Reviews (?) of Blind Soldiers and Huling Sayaw

I'm currently in the process of writing a critical part my book so I'm not as active recently, but despite that I saw a bunch of films over the weekend. Here are a bunch of thoughts on three films in particular:

When I saw posters for this movie and read the synopsis, I expected something very serious. It reads like a great concept: during WWII, five Teduray men decide to join the USAFFE and help out in the war effort. What we actually get is a film that zigzags between abject silliness, outright slapstick comedy and somewhat semi-serious drama.

If you find the director's name familiar, that's probably because Ronald Adamat is a former congressman and current CHED commissioner. It also has to be said that last year, Adamat and a few other people were ordered dismissed from service by the Ombudsman for alleged corrupt practices. It looks like he's still a commissioner, so it's unclear what happened to those allegations.

Ronald Adamat also plays one of the "blind soldiers" - the real life basis of this film, his own grandfather, Tuy. Perhaps you'd expect scenes of these five men doing meaningful things against the Japanese invaders, but there are only one or two major firefights in the film, and most of the "blind soldiers" either get killed or do not do much of anything in battle. The sole exception is Tuy, who uses his sharpshooter skills to down a Japanese fighter plane... and that's it. They give up after the US surrender and go home and wait until the Americans return. Perhaps you'd expect very serious scenes of these men thinking about the war, but instead we have a scene where Adamat and Long Mejia get into a farting competition over a roasted chicken. (Spoiler, Mejia wins, but only because Adamat farts too much.)

According to interviews, the film's message or theme is that "education is important", given that the five soldiers are mostly illiterate and had difficulty training as soldiers due to this aspect. It also tracks given that the director is from CHED. On the other hand, based on the "what happened to the five soldiers" epilogue, the film inadvertently gives the additional lesson of "don't die in war, or your children will die in poverty." lol

Dan (Bugoy Cariño) is leaving his quiet little hometown in Genguet and is going to Manila to study. We know this because he tells it to everyone he comes across. He goes to Manila with the help of his uncle and proceeds to figuratively shit his pants: he gets into the wrong crowd, they do underage drinking, and he leeches off his former friend to get her to do academic work for him in order to not get kicked out because he's an idiot. Oh, and I guess he dances or something.

If you're watching this film (filmed pre-pandemic) for Belle Mariano, don't bother: she has like 10-15 minutes of screentime in this, tops, and even though she's the best part of the film, your time is best spent elsewhere.

This is supposed to be a dancing film, but there isn't a lot of dancing to be seen - most of the dancing scenes are filmed in two locations and the editing doesn't help the dances pop out. Instead, the film dwells on melodrama and sudden dramatic reveals that, while interesting in the moment, are largely forgettable and would not change a thing had they been omitted from the final product.

Let's also not forget this little tidbit. What the hell is up with movies premiering this week!?