MMFF 2015: Haunted Mansion, Honor Thy Father, Buy Now, Die Later, Nilalang

It's MMFF season again folks. The quality of the films this year range from ok to brilliant. Without further ado...

Haunted Mansion is the year's usual MMFF horror fare from Regal Films. A number of students go on a school sponsored retreat to a creepy mansion. As with any cliche high school horror movie, the tropes are in full force: there's the requisite bitch squad, the jocks, the neutral guy, the best friend, the awkward but kindhearted heroine. As they learn about the mansion's haunted past, weird things begin to happen.

The movie's twist is rather obvious. Our characters run around and make stupid decisions that will cost them dearly. On the other hand, lots of horror movies are predicated on stupid decisions, so it's not uncommon. The characters are mostly unlikeable, and since many die, you don't really get to invest yourself with them. We barely get to understand the main character, Ella, until around halfway into the film.

The film is nicely shot in some parts, and the visual effects for some of the ghosts prove effective (the black smoke effect was really nice). The makeup and prosthetics are not bad at all, although the witch-like profile for the main ghost was not really my cup of tea. I did like the farmer who was charred all over with some smouldering parts on his body.

It tries to get you with jump scares, but I really didn't feel anything while watching this film. As a horror movie, Haunted Mansion isn't scary. If you're looking for some popcorn fun for your kids, hey, why not.

Honor Thy Father pleasantly surprised me, and my expectations going in were high.  It's one of the best Filipino films of the year, and one of the best MMFF films since the eighties.

Compared to Matti's earlier On The Job, Honor Thy Father is a thriller through and through, but in this case, the tension builds up deliberately, slowly. John Lloyd Cruz (whose performance in this film defines careers) watches stoically at the events surrounding his family as the fire inside him burns 'till it gets white hot.

And there is much reason to be angry: I am impressed at how angry this film made me. It exposes hypocrisies in ourselves and in society in general, pointing out that nothing is sacred in the face of money, that the world is dog-eat-dog and to survive, you have to be at the top of the chain. The film expresses this in both subtle and overt ways; the former, during a shot of children fighting for a piece of fried chicken, the latter, during shameful displays of materialism and wealth in the face of the 'divine.' Veneers of decorum and and niceties overlay our social structures, but when you peel back that layer, you can only see the ugly side of human nature underneath.

The film also pushes the notion that blood is thicker than water: when society and religion fail him, our main character relies on the only bond that works - family. In many ways, the film's title can be a reference not only to the prayer, but in the literal sense, as John Lloyd's character faces his family (and his past) as he seeks them for help. His closest bonds are to his daughter and to his wife (whom he supports despite her major failings.)

When this tension explodes in the film's climactic act, the anger pays off - the denouement proves cathartic. Solidly constructed and directed, expertly acted and overall well made, Honor Thy Father is simply a great film. It's a film that hearkens back to the day when MMFF films were good. And it is a movie that simply gives no fucks.

Part horror, part comedy, Buy Now, Die Later is relatively light compared to Haunted Mansion,, but I think this film is far more competent.

The film is composed of several parallel storylines that intersect. They are also based on the five senses, a theme that will gain significance later on. Each of the characters involved deal with a mysterious store and an equally mysterious salesman (TJ Trinidad) who sells his clients various objects with a Twilight Zone flavored twist. Overall the story is decent, but the individual parts are more of a mixed bag.

The first storyline with Vhong Navarro is decent enough, but I feel that it mainly sets up the rest of the other parts. The central conceit for the particular story is clever, though. The second storyline was a bit unbearable mainly because the main character for this story is very obnoxious. As with the first part, it serves more as a bridge for the next three stories.

The third and fourth stories, starring Rayver Cruz and John Lapus were my favorite of the bunch. Rayver's part subverts expectations, while John Lapus' part supplies most of the comedic parts of the film. The last part of the film adds another victim and ties it all together for a showdown with our main antagonist.

The makeup and effects are okay. The makeup for the creature looks nice, but I wonder how the second, outer mouth moves, if at all.In any case, if you're looking for this year's MMFF horror entry, this one isn't a bad choice.

And finally we have Nilalang, starring the lovely Maria Ozawa. I can safely say that it's her best non AV film yet (given that Invitation Only was just ok, her V-cinema releases are entertaining but forgettable, and let's just forget about her Indonesian works.)

The film looks really good. Much of the film is beautifully shot. A lot of work was put into the special effects, and while the monsters were not covered in prosthetics, sometimes less is more.

That said, the story of Nilalang, a slightly confusing tale about warring clans and spirits that switch bodies and random haunted Sitios outta nowhere, is paper thin. The events tying the film together are quite loose, as they function merely to send people from point A to point B. There seems to be past history between Cesar Montano and Maria Ozawa's character, but that isn't explored. The movie could have played on the dynamic of Montano, Ozawa and Meg Imperial's character, but aside from one or two short scenes we get nothing. The film inserts some love scenes which serve little to no purpose, other than to show its target demographic some skin. (There's a shower scene too, but it only has Cesar Montano in it. Aw.)

The action scenes are ok. Ironically, the best action scene is at the very end, involving a criminal using parkour to get through a busy street. I wish we had more of that guy in the film. Nilalang is a package wrapped in layers of good production design, cinematography and visual effects. However, if you unwrap all of that, there really isn't anything inside the package.

MMFF New Wave 2015 Festival Report

MMFF, that most wonderful time of the cinematic year, is almost upon us. But before that, the New Wave section, which is really shaping up to be a major player among other big independent film fests. So, in one fell swoop, I watched all of the films in competition, both short and full length. So how were they? Let's find out.

***

First up is Toto, which is about a guy determined to make it to the US at any cost. This includes propositioning random Americans (male or female) for marriage, hiring people to pose as his fake family and so on and so forth. It's partly due to his late father's own failed ambition but it's mostly for the sake of his family. Leaving the country for somewhere else is an option that many of us dream of, regardless of social stratum. It's partly because life here is perceived to be so terrible that leaving the country seems enticing to many. But the movie is not dreary, it instead finds moments of levity in the situations it creates. One may interpret the ending as having us, the helpless natives having foreigners as our saviors, but I think the point is that we reach our dreams and help our family through dogged perseverance and a sense of what's right. 

The film also has the weirdest usage of Macarena in any movie I've ever seen.

***

For a story about a boy and his dad, Turo Turo lays on the drama really thick. The film seems to remind us every so often how poor and miserable the characters are. The scale of the drama feels so forced at times as we watch our main protagonist fail badly in any situation he faces. The execution of the story is also lacking -  we see establishing shots recycled (twice), sound cutting off at weird parts, Arabs that don't look like Arabs, doctors wearing lab coats for med techs (unless that was not an "RMT" I saw) and other doctors misidentifying blood cancers as "infections." 

