Stripping the cinematic elements: Jun Lana's 'About Us But Not About Us'

Stripping Cinematic Elements in the film ‘About Us But Not About Us’

By Joey Ting

 

Acclaimed filmmaker, screenwriter and talent builder Jun Lana's "About Us But Not About Us", a film that touches on friendship, love, lust and betrayal in single time, location and action, also popularly called "the three unities" prescribed through the literary arc of an Aristotlean dramatic text, is a fourth-walled cinematic experience where the two main characters Eric played wittingly by ace actor Romnick Sarmenta and Lancelot played refreshingly by young actor Elijah Canlas have been the film's forefront.

 

As the film unfolds to declare the suspension of spectacle as its least concern as stated in the auditory and visual aspects of the filmic production, "About Us But Not About Us" presents the dynamics of cinematic powerplays in its unique rendition of dramatic elements such as its plot, character, idea, language, music (as rhythmical story patterns) while avoiding the theatricalities of spectacle's narrative turn of events in accordance to the rule of a tragedy manifesto where the characters ignite through speeches vis-a-vis dialogues (words) but not merely through visual actions and effects.

 

Excitingly to see this as a theater play rather than a cinematic product, it downplays, however, the idea of presenting film elements as sources of 'supposedly' symbols and metaphors in signified cinematic codes. It has alienated audiences in empathizing with the characters' well-mannered development, and putting a distinct fourth wall among its film viewers to detach themselves from seeping through the characters' enigmatic lenses. Hence, fitting to be a tribute to post-technology drama on the twenty-first century explorations on intellectualized cinematic perversions and orchestrations by simplistic and personified context of cinematic impulse and condensation.

 

Indeed, Lana has proven the vision of crushing the norms of cinematic codes, a brave attempt to diffuse the concretized visible and invisible elements in a narrative-driven experience. The film is a unique filmic masterpiece that has incidental references to Harold Pinter's engaging minimalism, Edward Albee's extreme absurdism, and, Tennessee Williams's poignant magical realism.