Red Quickie: Love is Beautiful

Watching the Chinese romantic movie Love is Beautiful is like watching a sitcom, blinking, then realizing that you’re now watching a political thriller. It features Lei Zhengyu, (Dylan Kuo) a photographer who meets Qian Xiaofei, (Liu Ying) who works in this company. They meet and sparks predictably fly… then it turns into this weird action/kidnap thing that makes little sense.

The shift in tone is extremely jarring and made me confused. What was going on? Why was this happening? It’s as if the writers ran out of ideas halfway through and did something for the sake of doing something.

Technically the film has no problems, with little videogame-inspired effects and sounds especially in the second half of the film.

It’s nice, but I honestly lost track 30 minutes in.

Transcendence

When I first heard about this film, I was excited. It was about the merging of AI with human consciousness, a technological singularity, it was directed by the visual director of Inception, and it was based on a screenplay on the Black List, a list of interesting but unproduced screenplays that used to include Slumdog Millionaire and American Hustle. Unfortunately, the final product falls  a little short of the target. Why?

The film tends to get lost in the milieu of great visuals, losing its storytelling  energy in the process. It's a fun ride, and a technically sound one, but in the end the film seems like a series of checkpoints that serves to drive the story forward, and we are not left to linger on any one moment. The ultimate product fThe romance is at least believable but could be tenuous for some, and that seems to be the problem, as it is the center of the movie.

The film asks us if consciousness in digital form can really replace the real thing. The ending is quite simple, but can be interpreted in different ways. I wish the film had centered more on the moral implications of heading towards a technological singularity. For the record, I was with Johnny Depp's character all the way and was against the 'neo-luddite' terror organization.

It's worth a watch, but it ends up being forgettable. Hopefully, however, we get to see more high concept sci fi in cinema this year (looking forward to that Nolan film around the end of the year.)

Suicide Room

If there is one thing that I can say after watching Suicide Room (Polish: Sala Samobójców), it's that if it's your type of film, you will like it. If it isn't, then it's better to stay away.

Dominik is a teen with wealthy parents. He has his share of friends, but after a series of events with a classmate at a party, he is bullied and accused of being gay. He takes this rather hard and sinks into depression. During his depression he comes across an online community whose members are into self harm and suicide. He manages to form a bond with one person in particular, Sylwia, the leader of the group.

It's easy to judge Dominik has having overacted to his predicament. It's easy to judge him as overly sensitive, bratty and foolish in his subsequent actions with himself and his parents. But we aren't in his shoes. Although I can empathize to a certain extent to his character, I can never know exactly how he feels. We all face our personal demons, and sometimes the weight is too much for any single one of us to bear. It is with the support of others that we overcome them.

The problem is, he found the wrong person. I find Sylwia to be hard to empathize with at all; to me she seems like a selfish person who thinks the world revolves around her. It affected my interpretation of the last few scenes, where I interpreted her reaction to the events that transpired to be because of her continued inability to kill herself. There is a romance attempted here, but I see it as one sided, and thus more tragic than what it intended to portray. If it were really mutual, it's horribly unhealthy. The parents are not much help either. Although overall they are well meaning, their other motivations stem from their own welfare than for their son's.

The plot also suffers from a tendency to meander. The whole thing about Dominik being persecuted as gay becomes irrelevant halfway into the picture and focuses on this "romantic" plot that I find hard to swallow. We never learn how he deals (or doesn't deal) with his sexual orientation; that would probably have made a better film. The film never touches on it again. The other members of the Suicide Room are nicely detailed in 3DCG, but these scenes are superfluous at best, and even then little is made of their development as a family. The whole romantic scene with the random Japanese song is a WTF moment.

The best one could hope at the end of the film is that some sort of positive change happened with all the characters involved, although depending on your interpretation, that may not be the case. In the end it's an OK film, but one that feels uneven and unpolished\.

Hammer to the Face (Redux)

Oldboy, the 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook, is one of my all time favorite films. It's this perfect combination of story, style and substance that is a rarity in films these days. When I learned that Hollywood was making a remake of this cult classic, I was a bit hesitant. A good remake of a foreign film is a rare thing.

