Present Confusion 2020 Rundown Part 3: World Cinema Favorites

 

...I've run out of jokes

It's a bit ironic that when the pandemic forced us all into our homes, it allowed cinema to expand beyond borders at the same time. International film festivals started offering their films to international audiences, sometimes for free. The world became a smaller place.

In rough order, here are some of my favorite films from around the world that I saw in 2020.

John Tawasil's

WORLD CINEMA FAVORITES 2020

Honorable Mentions:

15. Exit (Lee Sang-geun, 2019) - An enjoyable thrill ride from start to finish, while Exit isn't as profound as other films in this list, it's by far one of the most entertaining. At a time where the world wasn't looking too sunny, it was the injection of stubborn, boldfaced positivity that I needed. 

14. The Half of It (Alice Wu, 2020) - This refreshing take on Cyrano de Bergerac intersects queer love, friendship, immigrant integration into society and religion and culture in a small town all in one surprisingly wholesome package. Where's the other half of it, Netflix?

13 My Sweet Grappa Remedies (Akiko Ohku, 2019) - I've always associated "coming of middle age films" with anxious, chaotic and even violent awakenings. Akiko Ohku's My Sweet Grappa Remedies takes the opposite approach, gently easing us into a woman's entrance into that strange realm between youth and old age.

12. Under the Open Sky (Miwa Nishikawa) - Miwa Nishikawa has a penchant for stories featuring characters who employ deception, and this absorbing character study is no exception - except this time, the only thing the main character of Under the Open Sky is truly deceiving is himself.

ELEVEN WORLD CINEMA FAVORITES

11. True Mothers (Naomi Kawase, 2020) - It seems like Naomi Kawase has gone full circle: from deeply personal documentaries about how motherhood has shaped her, she's made an emotional exploration of motherhood in all its myriad forms. Also, I'm a fan of Kawase's work and I hope she gets to make more films like this in the future.

10. You and I (Fanny Chotimah, 2020) - few films are as heartbreaking as Fanny Chotimah's debut work about the twilight years of two political dissidents who find each other during their incarceration and grow old together. An intersection of the sociopolitical effects of activism on one's life, a "love" story unlike any other, and a gentle meditation on the finite nature of life, it's hard to type words about this film without breaking into tears. It's that affecting.

9. Corpus Christi (Jan Komasa, 2019) - I guess it's pretty telling that this film about an ex-con/juvenile delinquent pretending to be a priest communicates true Christlike behavior better than any faith based film that I've ever seen in my life.

8. Eeb Allay Ooo! (Prateek Vats, 2019) - hierarchies dominate the theme of Prateek Vats' debut film, and it's pretty telling that in these ladders of social order, ordinary humans like you and me aren't necessarily at the top.

7. Minari (Lee Isaac Chung, 2020) - a tender drama about an immigrant family trying to make it in the rural United States, Minari is a film about the smaller stories that make up the tapestry of a proud nation of immigrants.

6. Nomadland (Chloe Zhao, 2020) - It's kind of interesting that in a year where loneliness is forced upon us by circumstance, there's a film like Nomadland, about a person whose loneliness exists by choice. There's also a sense of larger machinations with economies and society trickling down and destroying the underlying fabric of America, scattering its peoples into empty wastelands, perpetually exiled from each other.

5. Nasir (Arun Karthick, 2020) - 2020 marks a year where the inherent weaknesses of populism were laid bare by the pandemic. A person can think critically; while masses of people are prone to manipulation, and their hatred can be directed against others. In an environment where hate is cultivated day by day, it is always the everyday man who suffers the most. In this adaptation of a short story (itself based on real life events), the humdrum day of a man is shown in gentle detail, before hurtling towards an inevitable, unfortunate conclusion.

4. Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Žbanić, 2020) - as with Nasir, Quo Vadis, Aida deals with the monstrous consequences of hate and the inevitability of history. But it also deals with the banality of evil, in that normal people - your neighbor, your coworker, even yourself - can be capable of heinous things. What place does accountability have, then, in a society trying to move past such a difficult history?

3. Crazy World (Nabwana IGG, 2019) - I saw this rerelease of the 2014 Wakaliwood classic during the height of the pandemic, during the We Are One global film festival - and I think it's exactly what I needed. While far from perfect technically, it's as crazy as the title says - a wild, inventive (and surprisingly, lesson-filled) love letter to cinema, and I'm all for it.

2. A Balance (Yujiro Harumoto, 2020) - This is actually my favorite film of 2020, as the #1 is there for mostly sentimental reasons. Harumoto's debut film, a meditation on media, truth, and truth-telling, is the most tense 153 minutes I have watched this entire year. 

1. Happy Old Year (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2019) - as we throw away the garbage of the previous year, I guess it's appropriate that the film at the top of this list deals with throwing things away, and the idea that that process is never that simple. As with many of Nawapol's films, this particular film feels low key, almost deadpan, then does a 180 turn and shoots you straight in the heart.

