'Parasite' (2019)

Genre: Drama

'1917' (2019)

Genre: War Drama

How to win an Oscar: Cinematic devices of Bong Joon-Ho’s ‘The Parasite’ and Sam Mendes’s ‘1917’

By Joey Ting

            Winning an Oscar trophy in the prestigious Hollywood award-giving body assures each of the filmmaker to finally rest on their laurels and pave the way for another chapter in their so-called artistic film careers. Having the speech onstage as one accepts the award is another daunting yet nerve-wracking obligation despite the prepared monologue and the long-list of gratitude to the artistic and production team of the film that has been recognized. Most especially, if the film announced as run-away winner comes from Asia, a transitionary evidence that this continent will rule the next phase of the world. As Daniel Pink’s book ‘A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers will rule the Future’ states, ‘In recent years, few issues have generated more controversy or stroked more anxiety than outsourcing. These four programmers and their counterparts throughout India, the Philippines, and China are scaring the bejeezus out of software engineers and other left-brain professionals in North America and Europe, triggering protests, boycotts, and plenty of political posturing.’

            In this time of the conceptual age where everyone cares about primarily of their ‘almost’ digitalized life, uniqueness and stamina are two providential characteristics significantly require to sustain the eligibility of being exceptional and genius in the industry of innovative cinema of the world. Brilliant filmmakers South Korean Bong Joon-Ho and British Sam Mendes have acquired it throughout their carefully-mapped out entertainment careers.

            ‘Parasite’ (2019) is an oxymoron where we all thought has something to do with another alien annihilation-type of a film since Bong’s highlighted filmography ranges from crime drama ‘Memories of Murder’ (2003) to a monster film ‘The Host’ (2006) to a post-apocalyptic dystopic thriller ‘Snowpiercer’ (2013) to genetically-modified superpig film ‘Okja’ (2017). His latest has become his most simply-made but socially-relevant to our times these days. The film basically touches on ‘poverty’ and how the victims of it such as, this protagonist family, have used their creativity and ability to bend norms in order to survive and live like real human beings in this decadent world. To indoctrinate the seamless plot, the film action moves like a wind and without the aesthetic disturbances and careless efforts of the filmmaker. Every element in the film has become an ally of the powerful story which made the cinematic experience so extraordinary and poignant, almost like an entirely Philippine-made. Thanks to National Artist for Film Lino Brocka for exceptionally woven the intricacies of social realities of Manila and the weeping characters to it. Bong’s revelation was that he got inspired from the works of Brocka in an interview he had for the film promotion of ‘Parasite.’ Bong has studied BA degree in Sociology at Yonsei University in S. Korea where he has become active as social activist who went out to streets to defend the victims of the hypocrisies of society.

            ‘1917’ (2019) is, obviously, a British epic war, an account of which was told by Mendes’s paternal grandfather Alfred Mendes. The two young soldiers have obliged to deliver an important message to stop the attack to the Germans as the soldier’s brother has to be saved from the massacre. Filmmaker Sam Mendes is known to be a theater director of many dark-themed approach productions such as his works in Cabaret (1994), Oliver (1994), Company (1995), Gypsy (2003), and has made a West-End hit musical The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013). His films later have become instant contemporary classics such as American Beauty (1999), Road to Perdition (2002), Revolutionary Road (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015). He has received recognitions from his body of work and pronounced as one of the outstanding film directors of the 21^st century by the Daily Telegraph and the Directors Guild of Great Britain. His film ‘1917’ has acquired almost a grand slam in international awards because of the film’s meritorious cinematic elements most especially its cinematographic properties and the filmic style of continuous shot and long takes conception. His story is equally brilliant as I see fit as its greatest strength as well as the actors who have portrayed the characters so natural and engaging. Therefore, summative of the film’s exceptionality and ingenuity.

The two films ‘Parasite’ and ‘1917’ have commonly used powerful devices that made it to winning in international awards and of course, to the hearts of millions of people who have seen it.