Oldboy (2013) turns out to be even more violent and bloody than the original, cleaning up most of the plot holes from the first film. Josh Brolin's interpretation of the character as Joe Doucett is at first a loud, obnoxious asshole. When he gets locked up (for 20 years this time) we feel little sympathy for his character. The film then faithfully follows the manga and the Korean version of the film as far as his imprisonment is concerned. His release and later confrontation with the antagonist feels believable, and everything is more clearly explained, getting rid of certain aspects of the original film that are confusing.

What this new version of the film lacks, however, is heart. Everything feels so mechanical. Doucett comes across as a real asshole, and not because Josh Brolin is a bad actor (quite the opposite) but because the character was written that way. In that way we tend to invest in his quest for revenge a little less, and we lack the catharsis, or whatever you want to call it, during the film's climax. Technically the film is superb. Sound, cinematography, everything is solid. In some places the film is even more violent than the original. But even if taken alone, there's something intangible that the film lacks, a kind of organic, visceral feeling that one evokes with such images.

I'd recommend at least a watch from fans of the original, just to see how the source material can be played with in new ways. New fans might want to try this version, although I still stand with the Korean adaptation.

Bang Bang (she shot me down)

What makes men do evil things?

This seems to be the question posed by Bang Bang Alley, a movie from first time director/producer (?) Ely Buendia of the legendary rock band Eraserheads. It is composed of four separate stories tied together with a theme somewhat patterned on this question.

In the first story, Jimmy Santos is a troubled soul haunted by sins committed long past, and he takes justice in his own hands. Was he really right to do what he did in the first place? What if he was just delusional? I don't know either, but I'm hooked.

In the second story, dirty politics rears its ugly head as a journalist (Bela Padilla) tries to escape the hands of a corrupt politician played by Joel Torre by enrolling in the witness protection program. The second story is really good, and at turns is quite surprising. Joel Torre is as always an interesting and enigmatic figure. Bela Padilla has her own sense of righteousness and fights for it until the very end of the film. In this segment, people are no better than animals striving for survival in a dog eat dog world. (The four stories seem to be interconnected for some reason.)

In the third story, Gabe Mercado is a taxi driver with a dark secret. This is the best of the major segments as it tackles guilt and the capacity of man to do bad things, maybe by choice or maybe by circumstance. In a way it ties everything together. Mercado has a fantastic performance as this guy who in all honesty is a decent person turned sour by the world he lives in.

The last part of the film is arguably the most popular story and is the segment we see in trailers. Megan Young is a runaway from the law who took justice into her own hands. Faced with a life of solitude, she faces a new trial as people threaten her new way of life. It's my least favorite of all four segments, as it really ties weakly to the rest of the film and the premise is not as solid as the previous three. Megan Young could be used more effectively but she feels underutilized here. In some scenes I wished that someone would teach the lady how to use a gun as that is dangerous, (although that may actually be the point).

Overall Bang Bang Alley shines with classy production and three great stories. While the last segment isn't as good as the previous three, it does not manage to bring the whole thing down and remains an interesting experience.

Road to the Oscars - Philomena

Philomena is a simply plotted film that works really well because of its simplicity. The titular character, portrayed by Dame Judi Dench, had a son when she was a young woman. She had the child out of wedlock, and  lived in a convent where her son was eventually put for adoption.

50 years later, with a family of her own, her thoughts drift back to that that time and the son she never saw again. She recruits the services of Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) who slowly but surely forms a bond with her as the film goes on.

The film banks on the performances of Dench and Coogan, and their comedic timing is spot on. Judi Dench comes across as a loveable old lady who just wants to see her son again. Her drive to see her son is compounded by a sense of guilt from what she experienced long ago.

Steve Coogan's character slowly becomes a son figure for this lady and their interactions are quite entertaining. He even comes to defend her later on when he confronts the convent sisters who set up her son for adoption.

The movie takes a few liberties with the actual facts, but the identity of Philomena's son and the real life character of Martin Sixsmith (he really was writing something about Russian history) is on point. The film even ends with actual footage of the real guy in the credits.

In true British fashion the film ends with life continuing on as normal, but with people changed (either for better or worse.) It's not as glitzy as the other films contending for an Oscar, but it ends up there toe to toe with the best of them.

