?

Elizabeth Oropesa's character shyly raises her fist. Might as well've put that fist in her mouth.

V. real assholes wear pink

A guy wearing a pink bonnet kills a bunch of people in a drug lab while grooving to classical music. Because... REASONS???? (okay, maybe he was eliminating competition, but we don't know this... yet. This is straight out the Dinky Doo filmmaking playbook.)

I'm actually surprised he's the same size jacket as the guy he killed, cause that dead guy was kinda fat.

Meanwhile, Alexis becomes a PDEA asset. He's psychologically unstable, but PDEA director Katrina Halili gives him a pass, because we don't need stringent psychological standards for our law enforcement. We need a couple more vengeance obsessed psychopaths to protect us I guess.

Also, boobs.

The mastermind behind the whole thing (someone called "the President") is arranging a deal with a foreign guy, who is explicitly not Chinese, but a westerner. In the background, there's a zombie...? This will become relevant later.

VI. Jesus take the meth pipe too while you're at it

"Separation of church and state!" one pro-admin priest spouts as he defends extrajudicial killings, completely misunderstanding the term. He seems to think that "the church should keep out of the government's business" means "the church should turn a blind eye when thousands of people are being killed." Are these guys on drugs? Do you, DireQ, ever think about the words that are coming out of your screen play?

Do you think about what those words mean?

Do you think?

The film pushes for killings to happen, the subtext isn't that deep. Most of the addicts in this film are portrayed as either unpredictable insane people, or violent subhumans. Curiously there aren't a lot of poor addicts depicted in this film, as if the film is trying to evade that notion. Guess how many poor addicts are killed a day in this country. Not that they matter, right? Because according to this film, they aren't people.

Like any good propaganda piece the film deflects the blame onto drug people. OF COURSE it's the drug lords who do the vigilante killings in order to eliminate the competition.

VII. Left 4 Dead is a fun game but I don't have any teammates huhu

After having a dream where his dream wife berates him for having no spine and not killing her rapists because he's a "hUmAn rIgHtS AdVoCaTe", Alexis wakes up. Also, boobs.

Alexis visits an internet cafe, believed to be the base of a drug supplier. Beside him, kids are playing Left 4 Dead, which is actually a fun game. Too bad he didn't start a round, because I'd rather watch that instead. 

Drug lady with shotgun-cane Odette Khan (okay, I admit that was kinda cool) says that the supply is going down, which is, I think, reflects the thinking behind this war. If no one does anything about demand, people are still going to find ways to drugs anyway. Alexis faces off against a duo wielding nailed bats and beats them up. Eventually he kills Odette Khan and her minion... right in front of Kris Bernal's character. Whoops. 

He chases Kris Bernal down and stops her, and that is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

pAaNo nA AnG AdBoKaSiYa mO?

VIII. Dire((white noise)) Njel de Mesa

pro-admin priest guy and altar boy does Tokhang-like activities in what is obviously an upper middle class subdivision which is totally not poor at all, because reasons. The tenant of the house, upon being told to surrender her child, refuses.  Some random guy on a motorbike kills priest, because...?

Oh no poor defenders of the drug war huhu thoughts and prayers

Meanwhile, a minority politician is making anti-EJK legislation. He plans to bring the case to the International Criminal Court. Another "minority" politician steps in and calls bull, saying that even the minority supports the administration. lol.

IX. quiet in the library

Alexis and Kris Bernal go to meet her supplier, a blonde young adult who apparently hangs out in a library and smokes weed. Does no one smell the smoke? Does the supplier have invisibility powers?

She runs from Alexis and his new squeeze, and Alexis chases her. A bunch of security guards fire on them and Alexis uses the supplier's body as a human shield. For a film that treats druggies as objects, I found this par for the course and also hilarious.

After this, Alexis whines because he got splattered by spaghetti sauce, not at all caring about the girl he hurled into the path of several bullets. This is, of course, on brand.