            First, the use of unity of time, place and action where the plot is of prominence. Urged by Greek philosopher and artist Aristotle in his seminal essay ‘The Poetics’ that drama should have the unity of time, place, and action. The film ‘Parasite’ has started the plot with the use of time (when the time-bound conflict and peripety has evolved as soon as the doorbell rings), place (where the action and tragedy takes places in the elegant mansion), and action (how the characters are intertwined and trapped to solve to its end). While, ‘1917’ sequentially tells the audiences of the three unities where the event of the war is macroscopically dissected using the two young soldiers in the film. Evident in the film, the conflict is in the time (as message is delivered in a given time otherwise), place (dangerous and destructive), and action (the only plotline curved to focus on the transfer of communication through messengers despite barriers and obstacles). Aristotle’s provocations have been transparent and obvious as successful devices in cinema.

            Second, the discursive ‘romantic realism’ as a device to substantiate the story, has been very evident in the two films. Despising poverty by the majority is an opposite to the films ‘Parasite’ and ‘1917’. The characters move freely without hindrances and obstacles, making it romantically realistic. In realities of life, major factors momentarily have stopped us from dreaming, hence, fulfilling our reachable dreams. In the film ‘parasite’, the family members – son, daughter, father, and mother – chronologically establishes their dream to overcome poverty through lies, falsifications, pretense, and killings. These wrong accentuations have instead become their allies in quest for ultimate happiness and contentment and romanticizing the wrong as right. In the film ‘1917’, the British trenches have been endangered with telegraphs cut and many dead soldiers seen everywhere but the two young British soldiers lance corporals Tom Blake and William Schofield, a survivor of Somme, are ordered by Gen. Erinmore to deliver an important message to Colonel Mackenzie of the second battalion of the Devonshire Regiment to call off a scheduled attack that would probably jeopardize the lives of 1600 men including Blake’s brother, Lieutenant Joseph Blake. In the two soldiers’ journey, like in a maze or characters from a current video game, it romantically provides the travails of the two overcoming the struggles, challenges,and difficulties no matter what happens. In the scene where the rats underground faulted the explosives by dropping it, the two hurdles the explosion, running hurriedly outside of the camp and nothing has paused them from handling the message. Romantic realism is defined as historian Jacques Barzun would state that ‘the romantic realist does not blink his weakness, but exerts his power’, a providential evidence to the two films marked to be exceptional.

            Third and the last, both films have tackled history, culture, and class struggle in very similar but different ways. Bong’s direction is diachronic in nature that the plot has evolved time urgently manifested into a preconceived time unity. His strong sense of culture is made universal, applying to even in Asian economic condition. Mendes’s direction is more synchronic in nature that the plot has also evolved time urgently manifested at a particular point in time, as synchronically used in history which defines the class struggles and cultures in military exercises such as war.

            Whichever one would choose to be its Best Picture as Oscar’s Best Director’s penultimate recognition, the pattern is emphasized, designed to propagate the success of innovation and development in history and culture of the world. Similar to Ms. Universe pageants where at times, the Americans and Europeans have been consistently recognized, and at varying times, the Asians are crowned and glorified. Film artists in all countries of the world, of course, would love to bring home a legacy and history like Bong Joon-Ho and Sam Mendes who tirelessly strive for the recognitions it deserves. Philippine cinema is just an inch away from winning the Oscar’s if not for Cannes, Venice, and Berlinale. 

'UnTrue' (2020)

Genre: Mystery Suspense Drama

‘UnTrue’ sets a grayer standard in both film and plot making

By Joey Ting

The film ‘UnTrue’ (2020), produced by The Idea First Company and released through Viva, sets a grayer standard in both film and plot making which an ordinary Filipino audience member would not really appreciate much of the film if not for the celebrity cast Xian Lim and Christine Reyes.