Road to the Oscars - Her

Some of the best science fiction stories are stories that expose the best and the worst of humanity through fantastic and futuristic lenses. In Spike Jonze’s latest film, Her, human relationships are the centerpiece. Remarkably, this film works really well, and is more revealing about ourselves than many films about love this year.

The world of Her is not unlike our own, and one that is all too plausible. It’s a near-future place where people are ever more reliant on technology. People are focused on their tablets and smartphones and headsets, relying on technology for many things in their daily lives.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is one of these people. He plays virtual games alone and talks to his computer about everything (even the weather). And yet he's not really that social a guy: he has a few friends, he's breaking up with his childhood sweetheart (Rooney Mara) and he awkwardly goes on a few dates and virtual meetups with people. Ironically, his job is to write letters as a proxy for couples in love.

This disconnect becomes a theme in the film where we see people losing connections with each other. Rather than using technology as a means to meet each other, people get together with the technology itself. Twombly encounters an interactive operating system with artificial intelligence (voiced by Scarlett Johannson) and falls in love with her. Later in the film we see that this is not a strange thing by the standards of this world: Twombly's friends, for the most part, accept this burgeoning relationship as completely normal. It's taken to extremes later on when an actual person acts as a proxy between man and program.

If it feels a bit unsettling, it's meant to be made that way. We're all social animals, but we're all left groping in the dark for answers. Relationships with others are a rocky path from start to finish; there is no guide to eternal happiness lying around in some book or program somewhere.

Her tells its story in warm fuzzy colors in pastel and brown, and a soundtrack by indie band Arcade Fire. The acting from all corners is superb and nuanced. Although there are some weird turns in the script (a date with Olivia Wilde comes to mind) overall the story is solid.

Her isn't just one of the best sci fi movies of the year, it's also one of the best movies of the year, period. But in the shadow of other movies competing for awards this year, it may end up lost in the crowd. Give it a go, it's a movie worth watching.

A look back at Sana Dati

When I last reviewed Sana Dati a few months ago, I had a rather low opinion on the concept of true love. To quote my old self:

Full Disclosure: I no longer believe in weddings. I no longer believe in true love. I no longer believe in starting a family or having kids or having any kind of meaningful romantic relationships with anyone. I guess I no longer believe in a lot of things.

Do note that I loved this film. So... yeah. Since then my thoughts on the above have changed a bit. That's probably one of the understatements of the year.  While I believe in love, I still think that love-at-first-sight whirlwind romances are overrated. Some of the best forms of love are the kind that you nurture over time.

I recently rewatched this film during a limited screening at Fully Booked (it's a crime that this film isn't distributed more widely) to see if my renewed perspective on love would change how I saw the film. The short version of what happened is: I still loved the film, but for different reasons. I still consider it one of the best films of last year.

So I feel I have to revisit the film's themes with this new perspective. My comments on the technical aspects of the film stay as they are; and some of the comments below WILL spoil you if you haven't watched the film.

"Sigurado Ka Ba?" (Are You Sure?)

Sana Dati begins with a quote from Voltaire: "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." Indeed, certainty and its role in commitment is one of the movie's main themes. In the beginning and end scenes of the film, we hear the characters ask each other some variant of "Sigurado ka ba?" but in different contexts. At the beginning, Andrea asks Andrew if he's sure about getting a flower store for the both of them. He says yes, both in words and in print later on. Near the end, Robert tells Andrea in an impassioned, impromptu vow that he's never been more sure about her. And at the very last scene of the film, Robert asks Andrea if she is sure she loves him.

Think about these three instances. In the first instance Andrew is in the throes of a wild, passionate love - where he abandons everything to be with his beloved. He can't be more sure than he is now. In the second instance Robert loves Andrea, but his love stems from patience and something more measured albeit similar to Andrew's response to love (see below for more details.) In the last instance, the scene can be interpreted in different ways. Either Andrea has completely moved on and has accepted Robert's love, coming to love him, or she's lying, and she really isn't sure, but she'll try to live with this doubt and learn to love him anyway. Personally I believe in the second interpretation as it capitulates the essence of Voltaire's quote, and it matches my belief (stated above) that love can grow over time, slowly but surely, and can eventually be as strong as love that comes like lightning.