Yet there's a weird kind of infectious optimism in the film, brought on mainly by the kid. His effusive, sometimes annoying enthusiasm rubs off a little on you,  even though it doesn't fit in the otherwise dreary atmosphere of this movie. His one scene with the teacher when she gives him old books looks like it was genuine drama in a work whose drama feels manufactured. I get the lessons it tries to impart, but in the end the execution failed the finished product.

***

Our fellow Kapampangan filmmakers give us Ari, a heartfelt love letter to the Kapampangan language and to Kapampangan poetry. It begins when Jaypee, a teenage boy, fetches an aging poet named Conrado, for an award ceremony. He grows interested in the old man and his poetry, partly because he is trying to impress a girl with it. Conrado, crowned the "King" of Kapampangan poetry, is eloquent; his words emerge effortlessly. Rhythm, rhyme and verse flow through his veins. He engages in impromptu poetry, in Crissotan, the Kapampangan version of Balagtasan, which is (for our younger, non Filipino readers) a sort of rap battle through poetry.

Yet Conrado and his fellow poets are aging, and no one seems to be there to replace him. Even in his own hometown he is but a curiosity; it is made evident during a picture taking scene where visually and figuratively he is relegated to the background, and his subsequent speech is ignored or tolerated by the audience. Our appreciation of men and women in the arts and culture pales to our appreciation of men and women boasting other, flashier, more materialistic achievements.

The film also asks us to love and learn our own regional language. With 7,107 islands (give or take) our linguistic culture is rich and full of nuance that cannot be seen in conventional, 'vanilla' Tagalog, but homogenization and a lack of appreciation is slowly killing the diversity in our languages. Perhaps through a revitalization of regional arts and cinema which is happening all over the Philippines, maybe we can help reclaim the parts of our multifaceted culture that are in danger of fading.

***

Speaking or regional languages, there were no subtitles for Mandirigma, but luckily most of it was in Tagalog, and the rest was in Tausug, which I can understand. After last year's fictionalized version of the Maguindanao massacre in Maratabat, Arlyn dela Cruz makes a movie about our military's exploits fighting against bandits and terrorists in the south.

Aside from being a showcase of the Marines, there really isn't much of a story to tell. Bad guys do something bad, good guys regroup, good guys kick bad guy's asses, repeat. The bandits are given some sort of depth, portraying some of the overzealous ones as either skewing religious interpretation into extremism, or making a quick buck for their own needs by kidnapping and other illegal activities. (As an aside, I also noticed that there were some minor mistakes on the depiction of prayer, and this was for a Muslim on the soldier's side.)

In the end, unlike Maratabat, the social repercussions of the conflict are not explored. There is one scene near the end that hints at the possibility of understanding between the two sides, but there are no concrete answers. I guess, like with what happened with the Maguindanao Massacre and Maratabat's open ending, there are no clear answers to such a complex problem.

***

And last but not the least for the Full Length Features, we have King Palisoc's Tandem, about a team of two brothers who conduct robberies via riding-in-tandem. It's well shot, the story moves along at a good pace, and we have a dark, gritty thriller where the true enemy of all involved is a festering culture of corruption that eats away at us, one unethical act at a time. 

Nico Antonio and JM de Guzman give great performances as the two brothers. As the younger brother de Guzman gives an air of naivete and rebelliousness towards his older brother, who is haunted by his past decisions but is forced into this cycle of crime, corruption and violence to support his wife and unborn child.

The film does a good job of building suspense as the relationship of the two brothers is tested to the breaking point. In the end we're just hamsters running on stationary wheels running endlessly in place. Breaking the wheel, while being the most obvious solution, proves much harder than in theory.

***

The shorts program is divided into animation films and the HOOQ Short Films, which are live action shorts. To give very short impressions of the films in question:

The animated entries begin with Alamat ng Giraffe, which is a short joke in animation form. The animation technique is the focus instead. I'd like to see a BTS of this one.

Buttons is the kind of short that gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling. It's not bad; compared to the others it sits in the middle of the pack.

Geo is the sole 3D CG animated film of the lot, and is about a kid with a hyperactive imagination. Kudos to the mom for putting up with the kid - I'd have given him a German suplex or something if I were in her shoes. I guess that's the point of the short.

little lights is the best looking animated short of the lot. The visuals look like very stylized paintings. It's worth seeing even just for the visuals alone, but its story about a smart little firefly is worth watching too.

The Seed is a story about an old man, a dog, and an anniversary. It's very touching and I noticed a few moist eyes in the audience. The character designs and overall animation style is reminiscent of watercolor painted comics. The one sole gripe I had was that most of the score consists of one track of music that seems to loop over and over.

The HOOQ short films begin with Daisy, which is a sci-fi story with a slightly retro feel to it via the music and production design. The ending is clever and the central conceit, insidious.

Ding Mangasyas (Tough Guys) is cute in the sort of way girls think their hardass boyfriend/male relative is cute when he tears up when he sees his sister/daughter get married. Only with less sisters, more brothers and no marriages. Joking aside, it's a very simple yet effective short.

Lapis is the one short that really lingered in my mind after the program was done. It laments the slow death of artists via technological obsolescence. I'd rather have old and new coexisting together, but oftentimes we see the latest technological innovation forcing the previous generation to adapt or die.

Momento is just really freaking sad. Its a testament to old, enduring love, even during the darkest tragedy.

Mumu deals with the fear of being typecast. It does so via a slightly scary, yet funny story. Also, many of us (myself included) have felt that feeling of being left behind by our peers, pressured to keep up somehow, and the film talks about that a bit too. In the end, it's accepting our own past and moving forward at our own steady pace that we grow personally.

***

That ends the MMFF New Wave section for this year. There are some standouts and some not so good films, but I believe with the reduced ticket prices (and student discounts) it's definitely worth it. Besides, by the end of the week we'd have seen Star Wars already, so why not take a gander at a few of these films? You might find something you like. I'd recommend Ari, Tandem, and maybe Toto. If you want something lighter, the short films are a good choice.

See you 'round Christmas for the MMFF proper. I won't see all of the films on their lineup, but I am sure I will see at least 2-3 films by the end of the year. Also I owe you a Star Wars Spoiler Review, so that's coming out by Monday.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

THIS REVIEW DOES NOT HAVE ANY MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS. IF YOU WANT TO KEEP CLEAR ANYWAY GO AHEAD, BROWSE 9GAG OR SOMETHING. A SPOILER FILLED REVIEW WILL COME OUT ON THE 20th OR THEREABOUTS.

Coming out of the theater, my initial reaction to watching The Force Awakens was one of pure joy. It's the same kind of exhilarating feeling that I had when watching the original trilogy for the first time. Now that I've though about it a bit more, I think despite its flaws it's a solid film on par with some of the other films in the original trilogy.

It's Like A Poem, It Rhymes

The Force Awakens borrows a lot of plot elements from other films in the series, but manages to keep things mostly fresh. In a way, the Hero's Journey begins again, as it did with Anakin in Episode 1 and Luke in Episode IV. And looking at this movie in that way, we can see that the three films have definite similarities. In some places the throwbacks may be a little too strong, but I feel it's not enough to be as derivative as, say, Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness. And even if it was, even Episode IV borrowed heavily from The Hidden Fortress, and it didn't make A New Hope any less of a movie.