The film making style of famed ‘Kita Kita’ (2017) director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo is usually to say the least temperamental and moody, perhaps depending on her aesthetic mood of love and despair on specific points in her life and times.

In the case of my favorite ‘Ang Huling Cha Cha ni Anita’ (2013) where flashback and flashforward styles stem from the known filmic techniques of William Wyler’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1939), Orson Welles’s ‘Citizen Kane’ (1941), Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’ (1950) and Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) and ‘Kill Bill (2003 and 2004 sequels) among many other unconventional cinematic spectacles, the character of a 12-year old Anita falls in love with an older woman disposing of her mysterious looks, charm and appeal that would eventually carve into a more vivid cinematic styles of expressionism, surrealism and the other tangible art movements in Europe during the advent of the world wars. Director Bernardo has displayed her knowledge and skills in film making through her theatrical and media background for sure and her frequent travels in other parts of the world.

In some of the scenes in the film, actors Xian Lim (plays the character of Joachim) and Christine Reyes (portrays Mara) as set in the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe of the country Georgia, it only backdrops Georgia as an environmental setting but failed to relevantly intersperse with the human-ness of the characters. At some points in the film, it disengages with no intentions and eventually leads up to the idleness of the viewing audiences. There were no doubts about the acting skills of the two main actors but the film excessively diminishes the aesthetics of the intentional expressionism in the film, a grotesque cinematic interpretation of externalized behaviors of these characters as dictated by its physical environment. Thus, setting a gray-scaled standard in film making. However, the expressionist styles have been very effective for the plot it possesses.     

In terms of plot making, ‘Untrue’ is of the same plane and vision as it provides the spectrum of ‘what ifs’ theory in motion pictures. Tom Twyker’s German thriller ‘Run Lola Run’ (1998) and Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese expressionist film ‘Rashomon’ (1950) version, have been the reflexive nuances of the film. Both of these two films have acquired international recognitions and awards due to the innovations made in world cinema. Director Bernardo has that quality if only for her definitive plot styles which usually her storytelling device. The course of her plot movements is deconstructed and bent with intentions, not of natural ways but of seeing and riding with her asymmetrical perspectives. The plot, as it thickens, provides actions of different versions. Hence, a repetition of scenes, dialogues spoken by the two characters. The Joachim character could have been done interestingly by another actor. Lim has his own share of greatness in the film but most of the time without its sincerity. Reyes could have been clearer in her subtlety of expressive acting. Physicalizing anger and forging mental breakdown must be from within and not the surface one since the director implies beautifully the film’s sculpture. Len Calvo (music), Boy Yniguez (cinematography), Maolen Fadul (production design) have been very helpful in realizing the director’s vision. Editing though could have been more experimental and unpredictable. The plot uncovers in the end the intertwined stories retold in like a police blotter’s report as well as the psychiatrist’s sessions. Also, the dark past stories have been excessively melo-dramatized bringing down many of the scenes to idle.  

There are high moments of the film and most of which are the quietest. Scenes have been approached so loudly and literal, putting the delineation between clear black and white and smoky gray areas in the film. The film’s sensibility is not meant for the Filipino mass. Great luck to the rest of the cast and crew of the film’s international release and in competition with the various film festivals abroad. I hope Director Bernardo can bring home something we can all be proud of.       

 

'Block Z' (2020)

Genre: Horror Thriller

Mikhail Red’s ‘Block Z’ excites the new generation of audiences

By Joey Ting

Watching films has always been some kind of an escape for me whenever I was not hiding behind the hangered clothes in my room’s closet. It has become part of my weird personality to hide whenever debates of my parents soared up at the top of their lungs in the living room and avoiding not to be scolded by them because of some non-performing grades in school. In the closet, I see nothing but darkness, of course, since I would even turn off the lights of the room and pretend that I am in my brother’s. In darkness, my imagination really works, terribly scaring myself out and developing that fear into a nightmare in sleep. Since then, my attraction for suspense-horror genres in films has never stopped until this date.

