Topel Lee's Jeongbu (Korean for 'mistress') begins innocently enough, with a family of three moving into a house in the mountains: Ethan (Aljur Abrenica) is mostly aloof, if not a little surly; his daughter Fiona (Rayantha Leigh) mostly keeps to herself, Ira (Ritz Azul) tries to hold up the household and take care of her sickly daughter. Their tranquil life is then disturbed by a mysterious supernatural presence that threatens to rip the family apart.
The film builds up slowly at first, with a few moments building up sufficient dread, letting the secluded mountain home do most of the horror heavy lifting. Aside from the usual jump scares, Lee uses smoke and camera angles to ramp up some of the horror.
However, Jeongbu loses steam in its third act, where the central plot twist is largely derived from a certain horror film whose mere mention constitutes a spoiler, so I will not say it here. The reduced horror is mostly offset by a fantastic performance by Ritz Azul during this climactic moment, who has carried the film so far regardless.
A handful of technical problems (a subtitle error switching the names of Fiona and a Korean character, for one), strange performances (Aljur looks constipated for most of the film, and aforementioned Korean character acts like Michael V doing a Korean impression), and some special effects that don't work out (the floating T-short being the worst) drag down what is already a middling at best horror film.
Serville Poblete's Altar Boy is one of a few films from this year's festival that's been around for a while now, but has only found its way into Philippine Cinemas this year. It's the first of two collaborations with lead actor (and childhood friend) Mark Bacolcol, who wrote and starred in Poblete's Lovely (2025).
Altar Boy is best described as a coming of age slice of life about a young second-generation Filipino-Canadian immigrant (Bacolcol) who navigates teenage life while dealing with his religious and strict mother (Shai Barcia) and hardworking dad (Pablo Quiogue). Suffocated by the routine imposed on him by his mom, he does all sorts of things to break free from her control and his image as an altar boy. He joins the basketball club and tries (emphasis on tries) to make advances on his crush Summer (Emily Beattie).
Poblete perfectly captures the Filipino immigrant experience on a small budget; anyone who has an experience with the Filipino community in the Americas will likely identify with the film's little goings-on. As someone whose relatives lived in Toronto for a few decades, these social gatherings were nostalgic as most of these relatives are now gone.
What makes Altar Boy for me is its third act, where a major emotional moment upends the status quo and pushes its characters towards an uncertain, but hopeful, future. One wonders if this particular aspect of the story was autobiographical.
Another film produced years prior (this time, in 2022) makes its way into Sinag Maynila, and this time, it comes from a director most of us are familiar with: Joel Lamangan. Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa has plot elements that date the film's production to the immediate post-COVID era.
The film centers on Ara (Rita Daniela), a teacher with a mission. Ara's a new addition to the community of Pag-Asa, which has chugged along without a teacher after an encounter between soldiers and rebels years prior. Since then the Barangay Captain Indang (Dorothy Gilmore) has made herself a small industry using the kids as cheap labor as scholars for a cryptocurrency blockchain game that is totally not Axie Infinity. Ara's attempts to reopen the school and get the kids to study again is fraught with difficulties, as Indang prevents the kids from returning to school, which would negatively impact her source of income. Daniela delivers a committed performance and the ensemble cast is capable as well.
To discuss the central theme of this film lies in a certain segment in the middle where Ara admonishes a group of students who started a fight in the school playground. She tells the students that they shouldn't fight, but if there is someone who needs help, it is correct and just to fight for their sake.
The third act of the film completely throws this idea in the trash. When Ara needs help the most, thanks to revelations in the third act, no one steps up to help her. In fact, by the end, the film's primary antagonists roam free, apparently insulated from any sort of repercussion. The entire film thus feels pointless and a waste of time. Ultimately, passivity wins out - anyone in this film who takes any sort of action are either dead or in prison. And that's such a shame, because in terms of building a living community filled with interesting characters, this is one of Lamangan's better films, and knowing Lamangan's output as a director, he's capable of braver and more radical outcomes than than the lame duck that we got.
Julius (JM de Guzman) works as an assistant in a law office. His life is turned upside down when he is falsely accused of arson and stalking. While in prison, he is assisted by his influential brother Lando (Cesar Montano). He also befriends a trio of criminals in the cell he is assigned to, who were incarcerated for a robbery and murder that they swear they have not committed. Julius' own path towards his own freedom (and the truth) lead him to unexpected places.
Selda Tres joins a growing canon of contemporary legal dramas about justice and the legal system. It is made immediately clear that there are disparities in the ways people have access to justice; the first act of the film implies that people like Julius with the right connections has more pull compared to people like his cellmates, whose opportunities for legal representation are limited. In fact, they likely would have kept on rotting in jail if not for Julius. The film also tackles the (ostensibly Filipino, but applicable to anyone) attitude of tolerating injustice as long as one is personally not affected by it, and the noble pursuit of truth above everything else.
That said, for a supposedly serious sounding concept, Selda Tres is surprisingly lighthearted and goofy; the trio's prior attempts at robbery are treated as a joke, while Julius' frequent pseudo romantic moments with lawyer Aika (Carla Abellana) are cute at best, or tend to get in the way of the story at worst. A sudden turn into action in the film's final stretch makes the proceedings even sillier, and certain concerns regarding admitting illegally procured evidence might suspend one's disbelief. I was relatively entertained, but it's definitely not going to be to everyone's taste.
