Feb Digest 2: Without You, Ako si Ninoy

 

There is a certain genre of film that depicts couples in the midst of a very messy breakup, trying desperately and in vain to fix their relationship. These films usually fail more than they succeed, though the rare film that does make it work (like Andoy Ranay's Open (2019)) is pretty good. Without You, unfortunately, falls under the "fail" column.

Axel (David Licauco) is a piece of shit who walks all over his "girlfriend" Ria (Shaira Diaz), a call center agent who works hard to keep them both afloat. Axel regularly goes out with other women, sometimes in Ria's face. There is zero reason for this relationship to stay a relationship. There is no empathy: Axel wants intimacy but doesn't understand that his girlfriend works weird hours and is perpetually tired to keep them financially afloat. He complains that she "sleeps too much." There is no transparency: they rarely communicate their feelings with each other unless it is through fighting. There is zero sense of the two working as a couple: the two of them often bicker over who does the chores, don't cover for each other, and don't follow their responsibilities.

From the very start, it's obvious that these two have no business staying together, and it makes this 71 minute movie 71 minutes too long. As the two try to make the relationship work, it's easy to wonder: what makes these two worth rooting for in the first place? The film doesn't give us any answers, and any attempts to give their relationship any value lies in two scenes of them painting and bumping into each other, as if that's enough (it's not.) Maybe show us more of the good stuff before it all devolved into the bad stuff, but I'm not even sure if that will work in this case.

This is a deeply toxic "relationship" that isn't even depicted compellingly. It is an utter waste of my time, and in the year of our lord 2023, perhaps filmmakers should reconsider romanticizing relationships like this.

The basic premise of Ako si Ninoy is that "there's a hero in all of us," which is a nice sentiment to have, but Vince Tanada is such an inept filmmaker that none of it really works. I haven't seen any of his plays (though I've read a couple of his scripts) so I can't comment on his theater work, but I have seen a series and a couple of films, and whatever was working for him in the theater isn't translating here. Filmmaking and theater may have similar languages but they differ in crucial ways. If, for the sake of argument, Tanada is a very capable playwright, making a film like this is like asking a Spanish man to write a novel in Tagalog. Some of the words will be right, but the rest of it is a jumbled mess.

Following in the tradition of Joven Tan's PETMALU (lol), Ako si Ninoy is a musical that follows several characters whose names spell out "Ninoy Aquino." As we follow the story of each person, the movie explains that each of their life experiences ostensibly draw parallels to something in the late Aquino's life. I say ostensibly because I take that word to mean "kinda, but not really." These attempts end up having varied results: at times the film struggles to make a connection between its characters and Aquino, while in others the film makes weird connections that doesn't help its central theme. Finally, in some instances, Tanada eschews the narrative meat that would make some of these connections work, expecting the audience to just assume a ton of shit. It comes off as very lazy.

In two instances, the plight of two characters is connected to Ninoy's decision to return to the Philippines after being exiled abroad. Ninoy's decision is a brave one; the man probably knew that he would face certain death if he returned, but knew that perhaps it would be a catalyst for people to rebel against the administration. The stakes aren't as dire in the film's case: in one, Noli (Johnrey Rivas) is an OFW working abroad for the sake of his family. In the other, Nanding (Bodjie Pascua) is a war vet who is spending his twilight years in America. Both go home because they miss their families, and the film shows this as the primary connection to Ninoy, who went home because he... missed the Philippines I guess? Granted, Noli's decision to come home and try to make it here is an act of bravery, because there are far fewer opportunities to make it here, but how? That severance money Noli's employer gives him isn't going to last him a year, tops - tuition and food's going to wipe it out sooner or later. Maybe Noli invests it in a local business or something, but Ako si Ninoy doesn't show us any of that because it's lazy. As for Nanding, he goes home because he feels like a second class citizen in America... and that's it. Nothing about how veterans like him get support from either of the governments he fought for in WWII, or the plight of immigrants in the US (is he a TNT?) partly because - wait for it - the film's lazy, OR because the film simply doesn't have the time to show it. So why show it at all? To complete the spelling of "Ninoy Aquino?"