‘Block Z’, directed by Mikhail Red, is a suspense-horror Filipino film that touches on the holocaust of ill-fated virus. In turn, people who have become victims of this virus have transformed themselves into an army of zombies, reflexive of the previous zombie films we’ve had in the past years such as – British film director Danny Boyle’s ’28 Weeks Later’, then the sequel, ’28 Days Later’; German-born Swiss film director Marc Forster’s ‘World War Z’ and the sequel upcoming. Netflix’s ‘Cargo’ is synonymous as well as the film tackles a pandemic virus in Australia. Its directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke have treated the setting in post-apocalyptic aftermath. There were several previous films that have easily turned out into cult classics: ‘Dawn of the Dead’ (1978, 2004), ‘Return of the Living Dead (1985), ‘The Serpent and The Rainbow’ (1988), ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968), ‘I am Legend’ (2007), ‘Resident Evil’ (2002) including the Korean Asian hit zombie apocalyptic ‘Train to Busan’ (2016).  

Distributed by Star Cinema, this ABS-CBN Film production in collaboration with Keep Filming, features young talented resident network’s film and television personalities of today’s generation. Taking the lead is Julia Barretto who plays the role of PJ, an OJT medical student of a university along with Joshua Garcia (Lucas), a varsity basketball player, Maris Racal (PJ’s best friend), Yves Flores (Gelo, class president), McCoy De Leon (best friend of Lucas), Myrtle Sarrosa (an ally of Gelo) while veteran actress Ina Raymundo portrays the conflicting mother character with child star-turned-leading man Ian Veneracion who plays the compassionate father. Dimples Romana, from the famed TV soap ‘Kadenang Ginto’ among others, portrays a different character, this time as a lady school guard. The ensemble of the cast is impeccable as shown in their variety of intensity, rhythm and clarity in their character performances. Stand outs could be given to Garcia who has displayed natural truth in struggle and providing sharpness in his performative skills while Racal surely ignites the pulse of sincerity and truth in her portrayal handling both humor and seriousness. Theater character actor Timothy Castillo was a positive scene stealer in the film. He has helped make audiences laugh and scream at the same time. Castillo’s innate acting ability has made him contributed a lot in the film.  

Red is known to have directed critically-acclaimed films such as ‘Birdshot’, a 2016 Tokyo International Film Festival’s Best Asian Film in the Asian Future Section, currently streaming in Netflix. He also directed ‘Eerie’ (2019) under a Singapore-based film company and Star Cinema starred in by Bea Alonzo and Charo Santos. It was in the film ‘Dead Kids’ (2019) where Red has acquired a solid reputation as an international filmmaker, streaming as well in Netflix and served as his main producer. Though Red’s directorial style could have been succinct if some scene intentions have been clarified further especially in the last minutes of the film where Barretto finally decided to finish what has to be done to fulfill its ending.

Undeniably, music, scored by Paul Sigua and Myka Magsaysay-Sigua, makes it as one of the film’s strengths. It did capture the balance between pop and thematic styles specifically when scenes did not call for it. Cinematographer Steven Paul Evangelio tandems successfully with the music. Evangelio provides the necessary frame compositions and lighting techniques to evoke the suspension of disbelief from the audiences. Those shaky camera movements done intentionally brought a deeper sense of discomfort. Editing transitions have helped immensely move the action forward where most of the scenes have fast-paced rhythm. Although competent production design was evident, it lacked interpretation and cinematic symbols. Art direction could have been cerebral to elate the discourse of horror genre rather than make it literal. Over all, the film’s message is very clear and Red’s film direction has captured the tested formula of this genre. I just hope Red gets to evolve and translate future film materials into an IGen’s revolutionary interpretation that would fit to all generations and perhaps landing an Oscar’s nod someday.

‘Block Z’ opens in cinemas nationwide on January 29, 2020.