All three instances are forms of commitment, and none of these forms of commitment, of surety, are as valid as any other.
 
The Anti Rom Com

We're often exposed to the notion that true love conquers all in print, in film or in television. Most of the romantic comedies or dramas available for Filipino audiences fall along these lines. What's so refreshing about this film is that it challenges this notion, revealing its relative impotence.

Andrew's story reflects this love conquers all philosophy. Driven by the desire to be with the person who he loves, he abandons his life and family to be with her. This ends up more or less as we expect. Not even love can counteract common sense.


In the end, one can interpret the film to argue that such carefree philosophies are precarious ground. Many of us know from experience that love does not always flourish; many of us who have been rejected or who have left a relationship know that love, whether lost or never reciprocated, can die over time and fade away. A relationship is an arduous, rocky process. And it's a strange thing at first, living with a complete stranger for (presumably) the rest of your life, longer than your parents, your siblings, or anyone else. People have to get by their insecurities, their partner's flaws, and ultimately their own selfish ideas about love. It's all about understanding your partner and building from there.

The True Hero

During my first viewing of the film back in Cinemalaya 2013, I empathized with Andrea - a person who has just lost her love, and in a fit of abandon, decides to marry a person she "does not know." Her longing for her one true love hit me in a way back when I was in a similar situation, and the repercussions of her actions in the final scene of the film haunted me well after I saw the movie.

On closer inspection of the film's themes, I realized that I had neglected Robert's character in my viewing of the film. I had pegged this man to be the alpha male, the "victor" of this complicated love polygon that gets what he wants, when he wants.

I was completely wrong. This man is the unsung hero of the film.

Early on we see that Robert knows something is up. He's a politician, but we see he's more of a public servant during the scenes that establish his character. Upon rewatching the scenes, knowing what we know from the previous viewing we see that Robert's not really a bad guy. He never used his status or power to force Andrea to love him - remember that she came to him first after her little tryst with Andrew. When he senses that Andrea's having cold feet, he does not force the issue -  instead, he mulls over breaking off the wedding - denying himself the chance to be with his love, only because she still has lingering feelings for someone else.

His character comes to a head during the wedding vows scene, where he apologizes to Andrea but tells her that he's sure he loves her. The film frames a shot with Robert talking to Andrea and with Dennis (as a proxy to Andrew) behind her. In a way, he's talking to Andrea and Andrew at the same time. He apologizes because he knows about their love. He apologizes because his love for her will never be the same as the love they shared. But still, he loves her - and he is damn sure of it.

Robert's story in the context of this film eventually became my favorite part of the film. Try watching the film from his perspective and see what you can come up with.

Closing Thoughts

The impermanence of things (including love) is a topic that has been showcased in many films before this, but few have been made that deal with the topic with such subtlety. Sana Dati is a film with emotions bristling just below the surface, a metaphorical pot just about to boil over. This is helped by the superb acting, of course. Every scene you see is something going by normally but there's always something bubbling beneath the surface.

In the end, the most fun thing about watching films like these is talking about it afterwards and trying to process it with your friends. There are a lot of other concepts (like the idea of fate intervening for the characters, the concept of a marriage of convenience or a marriage for political or other cultural reasons, and so on) that I haven't touched upon. When I watch the movie another time (hopefully it comes out on DVD), I'll write some more about this remarkable film.

Road to the Oscars - 12 Years a Slave

Slavery in the USA has always been a touchy subject, and the gamut of stories from this era of history has ranged from Django Unchained to Roots. But I'd make an argument that it's an important era of history, and one that people should be aware of..

12 Years a Slave is a film based on the account of one Solomon Northup, a free man who was sold as a slave after being duped by unscrupulous men. He then serves as a slave to different people, both (relatively) kind and not so kind. Most of the film centers on his experiences with the not so kind slave owner, portrayed in manic detail by Michael Fassbender. 

Solomon's ordeal is also a transformation; he loses his name, his identity and, towards the end of the film, his spirit. One scene where he partakes in a church hymn reflects his surrender to his status as a slave. The depiction of the treatment of slaves is brutal: these human beings are truly treated like property. They endure not only physical abuse but emotional abuse as well.