In another story, Miss Nunez (Nicole Laurel) is an excellent teacher at a private university who learns that another teacher has sexually assaulted one of her students, Ingrid (Cassy Legaspi.) She escalates the complaint to the dean (Pinky Amador), who dismisses the complaint because she "wants things to be beautiful" or some inane shit. There are obvious parallels that compare Nunez to a certain widow president and the dean to a certain shoe loving despot, but the comparisons ruin the central premise of the film. We expect Miss Nunez to elevate her complaint to the administration and get the guy fired, right? RIGHT? NOPE!!! She sings and dances about how it's unfair, and that's it. We later see her being promoted to dean by the board because the school board thought the old dean sucked. She didn't escalate her complaint further! She didn't fight for her student and just silently took it! Nothing about getting the pervy teacher arrested or held accountable for his actions! I guess it tracks given how many of the martial law era people weren't held accountable in '86 onwards but damn. It's a bad look. The point of making heroic comparisons to Ninoy is that he fought against a system that oppressed him and his people, even if it cost him everything. Miss Nunez basically did nothing and was passively pushed into a position of power, personally costing her nothing.

And what about Ingrid, the student? Did she participate in any action to get the teacher who raped her fired? Maybe, but again, the film doesn't show us any of it, nor does it say anything about it during her graduation speech. The assault is basically a plot device, and when the film didn't have any need for it, it's gone.

Another story centers around Yosef (Joaquin Domagoso, and lol at that casting decision). Yosef is a popular actor in this universe, which tells me that the people in the world of this film have no taste whatsoever. There is little conflict or purpose to his story, and his connection to Ninoy is him bravely leaving the industry to... study? Really? Is THAT it? As an actor, the film could have shown him using his stardom to advocate for causes, or to fight against a system that permits historical distortion and propaganda to happen, or to make films that are socially aware, but the film's solution to his problem is for him to leave the industry and study? And what does he do with the new things he learned? Hell if I know, because that's the last we see of him!

Perhaps the least weird of the stories are about Andeng (Arielle Abarientos), a worker who goes on strike for the sake of her retrenched colleagues, Quentin (Mario Mortel), an activist who fights for the marginalized, and Oliver (JM Yusores), a journalist about to release an expose on a corrupt senator. Thematically, they're okay, but the problem lies in the film giving us the background and none of the follow through for most of these. Quentin and Andeng's stories are  basically limited to only 2-3 scenes of any import, and we never really know what impact Oliver's actions have on the senator, if any.

I don't think we should be spoonfed plot elements in films, but at the same time I don't think giving us incomplete ingredients and asking us to cook a meal is any fair or good either.

Now the film isn't all bad; JK Labajo puts in an earnest performance as Ninoy. Even when he's singing to a lightbulb, you know the man's putting in the best he can.

I'm willing to give a pass to the film's many technical shortcomings. The mixing in some songs are uneven (in particular, Bodjie Pascua's voice in his number is drowned out). Perhaps due to technical limitations a large portion of the film is green screened, such as when Bodjie Pascua solemnly salutes a jpeg.

The film wastes a lot of its time establishing stories then abandoning them just for the sake of spelling two words. It's frankly ridiculous.

I'm also willing to give a pass to the inherent silliness of musicals, but when the fundamental structure of the film is flawed, the finished product, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, isn't going to turn out great. In a time where horrible films that tell lies and distort historical truth are put out in cinemas, this isn't exactly a great way to put the truth's best foot forward. Thankfully, there are other, far better films about the man and the oppressive system he was fighting against, as well as narratives and documentaries about common Filipinos during the Martial Law era and afterwards that show true bravery in the face of mortal peril.

Feb Digest 1: Ten Little Mistresses, Latay

I've talked here and there about how Filipinos are obsessed with the mistress or kabit film, in that it perhaps reflects audiences' desires for drama and conflict where, ostensibly, no "actual" people are harmed. In Ten Little Mistresses, the first original Filipino film for the Amazon Prime streaming service, Jun Lana pushes that notion to the limit - like mistresses, well, here's ten of them! - while also questioning the very idea of these films in the first place.

Ten Little Mistresses introduces each of the titular mistresses with the same pomp and bombast as a South Indian action star (or a member of the Suicide Squad) with matching costume to boot. They've all been invited at the behest of their lover, the filthy rich Valentin (John Arcilla), who wishes to tell them something important. His announcement, however, comes as a shock to the ten: Valentin has taken in an eleventh lover, the  blue-eyed majordomo Lilith (Eugene Domingo) and plans to marry her. The ceremonies are interrupted by Valentin's untimely death, and everyone in the house is a suspect. As the mystery behind the murder unravels, everyone (especially Lilith) comes closer to a very uncomfortable truth.