As with the 2009 reboot of Star Trek, Abrams peppers the films with references and nostalgia tailored for the fans. His calculated balance of CGI effects and practical effects is a far cry from the sterile rooms and locales of the prequel trilogy and more reminiscent of the original trilogy's galactic civilization spanning thousands of years. Nods such as certain creatures or lines of dialog (as well as the Wilhelm scream present in all six previous installments) are present here as well. The film was definitely made with an attention to detail, a sense of exuberance in the filmmaking and a heartfelt sense of respect to the fans.

His greatest asset in the production of this film may be co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Kasdan settles in comfortably with characters he knows well, and through great performances by all of the cast, they bring us back to a place where it feels like we are with old friends once again. Gone are the overtly political discussions, fart jokes and lame pickup lines about the coarseness of sand. Instead, we get the wittiness and playful banter that made the protagonists shine in earlier films.

In a way the film recaptures the spirit of the old serials that inspired Lucas' Star Wars efforts; it feels like a part of an ongoing narrative with multiple plot threads that will hopefully be continued in future installments. It's peppered with characters old and new, some of whom we will see in a different light down the road. And at its core it's always been a story of good vs. evil, which is story-wise the simplest story ever.

Characters, Characters, Characters

The new characters shine in the Force Awakens, and Abrams really did a good job bringing out their conflicts and personal journeys onto the screen. Many will say that Daisy Ridley's Rey is in line with Luke's archetype, but I find that the film focuses on the stories of three characters, each embodying a facet of the personality of Luke and Anakin (the previous two heroes on a journey). Much like Spock and Kirk's story arcs formed the crux of '09 Trek, I think The Force Awakens focuses on three particular character arcs:

Rey is a fish out of water, ripped from her boring but quiet life on Jakku and thrust into a much bigger world. We share her fascination as we see new locales and meet interesting and legendary personalities. She's also a tinkerer, something we also find with Anakin during his journey and his fascination for making machines, droids and podracers.

Finn (played by John Boyega) embodies the spirit of doing what is right; despite circumstances going against him. He embodies a rebellious spirit we saw with Han, Luke and Leia in the first trilogy. His concerns are self serving at first, but his character grows over the course of the film. His role will only grow in the films to come. Some character angles seem a bit awkward or forced, but hopefully the next few films will sort it out.

And Kylo Ren represents one drenched in the power of the Dark Side of the Force. He lashes out with rage and hatred, embodying the purest principles of the darkness. And in a way he's very much a fan of the dark side, with obsession bordering on worship, yet compounded with fear and apprehension. His character is anything but one dimensional.

Unfortunately, the character centric story leaves the other plot moments dry. The Force Awakens draws from the exciting final act of A New Hope as inspiration for its own final act, but it feels perfunctory and it lacks the insane tension from that movie. Its centered, smaller focus pushes a lot of the stories coming from the bigger picture about the First Order or the Resistance out of the way. At its heart, however, characters have always been the emotional core of the Star Wars series, and not wild spaceship dogfights and magical laser sword wielding wizards and aliens and pew pew pew.

Strong With the Force

There's no doubt that with Star Wars the global cultural phenomenon that it is today, it's taken a life of its own as a brand, what with the gobs of merchandise that Lucasfilm (and now Disney) pushes on us and our kids year after year. It's of course more than the tons of plastic crap or DVDs or what have you. It's an important part of our collective childhoods, a source of nostalgia and wonder we will pass from one generation to another. Beyond its status as a multimedia product, based on my previous three essays (see the Countdown to The Force Awakens posts) I'd like to believe we the fans have partly taken ownership of it as well. 

One thing you may hear or read from many positive reviews about this film is that it "feels right" and it "feels like Star Wars." In almost all the ways that matter, that is very much the truth. Abrams' biggest success in making this new Star Wars film is the fact that he made it feel like the Star Wars we love. That it is a perfectly good and serviceable movie is icing on the cake. It reminds me of the time when people rejected New Coke just because it had rebranded itself as something succeeding the old and beloved Coca Cola.

Star Wars The Force Awakens is not groundbreaking cinema. It's honestly a good film, but whether it will stick in our minds like the original films did is still up in the air. It probably won't revolutionize anything. But you know, that's okay. What it probably set out to do is restore faith in a brand that has been tarnished in the eyes of the fans that felt betrayed over six years of disappointing films - and I think in all honesty it succeeded. In the business of making movies, it's a wise decision. I do hope that for the next movie they try creatively experimenting with form and story. In any case, it's going to be one hell of a wait for the next one.

Countdown to the Force Awakens: Star Wars Trilogy Despecialized Edition

I'm going to see The Force Awakens later today. But before that, I did a little backtracking and watched the original trilogy, but not in the normal fashion.

I remember watching a copy of the first edition of Star Wars in the early eighties on Betamax. That was quite an experience for me (of course, being a young kid helped a bit). Ever since then (and ever since viewing the Special Editions an endless number of times) I've been trying to watch the original series of films. Up until a few years ago the only versions of the film available were Laserdisc transfers of the film as well as a 2006 DVD bonus release. The quality of the films are standard definition and there's a lot of detail lost, a far cry from the Blu Ray versions of the Special Editions.

Remember in the last piece that fans have gone as far as to edit or alter the movies? Enter the Despecialized Editions. This is a fan driven project to restore the original theatrical versions of the movies in HD. It's a huge gray area as far as legality is concerned, but it's also preservation of cultural heritagee.

The restoration job upscales footage, color corrects, rotoscopes and removes all the special effects included for the Special Edition of the movie, and the final product is amazing. Their sources include Laserdisc transfers of the film, the Blu-ray release, and even several rare prints of the original 1977 film. See for yourself in the video below:

As far as the movies are concerned, they are still a great way to spend 6 hours or so of your time, and a great way to relive the original trilogy before watching The Force Awakens.

The restoration project is still ongoing; Episode IV is now at version 2.5, Episode V at version 2.0, and Episode VI at version 1.0.

So I'm all set. Watch out in a few hours as the review embargo is lifted just as I watch the seventh film in the Star Wars saga. Stay tuned.

Countdown to the Force Awakens: The People vs. George Lucas

One day left till I see The Force Awakens. The world premiere will happen between now and tomorrow, and the public will see the movie for the first time. So all in all, fun times.

It's been three years since Star Wars and George Lucas parted ways. It kinda feels like a messy divorce, and I've heard the parting was a difficult decision for Lucas. Ever since the Phantom Menace came out around 16 years ago, the relationship between Lucas and the Star Wars fanbase hasn't been completely hunky dory.

That said, the 2010 documentary The People vs. George Lucas is NOT an attack piece on the famous director. Instead, it's more of a love letter to a man who revolutionized modern day blockbuster cinema.