The slave owners try to justify their abuses through religion, but they are slaves of the times as much as the African Americans are. They are entrenched in a belief system that, despite being oppressive, has been a part of their lives since birth.Had they been born in today's world, would they have acted the same way?

Hopefully the film (and others that will hopefully follow it) makes us think why did we let these transgressions occur, and how to prevent oppression like this from happening again.

Road to the Oscars - Gravity

With the 86th Academy Awards around the corner, let's take a look at some of the contenders for this year's ceremony, with the best in mainstream (and not so mainstream) film.

Hollywood doesn't get a lot of space stories grounded in reality or near reality. This year's film, Gravity, is a rare gem - a story set in space without a lot of science fiction elements. Sandra Bullock is Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on a routine space shuttle mission. At first, everything seems normal until an unforseen disaster turns the next hour and a half of her life into a desperate fight for survival.

In Gravity, space itself becomes a sort of sinister character. Despite its majesty, it is rightly depicted as a cold and dangerous place. Small pieces of debris act as armor piercing bullets. The lack of Oxygen makes every breath important (Sandra Bullock has to cut down on that hyperventilation IMO). Yet despite the incredible odds stacked against her, this is a story of how people respond to these odds and confront them either with indignation or resignation.

The special effects of this film are amazing. You wonder if they really did film scenes up in space where there is zero gravity (it was actually done by special rigs). While scientifically the film takes its liberties, it's all for the sake of the overall entertainment value - and there are some aspects of the film, like the depiction of fire in space, that are pretty much spot on. The camerawork is excellent and disorienting,. fully immersing us into the setting. It spins and tumbles and stays in place, close to our main characters but steadily in orbit.

Gravity is one of the best movies of the year, and one of the best directed too. If you have a chance, give it a watch.

2014 Movie Wishes

It's a whole new year for cinema all around. 2013 was a good year for Philippine movies. A LOT of really good films were released this year, and the overall ratio of good to bad films was not really that bad. This years inclusion of three Filipino-oriented stories as entries for the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Film award tells us of the richness of our country and culture when it comes to storytelling.

For Filipino Cinema:

• I wish for more movies with more creative freedom, and not with stories shackled by budget/producers/whatever. And I'm not talking only about independent cinema here.
• I wish for mainstream films that do not pander or treat its audience like idiots; a film that respects its audience and challenges them
• I wish for audiences to keep their heads out of their asses and realize that they deserve so much more than 2 hour advertisements and the cinematic equivalent of shit.
• I wish for movie makers and audiences to realize that "films for kids" do not mean two hours of inane plotless stupidity. Children have imaginations, let films use them. My best moviegoing experiences as a kid let me use my imagination, why do I have to be served junk like this?
• I wish for no politics in the process of filmmaking. It's art, no one should be allowed to interfere.
• I wish for a true dialogue between filmmakers, critics and audiences on Filipino Cinema, and not one where one side acts all high and mighty ("you don't get what the film is about!"), incomprehensible ("Here's a guy sucking on an orange. It's a film.") or esoteric ("The primary protagonist ensconces his verite-sufferance from the ingenue. Such travesty of thought can only be expressed by the sycophant. Merde! (That's French by the way)")  compared to others.
• I wish people would extend film festival screening dates, because I keep on missing them. :

For Films in General:

• No more fucking blockbusters that exist for the sake of existing, or crappy superhero films that none of us care about.
• That said however, I'd want more fun movies on screen (not necessarily movies that had a lot of explosions and stuff in them.)
• NO MORE ORIGIN STORIES, 80's/90's TV ADAPTATIONS, SEQUELS OR REBOOTS.
• More from-the-ground-up, good concept films.
• Less executive meddling.
• Character development that isn't forced, contrived, or somehow involves rape.
• More kudos from audiences to the documentaries, because some docus are really worth it.

See you bastards at the movies.

MMFF: Girl Boy Bakla Tomboy

Time to review some mainstream fare.

Vice Ganda has been making waves in the Philippines recently as a certified audience grabber. This film, where he plays all the titular guy, girl, gay and tomboy siblings, is admittedly not bad at all.