While the film's promotion constantly emphasizes its large and talented ensemble cast, in terms of tone this leans close to Eugene Domingo's other comedies and takes large inspiration from Filipino camp classics such as Joey Gosiengfiao's 1980 classic Temptation Island. The film takes great pleasure in having each of these characters riff off of each other, their humorous asides being some of the best parts of the film. At the same time, there are similarities in structure to Lana's far more serious Barber's Tales (also starring Domingo), in which the lead character comes to a realization and learns the meaning of dissenting against a broken system. Here, Lilith discovers (if not the existence, the breadth and depth) of the patriarchal system that has chained her and her fellow paramours. Each of the ten mistresses are accomplished and successful in their own right, yet they rely on a man (who is, in some cases, twice their age) for their needs. The movie never fails to ask why. "Maybe it's love, maybe [I'm just stupid,]" quips Babet (Marietta Subong), one of Valentin's first mistresses. The far younger Coco (Iana Bernardez) remarks on this too: despite being acutely aware of the system, she can't help but participate in it. Perhaps some of us have asked the same questions ourselves when we watch this: what makes this man worthy of the love of ten women? Why are they wasting their time doting on a fellow that 1) perhaps treats them more as trophies than people and 2) will easily leave them for his next conquest? The same questions can be asked of the genre in general - the film being a deconstruction of the genre as much as it is a parody.

It is fitting that Lana gives Lilith that name - Lilith, after all, was the first wife of Adam before Eve came along, the first wife who was cast out of the garden of Eden because she chose not to obey Adam. In the film's conclusion, Lilith gains a sort of emancipation for herself and all the other women in Valentin's house, casting herself out of a false paradise where her existence is forever tied to someone else. 

Ralston Jover's Latay has an interesting history: originally produced a few years ago, the film made the rounds on the festival circuit before finally debuting in local cinemas, more than two years after it was produced. It bills itself as a story about a battered husband but the film delves a little deeper than that. Though flawed, it goes into interesting places.

Olan (Allen Dizon) is the titular battered husband of the story. His wife Lori (Lovi Poe) inflicts all sorts of physical and emotional violence on him. He tries to seek comfort in an old flame (Mariel de Leon) but she's already with someone else. Lori doesn't take to this perceived indiscretion kindly and retaliates with even more violence. And Olan isn't the best of husbands either: he is a drunkard, he shirks his responsibilities and is annoyed and jealous at Lori's friends.

The film shows the condition of battered husbands like Olan, as well as his lack of support from either friends and family. But the thing that Latay explores more is the environment that causes people like Olan and Lori to exist. Olan and Lori's parents are just as bad as they are: Olan's dad (Soliman Cruz) turns to drinking after his wife left him, and Lori's mother (Snooky Serna) is perpetually strapped for cash, ill-mannered and lacks respect for her children (or for anyone but herself, really). More than just a film about domestic violence, Latay is a film about violence itself, how poverty molds it, how people are surrounded by it day after day, and how the heritage of violence is passed on from parent to child. 

Feb Vivamax Digest: Tag-Init, Bela Luna

 

Martin (Clifford Pusing) is a teenager spending his summer vacation in Batangas. While his brother Chino (Ali Asistio) and friend Paolo (Aerol Carmelo) mess around with sexually open Nadine (Yen Durano), Martin grows enamored of Adele (Franki Russell), the mistress of a well-known politician. Adele has her own hangups and she doesn't quite know her place in her romantic partner's life.

In his review of the film, Mario Bautista likens Joey Reyes' Tag-Init to a Robert Mulligan film (he doesn't specify which film, which might either be a typo or he just forgot, but all signs point to Summer of '42, starring Jennifer O'Neill.) Aside from the basic plot, the similarities end there: Tag-Init does not have the historical specificity of its purported source material, nor are most of the main characters interesting enough - except perhaps for Yen Durano's Nadine, who gets more scenes (and people) to do.

The two main protagonists of this dull affair are the worst offenders. Martin, in between masturbatory segues that leave his character cross eyed in the shower like a rejected Pee Wee Herman character, is about as exciting as watching paint dry, and Franki Russell delivers her lines with the same aplomb as a text-to-speech bot. Particularly egregious is a scene where her lover has a sudden heart attack, and she reacts to the situation as if her probably-about-to-die lover had just stubbed his toe. By the end of the film, where Martin, having come of age, wistfully waxes poetic about that one special summer where he met the robotic woman of his dreams, it gets exceedingly hard to care at anything that's happened at all. 