2019 Metro Manila Film Festival Entry
'Culion' (2019)
Genre: Drama 

The film ‘Culion’ could have been the MMFF’s Best Picture

By Joey Ting

Among the list of official entry films for this year’s annual Metro Manila Film Festival, the film ‘Culion’ could have been cited as the Best Picture. Though this could only happen if the film production team considers the aesthetics a little bit sidetracked (a misnomer artistic team which includes director Alvin Yapan, writer Ricky Lee and cinematographer Neil Daza) and hitting really the central point of the theme’s objectives and nature in its rawest and purest dictate.

I have followed filmmaker Alvin Yapan’s cinematic career and bumped into him one time during the producer’s call for more screenplay entries in now hibernated TO FARM Film Festival years back, and, formerly chaired by the late contemporary film stalwart Maryo J. De Los Reyes. In focus, Yapan’s works speak for itself, regularly both as a writer and director, as in the case of his previous films ‘Oro’ (2016), ‘Ang Tulay ng San Sebastian’ (2016), ‘Ang Sayaw ng Kaliwang Dalawang Paa’ (2011), and ‘Ang Panggagahasa Kay Fe’ (2009) to name a few of his outstanding cinematic works and it really were exceptional because of his sensibilities towards character mapping towards an ultimate goal, structured narrative storytelling and well-thought of mise-en-scene (compositional shots and camera motions). He always does this in each of his carefully-analyzed film after film. He knows I’m a fan of his works as I watched all of them religiously, but at the same time, also a critic and a colleague of his in the industry. His films usually stand out among the other selections because of his usual brave attempts to make it his vision mysterious, often, thought-provoking. Yapan is known for his character intricacies where he makes his cast ensemble dive into making the known unknown which proves of his skill as an academic head and Ateneo De Manila Filipino professor for more than a decade of educational involvement in service.  

Another indicator where ‘Culion’ could have been bagged the Best Film is through the omniscient presence of multi-awarded screenwriter and mentor of many today’s scriptwriters and directors Ricky Lee in the film. His hundreds of cinematic works have shown excellence in his almost tireless number of screenplay credits which we should not forget films like ‘Jaguar’ (1979), ‘Carnival Queen’ (1981), ‘Haplos’ (1982), ‘Himala’ (1982), ‘Karnal’ (1983), ‘Olongapo…The Great American Dream’ (1987), ‘Gumapang Ka Sa Lusak’ (1990), ‘Andrea, Paano Ba Ang Maging Isang Ina’ (1990), ‘Separada’ (1994), ‘Madrasta’ (1996), ‘Miguel/Michelle’ (1998), ‘Jose Rizal’ (1998), ‘Anak’ (2000), ‘Deathrow’ (2000), ‘Sabel’ (2004), ‘Justice’ (2014), and ‘Ringgo: The Dog Shooter’ (2016) just to name the countless films he has written for film. Though majority of them have turned out to be hits in box office and critics’ choices, some have been missed out. Ricky Lee is not just a stalwart. He has written film screenplays to make film audiences realize societal decadence, issues and critical conditions. He made those pivotal periods infallible source of facts and information. He has provided trust-worthy research and immersions.

Lastly, ace cinematographer Neil Daza speaks for the images. With his countless works in the advertising commercial worlds to television glossy-heavy to cinematic sparks, one has to realize how he would have driven the motion of his images as projected to the screen’s language. Films he has handled are ‘Signal Rock’ (2018), ‘The Ghost Bride’ (2017), Etiquette for Mistresses (2015), ‘Emir’ (2010), ‘Feng Shui’ (2004), ‘Dekada ‘70’ (2002), ‘La Vida Rosa’ (2001), ‘Laro Sa Baga’ (2000) and ‘Spirit Warriors’ (2000) just to name a few as well for his countless crucial works in the entertainment industry. He gives what the client wants (in this case, the film’s producer, filmmaker and screenwriter). Though a chief storyteller in the cinematic field, cinematographers usually have to actualize the vision of the film director as well as the screenwriter’s sequence requirements. Daza has the impediment to obstruct whatever he wants on the screen without prior approval of the director, screenwriter and producer. The bureaucratic principles and systems in a capitalist state such as the film’s organizational map out and structure.