The movie is filled with snippets from Lucas' own life and early filmmaking career (including clips from his experimental films) and accounts from fans of Lucas' Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. At the same time, it's filled with numerous fan films paying homage to both franchises. There's something about the films that stirred the creative juices of all these people. And with Lucas being an independent director by heart, he managed to inspire a whole generation of new filmmakers, independent or not. Many clips are from the amazing fan-made mashup Star Wars Uncut, which recreates the entire original trilogy scene by scene, running the gamut of techniques to tell the story - stop motion animation, CGI, live action animation and so on.

It also asks a very relevant question considering today's remix culture - with Star Wars the massive and unique cultural phenomenon that it is, who takes ownership? A major point of contention between Lucas and the fans is the reluctance to release the original theatrical cuts of the trilogy (a DVD version was eventually released in 2006, but an official HD version of the original cuts have yet to be released.) The fans have even gone far enough to re-edit the prequel trilogy to suit their expectations. 

Arguments are brought up on both sides, considering both the historical value of the original work, and the creator's right to modify the work as he sees fit. Ironically, Lucas campaigned against the colorization of films, citing the historical importance of black and white films. But sometimes, as one of the talking heads says in the docu, sometimes a creator has to say 'the work is finished, it belongs to the ages.'

While geek fandoms are phenomena that are quite prevalent today, Star Wars is one of the biggest and most dedicated. It's an interesting take on the relationship between fan and creator that is unique to Lucas' franchises.

Up next (and finally,) the best way to view the original films in HD.

Countdown to the Force Awakens: Empire of Dreams

The latest entry in the Star Wars saga, The Force Awakens, screens Wednesday here in the Philippines and we're going to be all on that. I'm honestly more of a Trek guy but one of the very first posts on this blog was about Episode III, so that's ten years of (non) waiting for this film. (Did 2005 me enjoy Episode III? It appears I did.)

Before we get into the meat of the matter, let's talk about documentaries and media featuring the trilogy we have all come to know and love (and the other trilogy that we didn't love as much.)

Empire of Dreams is a documentary about the original Star Wars trilogy. It has a ton of behind the scenes stuff regarding the creation of the first three films of the trilogy. Most of the running time is devoted to setting up the first film in the saga, A New Hope (known to most as simply 'Star Wars.') In a way, Star Wars is pretty much an independent film. It was made by a young director new to the scene, and it was made with almost total creative control, limited only by budget and time constraints. Yet it was a troubled production right from the start, as few people believed in the film and its success, and numerous troubles popped up even right at the first day of shooting.

You can see in the film how Hollywood shaped Lucas into a filmmaker who was fiercely protective of his work, leaving the Hollywood studio system and becoming his own studio so that he could create what he wanted. Restrictive union regulations, executive  meddling with his previous feature films and a clash of old filmmaking traditions and new helped force him to this parting of ways, and the financial success of Star Wars and the subsequent films in the original trilogy made this possible.

Yet the Original Trilogy is not Lucas' vision alone; he was supported by many people who helped create his saga. The incredible folks at ILM (who pioneered a lot of science fiction special effects for the next 4+ decades), screenwriters such as Lawrence Kasdan and directors such as Irvin Kershner helped shaped the trilogy through their collaborative work to what it is today.

Other highlights include screen tests for actors auditioning for the trilogy, which includes Kurt Russell (!) and numerous test and alternate shots. The film is narrated by Robert Clotworthy, aka Jim Raynor from the Starcraft video game series.

If you're looking at one of the most comprehensive documentaries of the saga's creation, this is it.

Up next: Lucas and his oft-divided fanbase.

Short Reviews December 2015: Anino sa Likod ng Buwan, Kakabakaba Ka Ba, Creed

Anino sa Likod ng Buwan starts innocuously with a conversation between a refugee couple and a soldier. The film quality simulates analog video, grainy and sometimes distorted. It is the nineties, and the conflict between the government and communist insurgents rages in the provinces. The couple are among the many refugees caught in the crossfire, while the soldier has become a close friend to them. Over the course of the next two hours, layers of deception are peeled off from all three characters, exposing their own personal shadows.

The presentation of the material is more similar to theater, with all of the action done in one long unbroken take (although the cuts could have been hidden by some clever transitions.) It's a treatment that was done before with movies like Remton Zuasola's Swap. The treatment does affect the realism of the movie's tone, but it does help concentrate on the character study that unfolds.

The movie tackles the often vicious cycle of violence between the military and the rebels. The military are seen as cruel oppressors by the populace and the rebels, which fuels the rebel's own acts of retaliation. The ideological reasons for both the communists and the military are not delved into or mentioned, instead the film explores the extent someone will go to compromise their own beliefs for their own selfish desires.

The film's final shot is a literal gunshot to the camera, ending our voyeuristic window into these characters' lives. If you persevere through the slow first half, the second half is compelling cinema.

I was lucky enough to be able to see the premiere screening of Mike de Leon's Kakabakaba Ka Ba? restored and remastered in glorious HD. I've been used to seeing de Leon's usual grim and socially relevant work, so seeing this movie, which is a madcap comedy-musical, was a pleasant surprise.

The plot seems tame at first but it gets crazier and crazier by the minute. It has yakuza, chinese gangsters, missing tapes and a love story in the middle. It's loud, wacky and many of the jokes are funny.

This is also a movie that is very much a work of its time. Along with the technology of its day, such as rotary telephones and cassette tapes and recorders. At the same time, it has many of the marks of culture during the early eighties and the late seventies, such as the death throes of disco, recreational drug use and psychedelia. For its time, the movie was pretty subversive. Some elements in the film are unlikely to be reproducible now. The caricatured presentation of the Japanese and Chinese antagonists, for example, would be unacceptable by our overly politically correct standards.

While it functions mostly as a comedy, there's a subtle jab at the church as the film reaches its climax where fake members of the clergy plot to take over the Philippines through an insidious distribution method. And jabs aside, the climax is simply amazing in terms of both choreography and audacity, culminating in an experience that has never been replicated in recent cinematic memory.

In terms of preservation the restoration job is pretty solid. The upscaled picture looks really good with some shots retaining their crispness. There was one very short moment during a split screen scene where I saw an artifact but it couldn't have been more than a few frames. The climax looks gorgeous in HD and compared to versions of the climax on TV or Youtube the difference is lightyears away.

I'm glad work like this is being done to restore our past films. I only hope that efforts like this to restore gems from the Golden Age of Philippine Cinema and other lost films continue.

And finally, we turn back to Hollywood and one of 2015's most pleasant surprises. A Rocky movie, of all things.

Creed mirrors the plot of the original 1976 Rocky, although this time, the late Apollo Creed's son Adonis takes up professional boxing and seeks the tutelage of a retired Rocky Balboa. Like the original film, boxing is at the periphery of the story; the film focuses more on the protagonist's journey to find himself.

