City of Flowers touches upon a historical event that, until now, has barely returned to the public consciousness - the 2013 Zamboanga Siege. With that as a backdrop, it focuses on the human cost of that conflict that extends to the bereaved, orphaned and displaced. In our talk about the film (and more), director Xeph Suarez mentioned the fact that even people in Zamboanga have forgotten about the event - this film, thus, is a way to bring it back into focus.
In Kaj Palanca's Henry, the frame is packed with meaning from start to finish: curious shots of hands and below the hips of two strangers, scaffolding acting as prison bars, help wanted posters as offers of servitude, curious views of the sky through unfinished windows. It's a film that visualizes struggle, a never-ending push against unfairness. Our characters negotiate their due compensation with invisible lords that treat their bodies and their labor as commodities, replaceable and disposable. People like Henry's brother are made to erect houses that they will never live in. But to those fighting the same fight, there is solidarity; humans treating each other as humans, deserving of compassion and even love.
I get so sad sometimes embodies the distillation of a very particular aesthetic - one that evokes feelings of loneliness and isolation. It's filled with images of what-ifs, fantasies of a different life, posters that imply not only a far-away place, but also a venue for escape. Trust factors into that too, as anonymity becomes a limiting factor for genuine intimacy.
Within the abstract images of It’s Raining Frogs Outside there is a sense of unease and simmering anger. In the past year and a half the world has gone mad but the outlet for processing these emotions has become harder to access, especially without the support of others. It is imaginative and layered in its abstractness, in what is perhaps the most interesting short of the year.
Mighty Robo V draws upon the tokusatsu and mighty robot genres and also from shows such as The Office, in its mockumentary style depiction of a giant robot defense agency that exists in severe dysfunction. The real world parallels are not unsubtle, which reflects, much like the previous film in this write-up, a growing sense of frustration and dissatisfaction with an inept bureaucracy, a kakistocracy in its truest sense. It's also uproariously funny and one of my personal favorites. Perhaps my only complaint would be that I wish there was more of it; the material is so rich that it could probably be expanded into a miniseries or movie, if the makers wish to do so.
Skylab feels like a film made in the past, in both good and bad ways. It's not as technically polished as the other films, but it does make a point about how history repeats and how threats to our way of life are not flashy like a space station falling from the sky, but insidious, silently running in the background.
***
The QCinema shorts are showing at Gateway Cineplex and at ktx.ph.
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