Alexis and Kris Bernal decide to do the dirty because boobies. Of course he stops because he remembers the death of his wife and his PTSD cockblocks him.

X. 1+1 = 420

The film says that these motorcycle riding in tandem killings aren't done by the government, so they aren't extrajudicial killings by definition. But Lou Veloso protests the priest's death, saying that it is an EJK??? Okay whatever

XI. Fake news

Alexis is chased by a drug goon disguised as a MEDIA person riding a motorcycle. If we consider how this administration treats media persons that don't toe the line, if that subtext isn't screaming in your face, I don't know what is.

Alexis finally has a standoff with the guy, who happens to be pink bonnet guy, who happens to be the guy who led the attack on his house. He reveals that he really wasn't after him for being an anti-EJK guy, he was after his wife (!!).

As it turns out, pink bonnet guy (whose name is monster, very subtle, 10/10 palanca award winning writing) was boning a nurse at the local rehab facility to... spy on people I guess. He gets access to this because he was boning the nurse.

So, like in a porno video, Alexis' wife walks into the nurse's office and sees the two of them doing the horizontal tango. The wife has no context of what's going on, and the whole thing could be alibied away as some sort of tryst. The wife doesn't know that Monster is connected to drugs, or drug lords or anything like that but because reasons, Monster decides to make a little visit to Alexis' house.

While Monster is delivering dialogue, Kris Bernal aims her gun at him, and Alexis tries to stop her. Of course, this leads to Kris Bernal failing miserably and Monster escaping. This was, of course, for them to be able to pinpoint the "President's" location.

XII. Yup, they went there

Alexis and Kris Bernal finally meet with the "President", and to the surprise of no one, he is actually THE MINORITY ANTI-EJK POLITICIAN WE SEE EARLIER IN THE FILM.

They did it

They actually fucking did it

They blamed anti-EJK politicians from the political opposition for extrajudicial killings

These dense ass motherfuckers

Why did he do it? Well, because he had to be an asshole to enact change. So... if it's not the current president instead of this guy, it's not okay? Or is he okay? What the hell is he on about? The film struggles to give a logical reason why this guy does what he does, including sending a drug over to a drug rehab facility which turns the docile rehabilitating people into freaking Zombies.

IS THIS INSPIRED FROM LEFT 4 DEAD??? WAS THAT ALSO FORESHADOWING? LOL

kimochi warui

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the movie has turned into a zombie movie. Head PDEA guy tells his men not to use their guns, and in a speech with the ambition to rival the stirring of the riders of Rohan, but with the tepidity of a bag of wet noodles, they all bring out their zip ties.

THIS

FUCKING

SUBTEXT(aboutdrugusersbeinginhumanzombiesbecauseofcoursethatshowtheyactandhowrehabisuseless)

RIGHT

HERE

A PDEA agent hugs a drug addict zombie with a grenade, while rehab workers are trapped inside. Instead of throwing away the grenade from the crowd of people like he is supposed to, he does nothing, and the building explodes, killing everyone inside and rendering his effort completely useless.

XIII. 

Alexis and Monster kill each other, and he is visited once again by dream wife. At least here dream wife isn't spongebobing her husband. Also boobies

22 people died in the zombie attack - mainly people who died not because of drugs, but because some idiot forgot how to neutralize a grenade.

The end of the film is a bookend of sorts. There's a press conference, but it's held by PDEA guy. His speech? Stop criticizing the government because it hurts huhu and we know best. Also it's not our fault. Even though we've done everything to paint everyone else in a bad light we want (((unity))) and peace.

Right. If someone made a shot for shot remake of Birth of a Nation and tacked on a scene at the end about blacks and whites living together in harmony, I'd call bullshit too.

I FUCKING KNEW IT

In closing, KontrAdiksyon is just like most of the other films out there that try to present a worldview that doesn't really hold up to logical scrutiny: it's smarmy garbage that doesn't know the depths of its own stupidity. Perhaps it's multihyphenated DireQQQQQQQCCHCHCHCHCHCtor should stick to writing dated, shitty plays about the complexities of using umlauts when writing text messages.

