Present Confusion 2022 Roundup Part 1: Philippine Cinema Favorites

 

Can you tell I subscribed to Canva? lol

2022 is probably the first year of relative "normalcy" we've experienced as a society since the pandemic started. Granted, the virus is still present and people are still getting sick, we've just elected to go on with our daily lives regardless. Fresh off the heels of one final (?) Omicron surge, people weren't too keen on returning to cinemas in the first quarter of 2022, so the majority of films stayed on streaming sites. Around summertime however, as the surges died down, production companies started to show their films in cinemas again. Yam Laranas' Rooftop was one of the first to return in 2022, followed by T-Rex Entertainment's Ngayon Kaya. The near simultaneous release of propaganda film Maid in Malacanang and play on film Katips brought moviegoers to cinemas, at times filling theaters with eager viewers.

The first major film festival to return to cinemas in 2022 was Cinemalaya's 18th edition. While attendance numbers didn't match pre-pandemic levels, the fact that a major film festival had the confidence to return to in person screenings was a welcome development. Later on, QCinema and the MMFF would follow that trend, with MMFF screenings for its top grossing films packing cinemas on Christmas day. By the end of the year, people were finally returning to watch movies - albeit at an increased cost and still with the risk of infection always looming.

That said, streaming media still dominated the local film industry's output for this year. Vivamax alone released around 50 films in 2022. 50 films! Even in the prepandemic era 50 films from a single production company is a pretty substantial number. This considering the plethora of streaming services now available: KTX, IwantTFC, increased content in Amazon Prime and Netflix, as well as new streaming services like AQ Prime and JuanFlix.

In terms of watching local movies, this year was not a very good year for me. A very busy schedule prevented me from watching many films that debuted exclusively in cinemas, and work on my upcoming book prevented me from watching several films debuting in streaming sites. Thus, this year's list is by no means a comprehensive or definitive list. Out of roughly 110 local films that debuted this year, I have unfortunately been able to watch only around 80 of them.

Of the 30 or so unwatched films, I unfortunately missed two films from Danni Ugali of the rapetastic The Maid in London, the aforementioned Katips and the propaganda film that accompanied it, two films from the MMFF (one of whom I intentionally avoided due to the 'power' of its lead), COVID drama Dok (the first? movie to return to cinemas since 2021's Yorme) and a large number of films from Vivamax. I also managed to miss Buboy Villar starrer Kwento ni Makoy and Alvin Yapan's Call Me Papi. Aligning schedules is harder than it looks.

there were some janky ass films in 2022, frfr

That said, I have seen my share of weird and interesting films. There's social influencer horror thriller Kuta starring Buboy Villar, or Way of the Cross (originally made in 2017 and released this year) where Alvin Anson gets nailed to a cross using a nail gun, or the four (later five) AQ Prime exclusives, such as Adonis X, which ended with a 3 man orgy for some reason! Many directors made their Vivamax debuts: Denise O'Hara directed The Wife, where a wife takes revenge on her husband and his escort mistress by... being an escort herself?? Victor Villanueva directed a sex comedy that was pretty okay (Boy Bastos), while Bobby Bonifacio made a couple of films on the platform, Bula and Tahan: the latter of which, an erotic psychological gorefest, is actually quite interesting. Vivamax staples still continued making their films on the platform: Roman Perez Jr's films ranged from mid (Kaluskos), to hilariously bad (Siklo/Hugas), to just ??? (Putahe, and we'll talk about this in part 2.) 

For this year's list, I've instituted the following criteria:

1. Favorites, not necessarily best

2. A Filipino film is counted as a film about or starring Filipinos, produced (not necessarily directed) by at least one Filipino, and was released (not necessarily produced) in 2022.

3. Shorts are, for the first time, counted, though to be fair I haven't seen a lot of shorts so this is me consolidating the list.

Honorable Mentions: Jay Altarejos' Memories of a Love Story, Prime Cruz's Ngayon Kaya, Carlo Obispo's The Baseball Player, and Lawrence Fajardo's Reroute (the original version).

So without further ado here are my

FAVORITE LOCAL FILMS THAT I WATCHED IN 2022

10. Kitty K7 (dir. Joy Aquino)

My favorite Vivamax film (Law Fajardo's Reroute is a close second) for a plethora of reasons: for its deft, well researched exploration of alter culture and independent sex work, for considering the agency of its female characters, and for staging scenes that are legitimately sexy, mostly integral to the plot and not disposable/fast forwardable.

9. Mga Tigre ng Infanta (dir. Rocky de Guzman Morilla)

Rocky De Guzman Morilla's directorial debut is a hypnotic treatise on bodies and space and the violations that destroy them, lands filled with the ghosts and spirits of the forgotten and disappeared.

8. Nanahimik ang Gabi (dir. Shugo Praico)

The best film of this year's MMFF is a superbly acted, cleverly written thriller that explores the roots of systemic corruption and the things that help pass down that corruption from one generation to the next. A pleasant surprise in what is usually my least favorite festival of the year.

7. Ginhawa (dir. Christian Paolo Lat)

There's a lot about Ginhawa that feels quintessentially Cinemalaya (in both good and bad ways), though its presentation is so clean that it makes up for it. For a film ironically titled "relief," it gives very little to its central character, whose job and existence revolves around violence.

6. like people, they change too (dir. JT Trinidad)

A deeply personal exploration of the spaces we occupy, both spatially and temporally, JT Trinidad's like people, they change too and fellow short the river that never ends has its central characters (Trinidad themself and Emerald Romero's Baby) detached from those physical and temporal spaces, recollecting times and places that no longer really exist.

5. Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon (a.k.a. When The Waves are Gone, dir. Lav Diaz)

As one of the first (if not the first) Lav films that is directly situated in the milieu of Duterte's bloody drug war, Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon has anger give way to all encompassing rage, simmering through random dances in the street or in an apartment, breaking through in its fiery final sequence. In this film, systemic rot manifests as physical and spiritual malady, eating even the most honorable people alive from the inside out.

4. Delikado (dir. Karl Malakunas)

The reason why I included Filipino-produced films directed by non-Filipino directors. Helmed by journalist Karl Malakunas, Delikado is a film that makes you angry, and rightfully so: in clear and simple terms, it shows how the connections between business and government influence our lives in frankly frustrating ways, and how the 'War on Drugs' was weaponized to go after political opponents.

3. 11,103 (dir. Jeanette Ifurung)

If you were to have asked me in August how to combat the real time rewriting of history that's going on right now, it would be a film like 11,103, a film that shows the truth in all its unfiltered, uncomfortable glory. If you would ask me now? Films like this are only one part of a sustained, unceasing effort to never forget. It's an uphill battle, and the capacity of people to forget frankly frightens me.

2. 12 Weeks (dir. Isabelle Matutina)

The best film of Cinemalaya 2022 is a character study that is also a reflection on the place of women in greater society. There is violence inflicted upon the women in this film, in ways seen and unseen, through generations from mother to daughter. It's a tragedy unfolding in real time.

1. Leonor Will Never Die (dir. Martika Escobar)

From the moment I saw this film I knew it would be on this list. Few, if any films this year are as wonderful a celebration of the commune of cinema. It is a testament to the power the artform possesses, the ways people use that power to deal with personal trauma, and the control people have over their own stories.

That's it for this year's list. Stay tuned for various odds and ends for cinema as a whole, as well as some various 2022 favorites.