REVIEW: ‘Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita’

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

The big sleeper at the recently concluded CineFilipino Film Festival 2013, Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita tied with Ang Kwento Ni Mabuti for the festival’s coveted Best Picture prize. Its lead performer, newcomer child actress Teri Malvar, caused an upsent when she was proclaimed Best Actress, besting multi-awarded actress Nora Aunor, who was predicted to win the plum. A worthy answer to Auraeus Solito’s now-classic Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Huling Cha-Cha is a coming-of-age film by newbie filmmaker Sigfrid Andrea Bernardo about a young girl, Anita, who realizes her sexual identity when she starts falling in love with the new woman in the village.

Set in Obando, the film offers a subtext, conflicts larger than Anita’s own internal struggles, an underlying story from which Anita’s own saga is born and developed. Obando is known for its yearly fiesta that culminates in a mass fertility dance where townsfolk and devotees of Santa Clara partake of the festivities. Santa Clara, the town’s patron saint, is believed to be miraculous and grants the wishes of childless couples who, wanting to have children, join the dancing.

The narrative offers two parallel but somehow distinct worlds: the carefree world of children and that inhabited by adults who manage their domestic affairs and take part in community activities.

REVIEW: 'Ang Kwento ni Mabuti'

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

Morality gets thematic focus in Ang Kwento ni Mabuti, the latest full-length feature by maverick filmmaker Mes De Guzman, who is also a recipient of multiple awards from the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Shot entirely in Nueva Vizcaya, with dialogues rendered in the Ilocano language, the film is lifted by the noteworthy performance of Nora Aunor, dubbed the country’s "Superstar," as Mabuti de la Cruz, who faces a dilemma when she comes across a bag containing peso bills worth 5 million. Written and photographed by the director himself, Mabuti tied with Ang Huling Cha-cha ni Anita for the Best Film plum and won for De Guzman the Best Director and Best Screenplay awards at the recently held CineFilipino Film Festival 2013.

The story follows the pastoral life of Mabuti, a faith healer in a highland village who is known for her benevolence She practices traditional medicine without accepting payment for her services, and she takes care of the sustenance of the household, which comprises her mother and four granddaughters. Her son and daughter have left their children in her custody to seek livelihood elsewhere and do not give financial support for the kids. Complications come to the self-complacent and easygoing Mabuti when she learns, apart from her daughter being pregnant for the fourth time by a fourth lover, that the parcel of land on which their house and hillside farm are nestled will be sequestered if they can’t pay their overdue taxes.

2013 Sineng Pambansa and CineFilipino: Lessons and Realizations

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

September 2013 marked a milestone in Philippine Cinema and a celebration for all Pinoy cineastes. Besides a handful of well-made films that finally got their commercial run (notably Erik Matti’s On The Job, which was exhibited in the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival, Transit and Sana Dati, both big winners at Cinamalaya), a score of celluloid offerings were screened as part of two film festivals: Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival and CineFilipino Film Festival.

Two festivals of national scope staged for one week each, one after the other. Both fledgling. The former

is dubbed as the “All-Masters Edition” of the flagship project of the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP), in cooperation with SM Cinemas, whose theaters in Metro Manila and selected provinces served as the screening venues for the 10 feature films that formed part of the fest. The latter was mounted by PLDT Smart Foundation, TV 5, MediaQuest, Unitel and Optima Digital, with 8 features and 10 shorts that were exhibited in four locations: Resorts World Manila, Lucky Chinatown, Gateway Cineplex and EDSA Shangri-La. While the former boasted films made by some of the country’s veteran directors, the latter featured works by mostly newbie filmmakers.

REVIEW - Sineng Pambansa 2013: ‘Badil,’ ‘Sonata,’ & ‘Ano ang Kulay…?’ (Part 2)

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

Despite minor setbacks, the recently concluded 2013 Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival: All Masters Edition has produced a few noteworthy films from an otherwise lackluster lineup.

‘Badil’ – a modest masterpiece

 

Director: Chito Rono

Cast:  Jhong Hilario, Dick Israel, Nikki Gil

A microscopic look at vote buying in a rural town, it follows Nonoy (Hilario) as he takes over the duties of his father as the party leader in their area. As a rival party infiltrates their domain and threatens to “kill” their votes, Nonoy takes on the grueling task of monitoring the neighborhood and ensuring votes for their party. Beginning on the eve of the polls and ending the next morning on election day, the story depicts the moral dilemma of a man straddling between his loyalty to his father and his party affiliation and his personal happiness, which includes his pregnant girlfriend, an election officer and daughter of a rival party leader.

With Badil, Rono returns to his native roots in his home province of Samar, which serves as the perfect geographic milieu for the narrative. The rustic charm of the province is captured and rendered in colors that border on the dreary shades, in almost the monochrome of gray, perhaps highlighting the film’s theme and mood. A quick break comes with the crisp texture and tonal quality of the scene where Nonoy’s girlfriend is imagined ebulliently bathing in the sea. The squid hanging on a cord along the country road is a powerful imagery that foreshadows conflict and death, also a metaphor for badil, or dynamite fishing, or the tinting of those who have been bought by the other side, which translates to “killed” votes.

Sineng Pambansa 2013: Veterans, politics, sex (Part 1)

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

Sineng Pambansa 2013 set out to be an auspicious film festival that gathered some of the big-named directors in the country, hence its subtitle “All Masters Edition.” Whether the project turned out to be a success is a subject of another discussion. What matters for now is the Filipino moviegoers got treated to an eclectic lineup of celluloid offerings from the country’s seasoned filmmakers, especially those who have been away from the limelight for a long time.