The film is a testament to the fact that good acting creates pathos and viewer engagement, and without it, even the most promising of concepts turn turbid. That's not to say that everything is bad, however; the sex scenes are shot nicely, and drift closer to hardcore than most of the soft core titles on Vivamax - I mean, this is the guy behind the notoriously explicit Live Show (2000), so he knows his stuff. That compliment doesn't take my assessment of the movie very far, however - expect clips from the film to show up in random porn sites soon, if not already.

The latest Mac Alejandre - Ricky Lee collaboration, Bela Luna, begins with Luna (Angeli Khang), a bespectacled high school teacher, as she jumps off the building of her school. During her protracted descent (she should probably have hit the ground 20 seconds ago) she considers her situation and suddenly flies off in the air. The scene looks incredibly tacky and not well done, but it does make sense in context - in retrospect, the execution does not do the screenplay justice. That is because in its subsequent runtime, Bela Luna transforms into a fascinating meta examination of authorship and unfortunate compromises for the sake of art.

The story picks up with Bela (also Angeli Khang), a filmmaker and scriptwriter who is tasked with helping her philandering boyfriend Arnold (Kiko Estrada) write his first movie. Bela is more successful than her boyfriend and for all intents and purposes more talented, but she seems content to play second fiddle, oblivious to his indiscretions. Meanwhile Bela finds herself fighting with the film's producer Mr. Dizon (Francis Mata) over several creative decisions: namely, Mr. Dizon wants to spice things up with sex while Bela wants to write without those restrictions. The movie in question? A film about a teacher named Luna...

The push and pull interplay between creatives and producers feels relevant (or at least resonant) at least within the framework of the Vivamax production model, where creatives are allegedly given guidelines to follow (e.g. x number of sex scene per y minutes, budget and running time limitations) for their creative works. It is obvious that Luna is an avatar of her creator Bela, as much as the two are connected to screenwriter Ricky Lee himself. Bela infuses her protagonist with little features of her own life - her issues with neglectful or absent parents, or her desire to be truly loved, even though it comes from the weirdest of places. To write, Bela (and by extension, Lee) posits, is a means to liberate the self, and the right to do so should not be denied.

Granted, Bela Luna only partially manages to escape from its own production restrictions: there is still a sex scene every dozen or so minutes, and while Lee and Alejandre get a bit imaginative in their depiction of those scenes (often in metafictional sequences in the spirit of kindred films such as Last Fool Show (2018)) the production's lack of resources is quite profoundly felt in some parts.

Still, given what it did with so little and despite some first act weirdness, Bela Luna came off as a present surprise. It's definitely one of my favorite Alejandre-Lee collabirations.

January Digest 3: Hello, Universe!, The First Slam Dunk, Spellbound

 

Ariel (Janno Gibbs) is a small-time baranggay basketball coach. Many years ago, he literally had a shot that could've changed his life forever. But he missed that shot, and years later, despite the presence of family and friends that love him, he has a lot of problems of his proverbial plate.

The story of Hello, Universe! Is fairly familiar, if a bit cliched - the all-too familiar tale of a man who doesn't know what he has until he loses it all. In this case, the magical catalyst that sets off the events of the film is a supernatural Taxi Driver (Benjie Paras,) who literally allows him to shoot his shot and change his life. When he wakes up, he gets everything he ever wanted: he's a coach working his dream job, he has a big house and a hot wife. But Ariel soon pines for his original family and learns the truth behind the adage that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

The premise leans a lot on nostalgia and basketball - various PBA players make cameos in the film, and the movie pays homage to 90's comedy films and the 1989 fantasy basketball film Last Two Minutes. It doesn't feel like appropriation and the film sets out to make its own thing, though its reliance on old fashioned humor that hasn't aged well in the past 30 years works a bit to its detriment.

Xian Lim has certainly improved from his earlier directorial attempt, Tabon, having had a little more experience directing a couple of television series. He feels much more confident here and he's slowly developing his own unique style. With that said, while a lot of his directorial decisions in Hello, Universe! work out, a lot just don't. Most noticeable are his choice of shots: Lim chooses to shoot his subjects in closeup, which does work in certain situations but when the point is shooting a basketball game, a lot of the action is missed. Perhaps he was trying to emulate, say, Kurosawa-esque action framing ala the horse scenes in Seven Samurai, but I don't think it works particularly well in this context. I can't believe I just made that comparison, but here we are. Whenever either team makes a successful shot, Lim chooses an off-center shot of the basket which just looks off. Heck, even Last Two Minutes feels better with its shot choices. And in the final scene of the film, even though there were several great ways to cut, it just kept on going and going.