In many respects, Creed is also a film about finding family. Adonis looks for the father figure he never had, and Rocky has pretty much lost all the family he has: his brother, wife and trainer are all dead, and for all intents and purposes, he has no family left. Both find the comfort and guidance they need from each other, creating an unconventional father-son relationship.

Michael B. Fox, who also appeared in Coogan's 2013 debut Fruitvale Station, blows it out of the water as Adonis, who struggles to move out of his father's shadow. His chemistry with Sylvester Stallone (who brings out one of his strongest performances since Rocky)  is palpable, and their shared trials feel emotional and real. This is their movie, and their duo makes it succeed.

The movie is beautifully shot. The one big highlight is Adonis' first professionally sanctioned fight, with a combination of closeups and a 'referee's eye view' vantage point done in one long take that is simply breathtaking. It's similar to the camerawork done in a similar scene in Paul Soriano's Kid Kulafu and it's a step up from the cinematographic work from the previous Rocky films.

While it mostly captures the spirit of the original film, Creed pays homage to all of the previous Rocky films, even the sillier entries of the series (let us not forget Apollo dies in Rocky IV, the one with the Russian and the robot) as well as the poorly regarded Rocky V.

In the end, Creed isn't about the destination, but the journey. Life may be a series of knockdowns, but it's way easier if you know you have someone by your side. It's a lesson that was imparted to us in the first film, and it's a lesson this movie takes to heart.

Angela Markado

The female-led revenge flick is a genre that has been around for a while now. It's been used as a meditation on the nature of vengeance (Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, 2005 and Lady Snowblood, 1973, among others), used by directors such as Truffaut (The Bride Wore Black, 1968) to create a morally ambigious filmic landscape, as well as just being rip-roaring rampages of revenge (Kill Bill, 2003).

There's even a whole subgenre that which entails rape as part of the reasons for revenge, which includes the I Spit on Your Grave series. Its either an idea of women fighting back against a male dominated society or a male power fantasy depending on who you ask.

Based on a comic  series by Carlo J. Caparas, Angela Markado (2015) follows the formula of these films but ends up tripping on its own inadequacies and failing so spectacularly in every aspect of its creation that it's actually a marvel to see. It's made even worse by the fact that there is a perfectly good adaptation of the original source material by none other than Lino Brocka, starring Hilda Koronel; if you can find this version on the internet or on TV, stop reading this right now. Go ahead and watch that instead.

My reaction to the film is perhaps best personified when Sabel, daughter of one of the ranch hands in the film, rolls her eyes. Although in my case, if it were possible, my eyes would roll all the way to the back of my head. Bad CGI cityscapes, editing that was done to made the show feel like a bad SOCO episode, and random establishing shots are just the tip of the iceberg. One particular scene that stood out was a horse dragging scene that is obviously covered up by (bad) CGI and editing to hide the fact that without the post production work, it was 1) ridiculously fake and 2) poorly shot in the first place, and to top it all off, the end product doesn't even work, giving new meaning to 'we'll fix it in post prod.' Even candy coated poop is still poop.

I hold the belief that if one is going to make one of these kinds of movies, one mustn't hold back. The original film adaptation, through its sudden brutality, made us care for the character and her desire for revenge. In this case, the movie begins in medias res, and the brutal act feels hammy and very PG-13. I've seen school plays more graphic than this to be honest. In creating deaths through revenge, one could either make the deaths cathartic or make them reflect on our own thirst and/or satisfaction for vengeance. None of the death scenes for the five men are in any way imaginative; they consist mostly of Angela stabbing someone repeatedly. The movie tries to ruminate the repercussions of what Angela has done in the end, but it feels tacked on and the arguments it tries to make are not compelling. 

The greatest tragedy of this movie is the fact that looking at the people involved, there is a relative abundance of talent. Maybe someone or something brought out the worst in them to create this perfect storm of badness. In closing, this film has earned a unique distinction as one of this year's worst, here or abroad.

A Second Chance

A Second Chance opens fresh off the heels of its predecessor One More Chance, where our two leads are heading towards a happily ever after. It's filmed in bright colors; a montage of happy events turns out to be a wedding video. It's giddy and full of the naivete of love, the ultimate distillation of sappiness. Soon after, the palette changes to something more grounded and dreary. Seven years have passed, and in the next two hours or so we will see this naivete crushed by the realities of married life.

There's something interesting about how two people who are completely different build a relationship and eventually, a family. It's easy to fall in love, but it's difficult to stay in love. Many old couples stay together for convenience or for the sake of each other or because of children. Marriages are seldom cakewalks, and the movie does a decent job portraying this.

It also helps that despite its mainstream sensibilities, it doesn't coddle the audience with the notion that these two are perfect, faultless characters.  While I sympathized with Popoy's character in One More Chance, within the confines of married life his flaws take center stage. He becomes suffocating, employing poor managerial skills and being too ambitious for his own good. His fairytale aspirations might have borne fruit anywhere else, but the filmmakers put a stop to his exuberance and bring him down to earth. In this film he is manipulative, passive-aggressive and even a bit egotistical.

Popoy is trapped within the ideals of an antiquated view of marriage, where the man is the sole breadwinner, and any challenge to that status is an affront to his manhood. It takes a number of problems to show that 1) times are changing and 2) you can't run a marriage alone , something that is emphasized with the engineer-architect metaphor in this film. His eagerness to build a family (in Popoy's case, mostly over a pipe dream) and leave it up all to chance is a pitfall, a trap in an socioeconomic environment that leaves no margin for mistakes. And in my personal experience, it is a pitfall many find themselves trapped in. And ironically, with this attitude is a reluctance for change; symbolically represented by his anger at Basha reworking their old home and buying new things.

The tables are turned as the character focus moves to Basha, but this isn't as fully fleshed out as the earlier scenes. It's material worth a whole new movie, so its exclusion is not as important to the overall arc of the story, which focuses on Popoy.

The couple's marital strife stems from a fundamental lack of communication and trust, something that was clearly evident in One More Chance. The film manages to avoid the cliche of making the source of their strife a third party. It is only through establishing clear lines of communication and a bond of trust that the relationship changes (either negatively or positively) in a meaningful way.

Pragmatism replaces idealism and austerity replaces exuberance, a sign of a maturing relationship where temperance and an ability to compromise becomes the priority for both husband and wife. At the same time, it still holds out some notion of idealism (with regards to Popoy's "Project X"), but it is a notion that is now firmly grounded in reality.

And yet, the film is a tribute to the tenacity of love. This is not a movie where love clicks into place, where two people are meant to be with each other. This is not a movie with are bells and whistles in every cute scene, where kilig is pathologic and everything is right with the world. It's a movie where love struggles on despite two people being grossly incompatible with each other, where their flaws stand out instead of their virtues. 

It stands in stark contrast with the standard romantic movie formula and movies that portray the excitement of inexperienced love. Borrowing the movie's own words, if the standard romantic movie was a relationship at its best, this is a relationship at its worst. Isn't that deserving of love as well?