Sunshine Family

Sunshine Family's production and aesthetic involves a lot of international intersections. The film has a Filipino cast headlined by powerhouse acting couple Shamaine and Nonie Buencamino. It has a Korean director best known for directing dramas about taxi drivers (not the one you expect, probably.) It's a story based on a 1992 Japanese film. And, the promotional materials seem to be referencing an American indie darling also with Sunshine in the title. The end result? Something unique and quirky, though not perfect.

When breadwinner Don (Nonie Buencamino) accidentally runs over a woman after a drunken night out, his wife Sonya (Shamaine Buencamino) decides to hide the incriminating car inside their house and dispose of it piece by piece. But there are curious neighbors and other problems in the family that need to be addressed as well.

The film skips out on a lot of exposition, rushing its way through its first third and beginning as if it started in medias res. This leads to a lot of missed character development, and certain emotional scenes later on fail to land because of this. We get only the slightest background on husband and wife, and the two children (played by Marco Masa and Sue Ramirez) fare a bit worse, with their own side stories relegated to relatively inconsequential storylines. Anyone looking for any deeper examination of this particular family unit will not find anything substantial, but the film does teach a few lessons about acceptance and family solidarity, in that a family is always stronger together.

Thankfully, things pick up during the second half and there is enough charm and quirk to wash away the failings of the first half. The film is genuinely funny, and from an entertainment standpoint the film delivers in spades. It's also a treat to see the Buencaminos act together in a husband and wife role - as their already strong acting chops are augmented by their natural chemistry as a real life couple.

Sunshine Family is a fun, entertaining experiment, and a cross cultural project that deserves attention. It manages to pull together all its diverse artistic talent to create something unique in the landscape of local cinema.

A very busy May/June Week in Cinema 2019 (2 of 2)

Quezon's Game follows Manuel Quezon in the late thirties as he tries to save Jewish refugees from extermination at the hands of Hitler and the Nazi party. The Philippines has yet to join the fight; the attack at Pearl Harbor is still years away.

Despite being set in the past, Quezon's Game is also about the present. It is a call for empathy and understanding in the face of overwhelming bigotry and apathy. Throughout the film Quezon tries to outmaneuver political foes and allies alike, who try to stop Quezon because of their internalized prejudice or their own political interests. And here's Quezon, his health fading, wanting not to be remembered by statues or plaques, but by the goodness of his actions.

For a film that is composed almost entirely of meetings, the film is relatively engaging. The film's two hour run time is barely felt because of a capable edit. There's a bit of old fashioned hokeyness to the dialogue, but the film's tone calls for it, in my opinion. This could have been a very staid, bland film, but there is personality in Quezon's Game's earnestness, and it shows.

The film shows its limitations early on but it does the best it can with the limited resources it has. The camerawork is mostly simple with a couple of inspired shots, though one could argue that you can only shoot a meeting scene so many times.

My mother, who typically doesn't watch movies (local or otherwise), really enjoyed the film and the messages it contains, and that's a testament to the reach of this film. Quezon's Game is a timely plea for humanity in a world that is quickly becoming isolated, tribal and self-centered.

Note: Implied spoilers for Godilla: King of the Monsters.

Picking up five years where the previous movie left off, Godzilla: King of the Monsters feels like a distillation of the semi-serious Heisei-era Toho Godzilla films, where Godzilla has to face off against a number of monsters while being assisted by the relatively insignificant humans on the ground. Off the top of my head, it reminds me a lot of Godzilla, Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001).

This movie seems to have heeded the audience reaction to the first movie, in that it focuses more on the monster fights than the human characters. However, that decision leads to even more problems. Yes, there are more monster fights, but you can barely see them, since most of the action takes place at night, or during a storm. The human character arcs that are left are not that interesting, either, save for one or two characters, notably Charles Dance's ecoterrorist character and Ken Watanabe's role as Dr. Serizawa.

