April 16, 2023
The Tuazons were a wealthy family who owned a luxurious restaurant often used as a venue for big events. One day, the patriarch Alfredo (Lito Lapid) and his son Rafael (Coco Martin) were doing some last minute shopping for crabs at the market. At home, Alfredo's second wife Elise (Jaclyn Jose) was waiting for them to arrive as the crabs were an essential ingredient to the menu of the feast they were preparing that day.
The Balagtas family lived a humble existence with their small sari-sari store. One day, father Matias (Carlos Canlas) went to the market with daughter Katkat (Franzen Tolentino) to buy food items for his wife Nita (Gladys Reyes), and a cake for his sister Chedeng (Mercedes Cabral). On the way home, Katkat realized that they had forgotten to buy eggs, so Matias turned his tricycle back. They crashed into the Tuazon's blue pick-up truck behind them.
Brillante Ma. Mendoza directed this Kampangan-language film from a script written by Arianna Martinez, with a star-studded cast, led by Mendoza's first protege Coco Martin. This film is their reunion project, since they last worked together in "Kinatay" (2009), the film that won Mendoza the Best Director award at the Cannes Filmfest. Martin was not the original choice for the role of Rafael, but stars aligned for director and star to work together again.
"Apag" refers to the dining table. Since the Tuazon's business was a restaurant, the cuisine of Pampanga was prominently featured throughout the film. Whenever a local dish was served and its name was mentioned in the dialog, the subtitle would have a parenthetical definition of what the dish was, like "buro" was "fermented rice" or "tibok-tibok" was "carabao milk pudding." The setting of film's climax was a lavish family dinner of gastronomic excess.
This was an ensemble piece with no clear lead actor. As the grieving wife Nita, Gladys Reyes was nominated and won as Best Actress of this first Summer MMFF, but her screen time here was considerably less than her fellow nominees Bela Padilla and Kylie Padilla. Reyes only had two standout scenes -- one bidding Matias a tearful goodbye in the ICU, and another as a recipient of a tearful confession in the kitchen -- both played with remarkable restraint.
Even with his shaky camera and a disorienting time-jump, Mendoza was able to imbue this film with a palpable discomfort and a feeling of dread as required by the story, with scenes of ominous foreboding. There were just this subplot about Rafael and his ex-wife Sherry (Shaina Magdayao) that had no back story to reveal more of Rafael's personality or make us care about their relationship, and was thus just a useless distraction from the main story. 6/10.
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