Cinema One Originals 2015 Winners and Overall impressions

C1Originals Winners

Audience Choice Award: Baka Siguro Yata

Champion Bughaw Award: Manang Biring

Best Sound: Bukod Kang Pinagpala

Best Music: Manang Biring

Best Editing: Charliebebs Gohetia (Hamog)

Best Production Design: Bukod Kang Pinagpala

Best Cinematography: Dayang Asu

Best Screenplay: Ara Chawdhury (Miss Bulalacao)

Best Supporting Actress: Chai Fonacier (Miss Bulalacao)

Best Supporting Actor: Bor Lentejas (Hamog)

Special Recognition for Contributions to Philippine Independent Cinema:

Rox Lee

Joey Agbayani

Mike and Johnny Alcazaren

Nick Deocampo

Raymond Red

Best Actress: Teri Malvar (Hamog)

Best Actor: Dino Pastrano (Baka Siguro Yata)

Best Director: Bor Ocampo (Dayang Asu)

Jury Prize: Hamog

Best Picture: Manang Biring

I am happy with this turnout. 

Overall Impressions

Due to schedule conflicts it looks like I won't be able to see Dayang Asu, so I guess that wraps up my C1Originals coverage. It's been a blast writing about the festival and seeing all the films.

Other than Dayang Asu, there were a lot of films that I missed seeing thanks to me being busy as frak, especially the fantastic international films program. Kiyoshi Kurosawa had a film in the lineup (Kishibe no Tabi, or Journey to the Shore) as well as Oscar Foreign Film noms Mustang and Rams. Of course Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then is also there. I might pick up a DVD or something sooner or later. I have seen both The Assassin and A Pigeon Sat on A Branch Reflecting on Existence, but laziness is the mortal enemy of writing.

The overall lineup for this year was strong. After seeing the first three films I had my reservations but watching the rest of the films made me realize that the best was indeed saved for last. If I had to rank all of the films it would be:

1. Manang Biring is just good. It's overall good storytelling. The performances seal the deal. Feels na kung feels.

2. Baka Siguro Yata is all sorts of wonderful despite its flaws. Smart comedies are a weakness of mine and this one charmed the fuck out of me. It's one of the rare films that made me truly enjoy being inside a cinema.

3. Miss Bulalacao is daring and unique and it has a lot to say. There's a delightful kind of weirdness about it that adds to its overall charm. It's not perfect, but nothing ever is.

4. Hamog is tied with the entry below. It can get out of control at times, but my enjoyment partly stemmed from subverting my expectations about the film. Perhaps it could have trimmed some of the side stories to focus more on the two main character arcs in the film.

4. Dahling Nick is paced too unevenly for me, but overall is a great film. My viewing partner (who is relatively new to Joaquin's works) loved it way more than I did.

6. Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso is a snapshot of an interesting time, but without the context behind that snapshot, all you have is a picture that barely means anything to the uninitiated.

7. Bukod Kang Pinagpala is effective horror, but can be too densely layered at times. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

8. The Comeback is loud and funny. The loudness and humor are not for everyone, but those who do enjoy such things will have a great time.

That's about it! MMFF New Wave and MMFF main festival next month. Till then see you at the movies :3

Cinema One Originals 2015: Bukod Kang Pinagpala, Baka, Siguro, Yata, Miss Bulalacao, Dahling Nick, Manang Biring

Okay, so today was a busy day. Five competition films from Cinema One Originals (bringing my total to 8/9). I also ate a cookie at Starbucks. It was good. Today was a good day.

Bukod Kang Pinagpala establishes its atmosphere from its opening scene, and cultivates it from there. It aims and more or less succeeds in making an effective horror film. The horror is superficial, however, and its allegories point to a deeper meaning.

The conflict between mother and daughter could represent the rift between two generations; one rooted deeply in faith and superstition, the other, emerging from those roots with a level of understanding and skepticism. Their situation (the isolated home, the limited amount of characters) seems less like a real thing and more of a representation for something, which unveils itself by the end of the movie. For me, this notion is present from the very start; it is merely camouflaged by the film's exterior.

It can also be interpreted as a warning to those who too easily follow figureheads of faith, unaware that they may be demons in disguise. Scenes from the very end of the movie seem to indicte that the conflict between the two is reflected in our society as a whole.

In any case, the film paces itself deliberately. Although there are a few side plots here and there, the plot keeps it simple until the tension ratchets up by the third act. For all it's worth, Bukod Kang Pinagpala is a decent slow burn horror film that needs to be scrutinized further to reveal its multiple layers of meaning.

I have to admit, I've never had as much fun watching a local movie in recent memory as I did watching Baka, Siguro, Yata. It's made up of three love stories of couples reuniting, meeting for the first time, or coming to terms with the 'next level' of their relationship in the context of present day society.

The story often concentrates on the story of Carlo, a young professional who seems to be in a rut following a recent breakup, and Melissa, a photographer who has no real aspirations to have a relationship. In a plot development paralleling Judd Apatow's Knocked Up (2007), Melissa gets... knocked up. This event ripples outward, affecting Carlo's divorced parents an Melissa's sister and her boyfriend, leading them to reexamine their respective relationships.

The movie mostly works because of the script. It's natural, funny, witty, and accessible to the audience; in the screening I attended, many seemed to enjoy every minute of it. The entire ensemble cast is laudable, but props have to go to Dino Pastrano, who plays Carlo. He nails the comedic timing for most of his lines and his character seems like an okay guy to hang out with.

The social landscape for relationships in today's world - including our norms regarding love, sex and who to take as a partner - are changing more than ever. Many recent films (basically, anything without a cookie cutter plot) have taken steps to portray both heterosexual and homosexual relationships in the context of this paradigm shift.

It's by no means a perfect film. The filmmaking feels a bit safe in a lot of places. The ending could have been expanded a bit more, but I don't mind what I got. In the end, I really don't care, I enjoyed the hell out of this film.

Miss Bulalacao begins (on a nicely framed shot, too) with the question: what is the essence of being a woman? The film then proceeds to fill its running time ruminating on this question until the very end.

Dodong, a.k.a. Donna, a drag queen, lives a relatively quiet life in the sleepy coastal baranggay of Bulalacao. He gets the shock of his life when he realizes that he is pregnant. The film hints at the origin of this seemingly miraculous birth, but many residents believe the pregnancy to be of religious significance and treat Dodong's unborn baby to be the second coming of Christ.

At the beginning of the film, Dodong answers "motherhood" to the above question. And we see bits of this burgeoning motherhood in Dodong. It's obvious he is happy to be carrying the child, even up to the conclusion of the story. He basically obtains the "essence of being a woman." But this still doesn't mean that he is equal to women in the eyes of his fellow townsfolk; at first many treat him with the same prejudice that he received as a non-pregnant drag queen. His palpable reaction to his pregnancy is also a search for his own identity, one that he hopes will bring him closer to the womanhood he yearns for.