While I enjoyed the spectacle of the film, something did bother me about it. Godzilla has always been a symbol of the neuroses and anxieties that Japan faced at the end of World War II. In this film, however, Godzilla's origin and motivations are tweaked to say he was there from ancient times, even giving him an ancient radioactive power source (instead of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) There's also a scene where the sole Japanese character in the movie seems to pass on the torch to the next generation. There's a sense that Godzilla is no longer of Japan, but of a larger world, and I have to ask: if we take away the Japanese-ness of Godzilla, what else is left?

A very busy May/June Week in Cinema 2019 (1 of 2)

By any objective metric. Banal isn't exactly the best of films. It's your usual teen horror movie about a group of teens doing really stupid things in a sacred mountain, with one teen in particular embracing the sunken cost fallacy wholesale. The acting leaves much to be desired, with probably only Bianca Umali turning in a decent performance.

With all that said, Banal is relatively enjoyable in a sense, mainly because of two things. First, it consistently delivers an atmosphere of horror without depending too much on cliched horror tropes. Second, like in any horror movie where loads of stupid characters die off, there's a certain amount of catharsis seeing them kick the bucket in creative ways. That "earwax" scene is worth the price of admission in this reviewer's honest opinion.

There's a tacked on message at the end about the social responsibility we all have in taking care of natural resources, but the real meat of Banal is its depiction of western society and Catholicism versus indigenous culture and paganism, drawn in clearly gendered lines. It takes a traditional approach to that depiction, but I think it's still worth looking into why exactly that is the case.

Banal will undoubtedly turn a lot of people off, but for what it's worth, its the local horror film I've enjoyed the most since 2019 began.

A tip for everyone planning to watch Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;Surrection: this film is a sequel to the three part film series that reimagines the original anime TV series. People who go into the movie who have only watched the TV series (like myself) will be confused as to the fate of certain characters.

The film follows the ending of Code Geass (which is basically the same in both the movie and TV versions). The peace created by the events of the finale has reverberated around the world. However, the Kingdom of Zilkhistan, who profited from the endless war isn't having any of it, and decides to kidnap two of its top officials.

The film is pure fanservice, containing all of the things people loved about the original TV show: mecha action, high stakes chess matches, witty strategies from our titular character, overall weirdness and lots of lore. Sadly, there is not a single Pizza Hut in sight.

I'm not sure non-fans will see this as anything other than an incoherent mess, but for fans of the series, this is a definite recommendation.

Speaking of incoherent messes, yipes. This film. I desperately wanted to like Finding You, and the fact that disappointing is the most flattering thing I can say about it makes that feeling even worse.

Nel (Jerome Ponce) has hyperthymesia, a sort of super autobiographical memory where he can perfectly recall every moment he's ever lived. However, when he finds mysterious messages posted in the past on his social media account that he cannot recall, this creates a mystery that is too tantalizing to ignore. Conceptually, the irony in having a man who does not forget dealing with repressed (?) memories is intriguing. Unfortunately, this does not pan out.

The film's timeline flits from past to present, but this is not adequately covered by the film's editing. The whole affair is mostly confusing. Nel tries to confront his previous lovers in the hope that they could shed light on his mystery, and that only serves to lampshade the fact that he is an unlikeable character, reflecting the worst aspects of hugot culture. He pines over what is clearly an impossible choice and deals with the situation like a spoiled child. His condition is used as a gimmick more than anything else, and later scenes in the film play fast and loose with reality - a particular scene using electroconvulsive therapy is completely science fiction, and is used solely for dramatic effect.

Finding You is confusing, headlined by a completely unlikeable main character, and the worst part is that there is a far better recent local film out there about memories and hugot culture: Nakalimutan Ko Nang Kalimutan Ka.