With the three outstanding artists combined in one film is obviously a fallacy-in-the-making. The film works best if the breathing smell and natural odor of the story comes out from the mouth of its creator. In the case of ‘Culion’, the diseases did not make the audiences feel uncomfortable, not because of the exceptional visual make-up and prosthetic effects but because no character’s perspective is telling the truth of the leper colony. There must be a single character who would function as in the French term ‘raisonneur’ (author’s character). The filmmaker must narrate the history with a cinematic perspective which, of course, has become invisibly hallucinogenic and sympathetic. This character shoud have told the nuances of the leprosy carriers (Iza Calzado, Meryll Soriano, and Jasmine Curtis-Smith with Joem Bascon. Mike Liwag, Suzette Ranillo and cameo appearances of John Lloyd Cruz, Mercedes Cabral, Joel Saracho, Ruth Alferez) and their other characters in the film the most imaginable and fictionally-described to understand the nature of the victims and how it affects its environment. The ‘raisonneur’ must have helped clarify the film audiences’ understanding of the narrative without the loss of ‘involvement’ and ‘engagement.’ The aesthetics have become an overwhelming to handle such delicate, if not sensitive, film’s performance. Nevertheless, Yapan is not a failure in the film, not the cinematographic properties of Daza nor the narrative structure of Lee but the decision to make it a replicated history is not a favored feature in memory depicting history and accuracy. ‘Culion’ should have been a fictional drama inspired from the history of the American rule in a deserted island of leper colony in Culion, Northern Palawan.  

‘Culion’ has never attracted the masses due not to the nature of the film but through the missing historical viewpoint of this unforgettable and painful memory of the present.  ‘Culion’ could have been the MMFF’s Best Picture for 2019. ‘Culion’ is produced by Shandii Bacolod under the iOptions Ventures Company running for 136 minutes with English subtitles on it. The film ‘Culion’ is still noteworthy to see and experience.

2019 Metro Manila Film Festival Entry

'Mindanao' (2019)
Genre: Drama

‘Mindanao’ is real and deserves our serious attention as Filipino film audiences, not as elitists but as social changers and believers

By Joey Ting

Undoubtedly, the film ‘Mindanao’ is real. In many aspects, particularly the plight of the Mindanaoans, against injustices brought about by corruption, rebellion, drugs syndication, poverty and diseases, the film describes what realism can do to change our perceptions towards abuse of power and social struggle on lands territorialized by the pros and cons of the government.

A 59-year old production designer for advertising turned multi-awarded filmmaker Brillante Ma. Mendoza, is now an important figure / personality in contemporary Philippine cinema today, an instrumental for peace influence in the country, not too late an age to contribute to the very confused and intertwined entertainment and film industry’s diaspora. Hence, the full wisdom, experience and immersive process brought Mendoza in his films into a pedestal of respect and honor. The government film agencies should start curating his body of work that depicts an extended form of combinations silhouetting Mike De Leon’s expressionism, Ishmael Bernal’s surrealism, Lino Brocka’s social realism and now, young Mikhail Red’s hyperrealism. The embodiments of these forms provide Mendoza’s truthful naturalism, almost like a ‘Cinema Verite’ in the 60s of French filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch and the term at present.

In ‘truthful naturalism’, as I proposed in contemporary film interpretation of auditory and visual procedures, the theoretical description emancipates a chilling effect, almost anxious and physically disturbing to audiences who are capacitated with health problems and issues towards heart problems, hypertension and other blood-related diseases. This happens when you get to watch purposively cinematic films as therapeutic as ‘Mindanao’ to confront change in the existing body system, Furthermore, it values an explanation on the discomfort of natural sensitivities and sensorial impediments such as the feast of eyes and ears to hurdle the delicate balance of trusting the film and denying it as a form of entertainment.