I'll give them this: it's certainly a great effort, even if a lot of things in the film come up short. But there's definitely improvement there, and a decent cast and a simple premise make up for most if Hello, Universe's shortcomings.

Speaking of basketball, perhaps no other sports anime has made a cultural impact in our basketball-loving country as much as Takehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk (perhaps Hajime no Ippo ranks a distant second), airing on several local channels (including cable channel AXN). The anime ended just as the final arc of the manga was about to begin, with our scrappy yet immensely talented Shohoku team making their debut in the national inter-high basketball tournament. It's a shame, too, as the final match of the manga, an intense battle between Shohoku and reigning inter-high champion Sannoh never got animated... until now. But The First Slam Dunk isn't just about the Shohoku-Sannoh match; it's also a decent sports film and a decent family drama as well.

It's not common for a manga director to be able to direct their own anime adaptation. Some work on the story or script, while some are heavily involved with the production but do not helm the entire thing.  But when the mangaka/director has enough experience with both industries (Hayao Miyazaki for Nausicaa, Katsuhiro Otomo for Akira) the results are pretty astounding. In this case, Takehiko Inoue himself took over the production for this film, and he manages to translate his detailed, gorgeous art style into gorgeous hybrid 2D/3D animation. In particular, the final few minutes of the film - basically the last two to three possessions of the game - perfectly capture the intensity of those last moments.

One of the most substantial changes in The First Slam Dunk from its source material is its shift of point of view character, from hotheaded, self-proclaimed genius Hanamichi Sakuragi to calm and collected Ryota Miyagi. In the manga, Miyagi isn't given as much focus as his teammates and is mostly considered a supporting character. But in this film, he's pretty much the central character. Inoue expands on Miyagi's backstory and explores his motivation for playing basketball - it's not erroneous to say this is a family drama as much as it is a sports drama.

I had reservations on how this all would play out; at its very core, Slam Dunk is Sakuragi's story, and even though Miyagi's the point guard (essentially the guy directing the plays and making scoring decisions on the court) Sakuragi makes most of the crucial decisions in the game. But ultimately I think Inoue and his team made it work, with a few caveats. For viewers unfamiliar with the series, The First Slam Dunk is a wildly entertaining sports film about a man standing on and moving on from the shadow of his brother; for fans of the series, it's a wonderfully animated conclusion to a much-loved story that people have waited for at least two decades to finish. 

After the wildly successful adaptations of South Korean films Miracle in Cell No. 7 (2013) and Miss Granny (2014), Viva Films has gone all in with subsequent adaptations to mixed results: A Hard Day (2021) had a modest amount of success in the 2021 edition of MMFF, while films like Always (2022) were tepid affairs that made little, if any, impact. The latest such adaptation is Spellbound, a remake of the 2011 film Chilling Romance directed by Hwang In-ho. Hwang's original film isn't exactly the best of films, often suffering from tonal inconsistencies and a so-so romance that's only saved by its quirky humor. Spellbound is almost a shot for shot (or at least, scene for scene) remake of the original film, and thus shares the same weaknesses and strengths as the source material.

Yuri (Bela Padilla) works as a magician's assistant. She has difficulty forming social relationships because she frequently sees ghostly apparitions. Her boss, Victor (Marco Gumabao) wants to form a relationship with her and discovers her secret. Together, the two of them help spirits gain closure while they figure out the ins and outs of their burgeoning relationship.

It's certainly possible to make a horror comedy using this concept, but the film can't seem to decide, and isn't too good at either one. The quirkiness of the original seems to be lost here, even though things are mostly the same. Bela Padilla deserves some kudos for her performance, but I found it difficult to find chemistry between her and Marco Gumabao, even though this isn't even their first outing together.

In a world where we are slowly getting re-acclimated to a more open, face to face world, the plot and themes of Spellbound - especially in how its main character gradually opens up her heart to others after a long period of isolation and solitude - may find a little resonance with the post pandemic crowd. But perhaps in this case, a little divergence from the source material wouldn't hurt.