Dodong is not the only character that struggles with identity and faith in the movie. Many of the other characters exhibit biases and exert their own prejudices based on how they were brought up, or how our society treats LGBT individuals. We still have a long way to go. 

Some of the other plots don't pan out. The religious angle is played with, but is not as fully realized or explored. I wanted to see more of Dodong taking on the role of expectant mother, but the movie doesn't delve into it as much as it could have. Maybe that's the point, however. Even now, in our society, traditional norms and/or restrictions tied into our society's close bond with religion prevent some of our countrymen from experiencing motherhood, regardless of gender. In other words,  dogmatism and adherence to outdated traditions sometimes takes away our right to be what we want to be (i.e. mothers.)

The film takes a very unique approach to its central thesis, and I've seen regional filmmakers from both Visayas and Mindanao pushing the limits of narrative storytelling - telling very distinctive tales tied into their own culture. There's a certain sense of daring, bravura if you will, from the way they make their films. It's all very exciting stuff.

Nick Joaquin was a fantastic writer, one of the best (if not THE best) our country ever had. I learned about him in what little English classes I had in high school and college. There's a certain kind of lyricism in his prose and his poetry, and his persona was larger than life.

Dahling Nick explores Joaquin's life by dramatizations of his works, documentary-style interviews, and dramatizations of life events. On the whole it is utterly fascinating and a bit touching too.

The documentary parts of the movie involve esteemed writers, columnists, journalists and bigwigs in the Filipino literary scene. They are filmed as if you were having a drink with them somewhere, sharing bottles of San Miguel Beer (Joaquin's favorite drink). It helps in the immersion and hearing these colorful, respected literary men and women reminisce about Joaquin's life and works could constitute a movie unto itself. At the end there are eulogies for the man, and one can't help but shed a tear seeing how this man impacted the lives of others.

Joaquin is played by Raymond Bagatsing and he gives life to a man who sparred with his friends with his intellect, his wit and a certain amount of irreverence. These segments culminate in a scene during the Martial Law era when Joaquin's contemporaries were being persecuted by the Marcos government. These scenes are made even more timely given that next year's elections involve a Marcos. The Martial Law days were horrible times, and in an environment where free speech was largely suppressed (the antithesis of literature and journalism), people had to fight the system in their own way, with some sacrificing their honor and principle for the sake of others.

The dramatization of his works are probably the weakest part of the segments, as the editing ends up without restraint, resulting with some scenes being too long for their own good. Standouts, however, include a reference to his most famous short story, May Day Eve, and the sequence at the end of the film.

While the first half is too slowly paced for my taste, the second half of the film is marvelous, and well worth the three hour running time. Fans of Nick Joaquin and Philippine literature are in for a treat.

And finally, I was really interested in seeing Manang Biring after viewing the trailer. Not only did it seem like it would be an interesting character study of a woman with a terminal illness, it was also a rotoscoped animation film, the kind we've seen with Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006).

Manang Biring's story, that of a woman with terminal cancer desperately trying to stay alive to be able to see her estranged daughter, is very personal to me. Many close relatives of mine have struggled with cancer; my very own grandmother succumbed to breast cancer when I was a young adult - it helped catalyze my eventual pursuit of a medical career.

And thankfully, the movie really works - Erlinda Villalobos' portrayal of Manang Biring shows a woman grappling with the reality of her eventual death, and the moral and ethical decisions she has to make to keep herself alive. Her performance is nuanced, identifiable and heartbreaking at the same time. 

This doesn't mean the film is all doom and gloom - the film manages to find moments of levity in many of the situations it finds itself in. Much of Manang Biring is comedy, a very Filipino trait of finding humor in even the darkest of situations.

I have met and spoken with many cancer patients of differing backgrounds and their experiences mirror Biring's struggle to survive. It's a difficult battle, one that is helped by the support of family and friends. She may not have immediate family on hand, but Biring manages to attract a number of colorful individuals because of her condition. She serves a thief robbing her home a meal and gives him a job, perhaps out of loneliness and a desire for companionship. She engages in several businesses to help fund her chemotherapy. And as the final few months approach, she takes crazy measures to ensure a good Christmas with her daughter, at any cost.

The rotoscoped animation avoids being just a gimmick and adds to the overall impact of the film. They expand the limitations of filming normally, creating scenarios and images that can only be achieved with such a medium.

If only for its scope and ambition, Manang Biring is a fantastic film, one of the best in this year's festival. But its effective character study and an amazing performance by its lead actress both serve as icing on the cake.

Cinema One Originals 2015: Shorts Program,, Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso

My second day attending Cinema One Originals was at Newport Mall beside Resorts World Manila. I have to say other than IMAX those are the most comfy theater seats in any theater I've been to. Today, we talk about shorts and one competition feature.

WE WANT SHORT SHORTS SHORT SHORTS REVIEWS CINEMA ONE EDITION
Anino, a classic short by Raymond Red, was first up. Our main character, goaded by an enigmatic being (played by John Arcilla, no less) encounters life outside of his relatively sheltered existence taking photos for churchgoers. It seems arbitrary but it's not. It's very open to interpretation, and we are left wondering who the mysterious person is (is it part of the protagonist's psyche? a devil hovering over his shoulder? his conscience?)

Junilyn Has sets up a punchline, and it ends up really sticking to you in the end. Enter the ironies of amorality through moral facades. It's true that Junilyn Has (meron si Junilyn) but the phrase has a double meaning as well.

Dindo continues the trend from Martika Escobar's previous Pusong Bato in exploring one's fascination with nostalgia and the past (notably the cinematic past of our country.) This time it's about a boy's search for his father through the films they shared together. Dindo takes the fourth wall and drops a nuke on it. It's cleverly written.

This is the third time I've seen Sanctissima, and I think this was the cut I saw at Binisaya a few months back (I could swear the lesbian couple had dialogue, but I could be wrong.) Fellow moviegoers at the back were cringing at the horrific scenes, so it's still very effective. As a side note, having seen lots of dead fetuses in my line of work, the effects were spot on.

Reyna Christina is a coming of age tale. Tina's preparations and eventual walk at the local Santacruzan is a journey towards the realization of her own uncertain womanhood, the True Cross to her Santa Elena.

Pusong Bato is the struggle of man and woman, buried underneath imagery and sound. It is a bit hard to access, as we are left to uncover its meaning through our own interpretation. Also I think I saw a ship that the duo could have sailed to during the last moments of the film.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas reminded me of a much longer film, Ang Kubo sa Kawayanan, except that the other party (in this case, a woman) wasn't as pushy about people leaving them. It speaks a lot about our countrymen who end up leaving the country, little by little abandoning the things that they love (partially symbolized by the camera) until they are left with a promise they cannot keep. Sure, there is a good life abroad, but realities abroad are harsh, and as our protagonist puts down the camera to continue the work, life's not as happy as it seems. (The movie also hammers this in via a rendition of our very own national anthem, playing over the credits.)