It's held down by a bit of weirdly timed melodrama and the film could have finished a bit earlier, but I don't mind it ending where they should. The product placements are few and far between and not as intrusive as other fims out there, and the jokes vary from corny to genuinely funny. What I found marvelous was the way all four Vice Gandas are seamlessly combined in one shot, most impressively in one sequence where they play a little game of Trip to Jerusalem. The combination of editing, CGI and doubles really works, and you really will believe that there are four people there despite all of them being portrayed by the same actor.

Maricel Soriano remains an actress of immense talent, effortlessly transitioning from one emotion to another. Joey Marquez is a bit underused but still works well in the setting. The kids who play the adoptive siblings are adorable for the most part. As for that kid who had blackface? Well, let's just say we can't market this movie in a few places.

As for Vice himself, his portrayals are not bad, with the straight laced cool guy, the airheaded girl, the shy tomboy and the gay, who is probably the most normal out of the four.

I've held some sort of belief that mainstream MMFF movies are crap. With this film, I see it's not always the case, and there is still hope.

MMFF: Boy Golden

Boy Golden is a film that has to be seen to believed. Full of random events springing out of nowhere, it's full of camp and fun.

It's buoyed by a great cast, excellent lighting and production design, and you can tell Chito Rono played around a lot with the material. I recommend a watch to see what the fuss is all about.

Instead of a formal review, here's a bit of dialogue I (as Mr. Ho) and a friend (Marla D) had to say about this film. (note: most of it is in Tagalog, unfortunately.)

2013 Roundup: Manga

I've read a lot of great manga this year, so I wanted to share with you guys a bit about them.

End of an Era

Of the "big three" shounen manga (One Piece, Naruto and Bleach), the latter two have entered their final arcs (although I expect Bleach to go on for a while, given its languid pace.) But that's not what I'm going to talk about here. Other really great manga finished their runs this year, and some are my very favorites:

I'm probably going to post something about Blade of the Immortal (JP: Mugen no Jyuunin) once the English language editions come out, probably later next year or in 2015. But the manga's Japanese run came to an end early this year, and some intrepid scanlators have posted the last three volumes somewhere in the internets.

Long story short, Blade of the Immortal is one of my favorite manga EVER. It tells the story of an immortal samurai, Manji, who is tasked with killing 1000 evil men in exchange for the opportunity to die. In the process, he helps a young girl, Rin, take revenge over the people who killed her parents. Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems.

The last three volumes are a frenzy of great fighting and resolves most of the hanging threads of the manga. I've collected this manga for more than ten years, and the plots and character interactions are so good, it's worth the often one year wait between volumes. Add that to Hiroaki Samura's wonderful (sometimes gruesomely brutal) pencil art and interesting characters, and we have a winner.

Another Seinen manga that ended its run recently is Gantz by Hiroya Oku. This one attracted me due to the insanely high character turnaround in the first few volumes, although one can argue the plot really takes off once a stable team is formed.

Gantz is an acquired taste, and I know a lot of people who don't like it because it basically is action, gore and boobs. (That's why I like it, ironically.)

Gantz really dropped off my radar when the final arc began to kick into gear. Upon picking up the series again, I see that the series ends in a kinda rushed manner, but at least there is some resolution. A few chapters where our Gantzers encounter some very high level beings serves as an infodump revealing all the secrets of the manga's plot. It's still a decent end but I'd want a little more out of it.

If it's closure you want, the ending of Deadman Wonderland delivers. For those not in the know, it's about this kid who gets thrown into this amusement park style prison with inmates who can use blood as a weapon. Lucky for the kid, he can use blood as a weapon too. 

Its finale is all about our protagonists (?) Shiro and Ganta (as we've known all along) and the relationship between the two. Of course all the lingering questions about the prison, Shiro's origin and the true nature of that disastrous earthquake that set all these events into motion are answered.

There's an epic battle here, although the true battle is an emotional one. I enjoyed the anime adaptation of this one, but it focuses more on the darker, bloodier early chapters of the manga. Although it doesn't get any lighter, Deadman Wonderland really sets in the shounen formula at the point in the manga where the anime ends. I'd have liked to see a season 2 of this manga, but we'll see.