However dangerous, ‘Mindanao’ only captures the elitists; the educated, the intellectualists, not the ‘so-called’ masses of vendors, farmers, fishermen, rural townspeople, rebels and poverty level victim of parasites because the filmmaker’s approach has never been ‘empower-mental’ to them; to society; to nation, nor it has never been ‘temperamental’ to strengthen the anthropological behavioral patterns and much awareness of the masses to change. The dilemma is, of course, hypocritical since I see these characters as ‘victimized’ by the leisure of power in entertainment. More so, the works of director Mendoza capitalize on preferentially the ‘victims’ of the social ills and decadence. Mendoza cannot end it with that state condition. He needs to go beyond the film and stir a propaganda or movement  of people empowerment and action.

‘What do you want to happen Direk?’ is a serious question from the contemporary criticism of art and society. You have given us films ‘Ma’Rosa’ (2016), ‘Thy Womb’ (2012), ‘Lola’ (2009), ‘Kinatay’ (2009), ‘Serbis’ (2008), ‘Tirador’ (2007), ‘Kaleldo’ (2006), ‘Masahista’ (2005). Why do you victimize the real people from your characters in all of your films? How would you explain the plight of these real people when all you need to do, as you have said in your previous interviews, is to TELL A the STORY? After you tell a story, what happens to the ‘victims?’ In the animation and the famous for the older generation, the epic ‘Indarapatra’t Sulayman’ are characterized by chieftain heroes in Mindanao who laboriously fight against fantastical characters of throwing fires dragons to save the land. Parallel to the fight against the rebels or anti-government armies, the government soldiers confront the sensitive war against what? There are no clear parameters why they fight so badly. Lastly, women who bear children with inborn sickness and environmental diseases due to pollution and climate change also fight against the tyranny of health disadvantages.  

Multi-awarded actress Judy Ann Santos’s portrayal in ‘Mindanao’ is genuinely and authentically performed, thanks to her excellent eyes on screen. She wins the MMFF 2019 Best Actress recognition because she was truthfully ‘victimized’ by the horrors of life, not for the sake of trophy but because she has thought perhaps to influence and to communicate thoroughly to all the women of the world who suffer and struggle with kids dying of still incurable cancer or malignant diseases tainted with hopelessness, while, despite the irony of soldiers too as they embark themselves in the atrocities of wars in the Southern Philippines in absurd and hopeless circumstances.

When I immersed myself for a week recently years back along with other scholar delegates in conducting a theater arts workshop for a group of people at ‘NPA-infested’ town of Dumingag bordering Zamboanga Del Sur and Norte, I could not physically see the violence and the bloodshed in my stay but the tension and danger grew in my system as days passed and it could really be felt and eventually slowly hearing the cries of the community in their eyes, body movements, and souls and those who were up there scalloping the mystical mountain ranges are there only to survive. To conduct the workshop is just a facilitation of what is more relevant than to hear their plights and screams of terror, of absurdity, and of social decadence that perpetually have become the victims of today’s cancer themselves.

The film ‘Mindanao’ is a testament that film educates and must foster and invite theorists-filmmakers to do ‘theoretical experimentation.’ You become a filmmaker because you want to prove a ‘speculation’ and not just to tell a story, a bullshit cliché of those who pretend to be a filmmaker just to be famous and rich. Let us not go out to the world and pretend as if we are like the circus players of our own circus show. The audiences are our allies and they can feel the maturity of artistry in artists and in the arts. Thus, maturity in understanding Philippine cinema is compelled and should establish a forum of creating more theories and speculations of the film as a medium as we understand how film can influence the world in categorically numerous frames per second.

Watch ‘Mindanao’ for social change sakes! Go to the cinemas while it is still being shown.