The National Film Festival dished out a buffet of varying themes, genres, and styles. Love, in all its forms and varieties, permeates most of the films. Lihis exalts homosexual love. Bamboo Flowers explores love in its different forms:  filial, platonic, romantic. Tinik talks about a love that sacrifices and a love that grows. Badil essays a dutiful love for a father and family "honor," while Sonata trumpets renewed love for life. Love can also degenerate into its earthly permutation:  sex. It’s showcased in Otso. And it takes a perverted form in Lihis and Tinik, where a male straddles between heterosexual and homosexual intercourses. A three-way or a four-way affair is in order:  A man shared by a woman and another man in Lihis and Tinik; then a woman shared by three men and a man shared by two women in Otso.

REVIEW: ‘Transit’: Not just another OFW movie

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

A discussion on the representation of Filipino migrant workers in film is not complete without referencing Anak, probably the quintessential OFW movie. Other films like Caregiver, A Mother’s Story, and The Flor Contemplacion Story are also worth mentioning. Along comes Transit, a courageous film trudging a new trail on an already-familiar terrain:  the Filipino diaspora.

Helmed by young filmmaker Hannah Espia, Transit takes its viewers to Israel and tells the stories of five Filipinos living in constant agitation and anxiety. Janet (Irma Adlawan) and Moises (Ping Medina) are siblings with expired working visas. Yael (Jasmine Curtis) is Janet’s daughter sired by a former Israeli lover. Joshua (Marc Justine Alvarez) is Moises’ son with a former Pinay girlfriend who left them to marry an Israeli. Joshua stays with Janet and Yael in a cramped apartment while Moises works as a stay-in caregiver. Tina (Mercedes Cabral) is a newcomer who stays with them temporarily while she

tries to find employment. Janet is always watchful, making sure Joshua is hidden from authorities, be it with a shawl or in the safety of their abode. She forbids Yael from straying away from the apartment and tells her that she’s not Israeli and that new laws might result in her deportation. Meanwhile, the government has passed a new law that will deport children of foreign laborers who are less than 5 years old. Tension rises when Joshua gets caught and ordered for deportation.

REVIEW: A film cineastes and political observers should not miss (A Review of "On The Job")

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

On The Job is probably this year’s most important film. There are some reasons why. It is a neatly made film that tackles corruption in the bureaucracy and the political system. It is Erik Matti’s career’s best work. It was screened at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight section. It is one of Star Cinema’s grandest productions to date. It is slated for North American distribution by Well Go USA Entertainment this fall and is reported to have a U.S. adaptation. It stars two of local showbiz’s top heartthrobs. It features an award-winning performance by veteran actor Joel Torre.

Opening with scenes of local festivity disrupted by bullet shots from the trigger of Mario/“Tatang” (Joel Torre), the camera follows Tatang and his backup, Daniel (Gerald Anderson), along their journey back to their domicile:  the prison. What unravels is a complex web of characters and relationships that extend beyond the parameters of the penitentiary and involve power holders in government and the justice system. The virtual father-and-son duo of Tatang and Daniel draws some unlikely parallel with a partnership formed between NBI agent Francis Coronel Jr. (Piolo Pascual) and SPO1 Acosta (Joey Marquez), who form the “good” end of the spectrum. Tatang needs his job in order to win back his wife and send his daughter to law school. Daniel is being groomed as the heir apparent to Tatang, who is about to receive pardon. Coronel, meanwhile, whose father-in-law, Congressman Manrique, is running for a senate seat, gets assigned to take over a criminal case being handled by Acosta.

REVIEW: Vilma Santos shines as extra (A Review of 'The Bit Player' / 'Ekstra')

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

Vilma Santos is a screen legend and the country’s Star for All Seasons, whose career trajectory spans 50 years of playing lead roles which earned her box-office and critical successes. To cast her as an extra or bit player in a movie is almost unthinkable. Can she pass off as a bit player and effectively evoke the nuances of the role? Well, Ekstra (The Bit Player), the actress’s first foray into indie filmmaking, provides a more-than-adequate answer.

Helmed by acclaimed director Jeffrey Jeturian, Ekstra opens with scenes showing the character of Loida Malabanan (played by Vilma Santos) getting rejected for a house-help part for a soap opera production. The film officially starts when, one late night, she receives a booking for possible bit parts in another soap opera. She then prepares her costumes and things and, hours past midnight, with a co-extra friend in tow, heads for the meeting place for all the talents, from which a service van picks them up to transport them to the location shoot. Along the way, we get snippets, by way of humorous banters, of the talents’ struggles as industry workers, while the talent coordinator has to drop off along the highway two child talents, with their respective parents, who don’t fit the roles of young Piolo Pascual and Marian Rivera, the soap’s lead stars.

CINEMALAYA 2013: THE FRONTRUNNERS

(NOTE:  This post only covers the five entries for the festival’s Directors Showcase.)

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"Thy Womb" attempts at “greatness” but falls short

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza 

I watched Thy Womb immediately after its official MMFF run (This is a long-overdue review, actually), in one of the few remaining cinemas that were still exhibiting the film. I would not pass up a chance to watch it on the silver screen. There were a few reasons why. First, the film was highly touted as a quality art film that had made the rounds of some international film festivals. It was directed by Cannes-winning director Brillante Mendoza. And it starred one of Philippine Cinema's screen legends, Nora Aunor. All the news and hype promised a great cinematic experience.