 On the other hand, the anime adaptation of Soul Eater was really great. Good character designs, a complex world, and great animation. When the anime started to diverge from the manga, you can see the drop in quality.

The ending of Soul Eater is... a non-ending. Nothing really gets resolved. It's as if the anime ending at least gives a bit of closure. I'm not a big fan of the manga ending one bit but hey, that's how the cookie crumbles.

Of all the manga that ended this year, none have the same emotional heft as Inio Asano's masterpiece Oyasumi Punpun. A coming of age story about a guy who sees himself and his family as cartoon birds, it's one of those rare manga that manages to pack an emotional punch. (I may write up something about it once a good translation comes out.)

The last few volumes really had it in for poor Punpun, as the manga had turned darker than ever. Life really sucks for the poor guy, but that's how life goes sometimes. If you haven't read this manga before, I recommend it wholeheartedly. No work has ever conveyed the pain of growing up, or living as an adult, or falling in and out of love quite as well as this manga.

Interesting Choices

Other new (or relatively new) manga caught my attention this year. Some are good, some are just okay, but I'm entertained, so what do I care, right?

Chihayafuru was my favorite anime of 2013. It simply defies description. It's part romance manga, part sports manga, part slice of life. I loved every minute of it and I hope they make a lot more episodes.

Now, Chihayafuru the manga is more or less the same. How can you make a manga about a card game so freaking interesting? Read Chihayafuru and find out.

Like Chihayafuru, Helter Skelter is classified as Josei (catering to adult women) but it cannot be more different. Readers of this blog (all three of you) might be familiar with a review of a live action adaptation of this manga.

It's not very violent in the physical sense, but this one might be one of the more emotionally violent manga I've read this year.

Attack on Titan is one of the year's runaway hits. Granted, the manga may not have the best artwork in the world (I personally think it's horrible) but the plot is excellent and keeps the reader on his or her toes.

There are still a lot of questions unanswered, and I look forward to reading a bit more about it every month. If the art is too much of a problem, there's always the great anime adaptation.

Aku no Hana is a coming of age/slice of life story as well, but vastly different from anything out there. It's been described as a "tainted pure love story" and I think the description fits really well.

An anime adaptation that lasted 13 episodes has come out and has   polarized the fanbase. Some stand by it and laud it as a great series, others totally hate the adaptation for using rotoscoping and pacing the story too slowly. Personally I like the anime adaptation, especially how the animation team adapted the classroom scene, which IMO is one of the single greatest anime moments of the year.

It's surprising that Akira Hinamoto, the mangaka of Prison School, is also responsible for the fantastic Me and the Devil Blues.

That's not to knock of Prison School though. It's art is top notch, and an ecchi series like this, which is two boobs short of a hentai show, needs good art.

It's also good comedy, if you're into that kind of stuff.

Wolf Guy has werewolves and boobs.

There's also rape in there somewhere. Huh.

There are a lot of other one shots and horror shorts that I've either forgotten or haven't included on this list. So, what manga did you appreciate in 2013?

MMFF New Wave Feature Films: Island Dreams, Saka Saka

Five films are part of the MMFF's New Wave lineup. I managed to catch two of them over the last day, and the results are not bad.

Island Dreams takes place on an island resort (the name of the resort is never revealed, but the film was shot in Batangas). Zach (Alexis Petitprez), an American (with a vaguely French accent) that comes to the resort to find a place recommended by a mysterious girl. Meanwhile, Julie (Louise Delos Reyes) is a plucky girl hoping to make it big by joining a talent search in the city. To make the money to go there, she tries to moonlight as a tourist guide, even though she isn't accredited.

Romance movies rely heavily on the actors and the concept. Island Dreams is pretty much a by the numbers romance flick, and it gets pretty predictable after you get through half of it. The trailer pretty much gives away most of the story, so if you plan on watching this film (whenever it becomes available) don't watch the trailer.

As for the acting, both of the leads have chemistry, but are overall a bit spotty. Petitprez's accent is sometimes a bit hard to understand, and he flip flops from being deadpan and emotionless to being fun and wistful, and Delos Reyes sometimes crosses the line from being cute and perky to being loud and annoying. The broken English doesn't help, either, but is understandable.