***

That ends Present Confusion for 2020. To be honest, guys and gals, I legitimately thought of hanging up my gloves at the end of 2019, but the pandemic gave me room to stretch creatively. With the way things are going now, I don't think I can go back to cinemas yet. So unless I've been vaccinated, I've decided not to cover any Filipino films with a purely theatrical release..

That said, the format of this blog will likely change in the coming months. I'll probably start talking about different things, if I ever find the juice to talk about anything at all. For all we know, this might be my last entry in Present Confusion, and if that's the case, with 15 years of stuff behind us, I think this is a good place to end it. But if I do manage to think of something to write about, expect it here and nowhere else.

In the meantime, I'll still be working with the fine folks over at Third World Cinema Club, and I have a youtube channel now. That might go on for a while until I run out of ideas again and make my way back here.

In years past, I've ended these things by saying "see you at the movies," but since this time things are different, I'll settle with saying: Be safe. Take care of yourself. And if the fates are kind, I'll see you around.

Present Confusion 2020 Rundown Part 2: Philippine Cinema Odds and Ends

 

the B in this BL probably means something else

The comic sans font doesn't really justify this piece. This piece isn't all about bad films since in this space I want to talk about interesting films too. Because film production in the country came to a halt, there weren't a lot of bad films. And no, your one star review of some popular movie that's actually not that bad doesn't count. That doesn't mean, however, that no bad films came out this year. 

This doesn't have much of a structure, either, and it's not in list form. I guess you'll just have to read through.

Blade Entertainment, the entertainment wing of the ubiquitous seller of car paraphernalia and knick knacks of the same name, is perhaps the last place where you'd expect a diamond in the rough. And that sentiment is at least kind of right; Ara Baldonado's Good Times Bad isn't exactly top of the year material, but it sure did leave an impression on me. 

There isn't exactly a lot of plot to hold the film together; it's about two people, complete strangers, who try to find stolen items that hold sentimental value to them. The entire film is about them trying to do just that.

The film has a lot of filler; the film tends to drag out some of its sequences, and the film also includes a number of strange additions, such as a cameo from Akihiro Blanco, reprising his character from Blade Entertainment movies 12 Days to Destiny and The Next 12 Days. But the film is structured so weirdly that it feels like an experimental film sometimes: there's a time loop in the middle of the film. There are various monologues about the mysteries of life, delivered as if in a drug induced haze, scattered all throughout the story. At points it was so delightfully weird that I was compelled to keep watching. It's probably one of the most surprising local movie experiences of the year.

For people talking about their favorite films this year, remember this experimental short disguised as an IG live? This almost kinda made it, but to be honest the conversation that followed was far more interesting than the film itself. Imagine being a little angry because you felt duped by a film, when the very idea of a love team is in itself a manufactured construct?

One of the most wild experiences of my 2020 moviegoing experience has to be Noriel Jarito's Huramentado: Kill The President. Yes, THAT president, but you don't get to see the act on screen (you don't even see if he's successful or not!). The Samar-based Jarito has made one other major film before (starring himself!) called Rindido, which can be viewed on his Youtube channel.

Long story short, this movie is bonkers. I almost contemplated making a (non) review of this film in the spirit of classics like Durugin ang Droga and Exit Point, but I simply didn't have the time. Maybe someday. The entire first 10-15 minutes is basically footage from an actual CineLokal premiere edited to look like an assassination is about to take place. All fine and good, until you realize that intercut with these scenes are seemingly accidental clips of some middle aged guy in his boxers lying in bed. I wish I could tell you I was joking.

Jarito seems to want to say something with his film, and you can palpably feel a seething sense of distrust towards corruption and a hatred of establishment politics and feudal rule in the provinces. Points for effort for that. I hope the film gets shown on youtube again so you can all see it in its crazy glory.

I've already said my piece about Pakboys Takusa, and I won't waste my time talking about that. They had a prime chance to screen a hentai at the MMFF and all we get are the ugly bastards. Just kidding. Or am I?

Pakboys the Animation (2021)

But there is one other film that I intensely disliked in 2020, and that's Oligase: The Demon of Fear. I dislike it because while (I think) it means well, and its disparate elements mean well, it's all in all a miserable affair that does nothing except paint indigenous peoples as backwards-thinking, histrionic morons. 

It's all in there: the stock religious masochistic suffering-to-redemption narrative, the devaluing of education, the devaluing of indigenous peoples, the weird colonialist undertones, the amount of sexual violence just for the sake of it. In a year where a film like Tokwifi gained mainstream recognition, this is just a giant leap backward.

***

That's about it for local cinema in 2020. Anyway, stay tuned for my favorite picks from international cinema.