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.
In the weeks leading to the town festival, neighbors in a village are psyched up on the forthcoming festivities, while Anita and her two friends try to make the most of their summer break. Anita, according to her widowed mother, is a product of her parents’ devotion to Santa Clara. Her friends are children of her mother’s best friends. As Anita’s consciousness evolves, the film unravels, by way of gossipmongers, the stories of people that populate the village.
In the weeks leading to the town festival, neighbors in a village are psyched up on the forthcoming festivities, while Anita and her two friends try to make the most of their summer break. Anita, according to her widowed mother, is a product of her parents’ devotion to Santa Clara. Her friends are children of her mother’s best friends. As Anita’s consciousness evolves, the film unravels, by way of gossipmongers, the stories of people that populate the village.
The village
gets abuzz when a bewitching woman named Pilar (Angel Aquino), a former
resident, returns after years of working in Dubai and sets up a small physical
therapy business in her hut. Her neighbors haven’t forgiven her for not coming
home when her father was ill and passed away, and rumors have it that she had
her baby with Oscar, Anita’s cousin, aborted before she left the village. Anita
gets drawn to Pilar’s allure and, boosted by the latter’s friendly and
welcoming demeanor, develops deep feelings for her. Her mother becomes aware of
her daughter’s evolving sexual preference and gradually concedes and then later
on gives her nod of acceptance when Anita confesses her feelings for her
inamorata. Meanwhile, the old flame between Oscar, whose girlfriend is
pregnant, and Pilar gets rekindled, while the latter’s massage enterprise gets
flak from wives of men who line up for Pilar’s services.
The plot escalates
when a pregnant girl and her mother press Pilar, by reminding her of her past wrongdoing
and the favor they gave her when they nurtured her sick father while she was
away, to perform an abortion despite her express disapproval. It reaches its climax
when one night Anita, meaning to express her love for Pilar, gets her first
dose of frustration upon seeing her cousin leaving Pilar’s house and Pilar
running after him, embracing him and pleading to reconsider their relationship.
The event proves a shock to Oscar, who has known of his cousin’s feelings, but
more so to Anita, who is clueless about the two’s liaison. Pilar is later on shown
crying, consuming large doses of pills.
Come Obando’s fiesta,
Anita gets to dress up the way she likes it. She sees Pilar, seemingly frail
and infirm. She follows her to her house, where the latter collapses. She takes
care of her until she’s better. As a token of appreciation, Pilar then gives
Anita the full-body massage she’s been saving up for, and the former tells the
girl why she left the place and did not come back when her father died. Anita
never saw Pilar again after that. The film closes with the adult Anita joining the
town fiesta, with flashbacks of past festivities and with imaginings of Pilar.
Fertility
Dance
Obando’s famous
fertility dance serves a central symbolic significance for the story. While the
dance offers hope for devotees and people like Anita’s mother who yearn for
offspring, gestation gets aborted for others who are not asking for it. A
striking contrast is drawn between a neighbor giving birth, on the one hand,
and a teenage girl terminating her pregnancy, on the other. A greater irony is
presented by Anita, the story’s central character, whose sexual orientation
renders the fertility rites obsolete, such that even if she participates in the
dancing and the merriment, the act is but merely token, an act that takes on a
sentimental value that reconnects her to her community and transports her to a
past well remembered.
The film is a
tribute to tradition and heritage, but it also shows realities of life that may
not be in consonance with established norms but will persist and, in one way or
another, change a community or a society at large.
Outcasts
Huling Cha-Cha is a portrait of outcasts in society: a blossoming
lesbian in Anita and the reviled Pilar. Anita represents the more tolerated of
the spectrum as she is still a kid showing signs of deviant behavior and
mannerisms. Despite early signs of lesbian tendencies, her mother tries to
suppress her daughter’s developing homosexuality by having her join the Santacruzan
and wear a gown, to which Anita shows her disapproval by cutting her her short.
Pilar, on the
other hand, represents the detested outcast, the pariah. She is the equivalent
of Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang’s Kwala,
but perhaps even worse. She is not only ostracized, she is also vilified. Her
return is taken by the villagers as bad luck. To the people, she is the
prodigal daughter, an abortionist, a whore who is out to tempt all men, married
or single. She is told by Anita’s mother that she should not have returned.
But unlike
Anita who gets her mother’s acceptance, Pilar is forced by circumstances into
damnation. In a way, the story mirrors society’s relatively tolerant attitude toward
lesbianism. People being more tolerant of lesbians than, let’s say, gay men is perhaps
explained by the still-patriarchal society that ascribes more
validity to masculinity than to femininity or effeminacy. Thus metro denizens
may have accustomed themselves to seeing lesbian partners kissing and holding
their hands in public, but a sight of two men holding hands will probably
elicit negative reactions from them.
Parallels
with Mabuti
Interestingly, Huling Cha-Cha draws some parallels with Mabuti, its fellow Best Picture awardee. First, their title is both
eponymous, named after their main protagonists. Second, they both have rural
locales as their setting: the former has Obando, the latter has Nueva Vizcaya. Third,
they both employ the name “Santa Clara” to refer to the saint, in the former,
and to a village, in the latter. Fourth, they both have something to tell or
show about the community within which their stories are set. Fifth, their
protagonists, Anita and Mabuti, are both in the throes of personal crisis: the
former an identity crisis, the latter a moral one.
Both films deserve
kudos for featuring two distinct local cultures that need preservation: the
tradition-rich Obando, which is bound to lose its significance amid influx of
modern values, and Nueva Vizcaya, whose forest cover has seen gradual
denudation over the years. Beyond these similarities, Huling Cha-Cha distinguishes itself as the film that has far more
interesting characters and stories.
Summation
Many things are
going on that, all together, contribute to the story’s integrity. Even the
banters among the kids do not seem to deviate from the narrative’s course but
rather provide light-hearted chuckles from the viewers. Their innocent world of
cavorting and innocuous conversations is juxtaposed with the issues and the gossipings
of the adults. Anita is the focal point from which all stories and characters
radiate and emanate. Although the story is not narrated from Anita’s
perspective, Anita’s eyes and ears are privy to many of these happenings.
Despite the
many issues touched on, the narrative tends to focus on Anita’s awakening and relegates
the seemingly larger issues of the adult characters to the background. The film
spends too much time on Anita’s consciousness building and coming to terms with
her sexuality. The enlightenment, though, seems premature, and the girl’s rather
too-early disposition towards romantic aspirations may come across as contrived
just to lend to the story a certain measure of sensationalism. The film
triumphs, still, by espousing rebellion as a tool for emancipation. But while
it is successful for Anita who thwarts every attempt to suppress her feelings,
it proves onerous for Pilar who defies a community to regain her self-worth.
Malvar’s
central performance as Anita is flawless. She is natural in light moments
and evokes the right emotions in heavy dramatic scenes. She has an innate
talent as a young actress that is different from those of the stable of child talents
manufactured by the country’s top TV networks. While the so-called “child stars”
are camera-conscious and deliver their dialogues with measured cadence, Malvar’s acting
is in line with her character and more reflective of how a normal child speaks
and moves absent a camera. Ditto for the other two kids, who shine in their
comedic scenes. Aquino delivers a fine portrayal, especially in her last scenes.
Ensemble acting is good.
RATING: 9/10
SEE ALSO:
(Click
on title to go to blog post)REVIEW: Ang Kwento ni Mabuti
2013 Sineng Pambansa and CineFilipino: Lessons and Realizations
No comments:
Post a Comment