When the chemistry works, however, it really works. The movie doesn't rely too much on "kilig" scenes and that's good. It instead makes us ponder the nature of the relationship of the two leads. I would also have liked to see what happened to Julie's character to make her resent the concept of true love that much (other than just mentioning that her ex cheated on her,) but sadly it wasn't emphasized too much in the film.

There are a few unbelievable scenes in the script, but I'll leave that to your judgement. Also, the film suffers from some weird sound editing choices. Some songs sound like they were just recorded too near a microphone; others sound like they were recorded too far from the mic.

Island Dreams ends up being a fairly entertaining romance film, but if you've seen one of these, you've seen them all. That said, it's still probably going to end up better than most of the films in the main category.

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Saka Saka is about two brothers (Ejay Falcon and Joseph Marco) who end up being private assassins for a corrupt governor. At first, as children they immerse themselves in the killing life, but as time goes on, their viewpoints on killing change.

Saka Saka feels very low budget from the time it starts, and it shows. At some parts, notably near the start, the movie feels like a telenovela on film instead of a real film. During others, the production design is really good.

The movie tackles corruption in the government, but doesn't really delve into it that much. Much like On the Job, it treats corruption as a systemic sickness, integrated into our way of life. There are some really nice scenes (the one with the convoy is a particular favorite) which reminds me of a certain political event from the past five years, but there are some scenes that seem unnecessary (is the romantic montage really necessary?) The movie delves into violence and brutality, but the budget sometimes rears its ugly head in these scenes.

Throughout the movie there are some really nice action sequences, but sometimes the action feels like a blurry/mis-edited mess (especially when there's an exchange of punches). There are some action tropes lifted from the most inane Filipino action movies (goons can't shoot straight, etc). The climax of the movie is one big action scene with a run through rooftops. It's nice to see the action genre slowly being revived.

The two leads act their asses off, and to their credit their performances enhance the film. The guy who plays the mayor deserves a bit of praise as well.

It's a nice film with a lot of great concepts, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

p.s. Why does Baron Geisler have that darkening makeup (too much IMO) while his sons, who work in the sun all day like him, don't have darkening makeup? Was sunscreen somehow available to them in the interim?

MMFF New Wave Shorts (slightly nonsensical reviews)

The holiday season in the Philippines is home not only to an extended period of Christmas cheer, family time and celebration, but also to... I almost can't say it...

The Metro Manila Film Festival.

While in its heyday the festival produced some of the country's best films, lately the festival has been host to a variety of inane, creatively bankrupt movies, often following some formula or serving as a sequel, designed specifically to be watched then disposed of. In the realm of food, fast food won't even serve as an appropriate metaphor. Unless if the fast food execs shat and pissed directly into our open mouths.

This doesn't mean the MMFF guys aren't trying. Recently they opened up a New Wave section featuring some lesser known directors. There was actually some creative spark in these productions. They also opened up a short films and animation category which gave the chance to a number of aspiring filmmakers.

So here's what I think of the Shorts/Animation I saw. (WARNING: I may not make a lot of sense)

Ang Lalong ni Kulakog is about a master and his rooster. It's nice. Students made this? I'm actually quite impressed. It's a shame that this is the only short of the competition that I've managed to see.

Tagad is not listed in the official program. It's about a group of skateboarders living in Cebu. There are a lot of nice shots of these guys skateboarding, but mostly it's a documentary style thing. The people interviewed are mostly young males in their twenties, but there are some older guys too. It's a bit short, but what else is there to say? It's an OK film.

Hintayin Mo Sa Sequence 24 is like the epitome of a student film. It's emo and a bit heavy on the cliches.  There's a bit of pretension in there too. A lot of the fantasy sequences are either confusing or unnecessary. But hey, it's got heart, and there are a few good ideas in there, so I can forgive its flaws. Like the title said, wait for Sequence 24.

#NoFilter starts out pretty innocently, with a girl taking a lot of selfies and WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!? NO NO NONONONONONONO AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL googly eyes DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL 
DEATH WILL COME FOR US ALL 

...oh. I guess there's some kind of message in there about how we should appreciate our true selves. Again, it has this student film feel to it.

Up next, a couple of feature films.