I've already seen Memorya in the Binisaya film fest, but this seems to be the remastered version as everything sounds way better than the cut I saw, and the voices sound different. My opinions on it stay the same, aside from the obvious sonic improvements.

The Tenant is the first of two international short films in the program. A refugee lives in an old lady's house. A victim of political oppression, he still experiences PTSD from the sounds of helicopters. The film's ending mirrors his state in a country that hesitates to accept him, leaving him as a man with no country, a tenant with no place to truly call home.

And finally we have A Love Story, which is far more straightforward than I had expected (although of course the genre, being about undead flesh eating creatures, is what it is.) It's nice, but as zombie movies are becoming popular with mainstream audiences, stories like this abound even in places like Youtube.

And I guess it is appropriate to end where we started, with Raymond Red. His previous full length feature, Kamera Obscura, dealt with the filmmaker's relationship with his craft and the 'cinema' he has created. With his latest film, he goes a bit more personal with Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso, which is a fictionalized account of the infancy of Philippine independent and alternative cinema, a movement Red was heavily involved in.

The movie is set a few months after the EDSA revolution that changed the political and social landscape of the Philippines forever. There's a film festival going on, and it's on its last day. Rem (Felix Roco) is supposed to provide the closing film, but something is preventing him from finishing it.

Youthful rebelliousness and the climate of the times birthed creative and alternative movements, in this case, the alternative film scene and the punk scene. I guess there's something about wanting to go against the grain, a revolutionary spirit, so to say, that makes people go out and do unconventionally creative stuff. I've often heard about the beginnings of Filipino independent stories, but many were just anecdotes and fairy tales. This is the first film that I've seen that tackles this formative period in our cinematic history.

This has left me wondering why the director went for a fictionalized account of this event, instead of a direct documentary style treatment, or at least a mix of the two. I'm still weighing if either choice would have ended up better than the other. To many people who are aware of the history behind this cinematic movement, they would appreciate the film more. But without the historical context - the basis behind the film - I feel those viewers will not have appreciated the film as much as they would have had the treatment been different. The Q and A portion after the gala premiere solved much of those problems for me, but I wonder how other viewers, without the benefit of knowledge of these events, will react.

In a sense, many of the things that happened in this movie still happen today; back then, filmmakers also wondered whether to stay underground or go mainstream. Even now, the struggle for relevance and acceptance in a film industry headed by huge studio juggernauts continues. In the indie scene, independent filmmakers still ally themselves with like minded independent musicians - Sleepless, Ang Nawawala and Lisyun Qng Geografia are recent examples.

Mga Rebeldeng May Kaso is a snapshot, and at a brisk 75 minutes, it flies by. As a snapshot of a past generation, details and background information are inevitably lost in its creation. But watching the film only makes me want to learn more about the beginnings of a cinematic culture whose effects are being felt even today.

Cinema One Originals 2015: Hamog, The Comeback

Ralston Jover's follow up to Da Dog Show is also a tale about the marginalized in society. Hamog is officially translated to Haze for the purposes of this film, which refers to the "batang hamog," juvenile delinquents who live on the street, committing petty crimes.

Hamog tells the story of four such street kids, ho make a living stealing money and materials from hapless motorists. Each one has different backgrounds and different stories to tell, although the film mainly focuses on two: Rashid, who rejects a relatively comfortable life with his father to live in the streets, and Jinky, a fiery young girl who has an unusual encounter with one of her victims.

These kids are not necessarily poor or orphaned, some, like Rashid, have the choice of an otherwise comfortable life, but choose to live the life of the streets anyway, thanks to personal demons and a slew of family problems problems. Others come from very dysfunctional families and broken homes. They treat the street life as a means of escape, a means of freedom in a very restricting world.

And sometimes escape is not enough. One character seeks refuge through a phantom that he envisions might save him from his rut; only to realize that such things are delusion, and the real world has no superheroes.

Haze in another context gives these children invisibility; the police often encounter these children, and social services do exist to give them structure, but the ideal is far from reality. The law is either inept or inadequate to serve them or their families. One such case where Jinky is brought to a DSWD office shows that the usual method of counseling can't solve all these problems. In one scene a character grieves over another as he lays him to rest; but the scene shows that many of these children are children without a god, perhaps desperately searching for one.

The film also makes us ask ourselves if these children should still be treated as such in the eyes of the law, or in the context of crime. Something in these kids has died in the course of their hard life. Maybe you could call it their innocence, but the truth is far more complex. These are kids who are victims of a society who does not have the means or the will to take care of them. Their complex motivations put some of their dialogue into question; one of Jinky's monologues in the end seems straightforward, but in this context, I couldn't help but doubt the truth of her words.

The film benefits from a stellar child cast, of course Teri Malvar and Zaijan Jaranilla deserve accolades for their performance in this film. True to its social realist roots the film uses handheld footage and a palette filled with apathetic gray and light brown tones.

The film's ending  is a bit ambiguous, but my personal interpretation hints at a bit of redemption for at least one of the characters. However, despite that, life in the streets holds its own seductive allure, and for many of the other characters in the film, such a life is an inescapable one.

P.S. Rappler had an interesting look into these kids' lives here, if anyone is interested.

I enjoyed watching The Comeback. It feels relatively light, and it's funny in many places to boot. It, however, hides behind its glossy veneer a deeper story of a woman struggling to find the meaning in her life.

Angela Velasco (Kaye Abad) used to be a popular actress. However, her irascible nature has made her undesirable for directors both indie and mainstream, casting directors and producers alike. Down to the last of her finances, she decides to kill herself, but the arrival of a mysterious urn turns her life upside down.

Angela then encounters a range of colorful characters as she tries to investigate the urn. Their interactions are mostly played for laughs. There are moments of comedy, horror and drama put into a mix.

That said, the plot is all over the place. It even feels bipolar for some reason. There are jarring shifts in tone in some places in the film; one such instance has a very dramatic scene (with an exceptional performance by Maria Isabel Lopez) followed by... a party scene. We are left with little time to process our feelings from the last sequence as we are ushered into a completely different sequence with a completely different tone.

The urn is more or less a MacGuffin; the real story is with Angela and her relationship with herself and others, especially her loyal assistant who serves as her emotional core (whether she knows it or not.) The Comeback tries to make a conversation about people in the throes of depression, but I felt that the film was stopping short of making that conversation. It ultimately hesitates to confront this (admittedly sensitive) subject matter and instead buries that conversation behind comedy, which I felt undermined its ultimate thesis.

Kaye Abad carries this movie from start to finish; I am not very familiar with her body of acting work but I was seriously impressed by her performance here. She'd make a fine contrabida in a TV series (and maybe she is, but I just don't know about it.) A lot of the dialogue in this film was adlibbed, and it was a treat to see the noise and wit here.

First movies are often the most personal, and I really felt it in the treatment for this film. The plot may be a bit of a mess, but The Comeback is otherwise light, entertaining fare.