January 15, 2024
Excitement about the 49th Metro Manila Film Festival started in July, when the first four entries, accepted based on scripts alone, were announced -- "Penduko," "Family of Two," "Kampon," and "Rewind." Six more films, judged based on finished film submissions, were revealed on October 17, 2023, to complete a list of 10.
I was fortunate to have been invited to four press previews prior to the first day on December 25 -- all of which turned out to be the top 4 most popular films. I was away during the final week of 2023, so i wasn't able to watch anything more until we came back New Year. Box office numbers were much much better than recent years.
By the last day, January 7, 2024, movie houses were selling out and lines were still snaking around the cinema multiplexes. This prompted the MMDA to declare that the festival was going to be extended for one more week. This extension gave me the opportunity to watch up all 10 entries, and this is how I will rank them based on the ratings I gave each of them:
If some of other MMFF entries were accused of copying the plots of foreign films, this one copied the mechanics of two popular foreign TV reality shows -- "The Amazing Race" and "Survivor." However the contests they formulated in each of the stops were shallow and rather haphazardly executed. Instead, they injected some sort of classic US TV show "This is Your Life," when they brought back people from contestant's past to generate drama. The way director Lemuel Lorca staged that final episode was so rushed, it was anti-climactic.
In this incarnation, Penduko was played by Matteo Guidicelli. His Pedro Penduko seemed to be a regular, chill, laid-back guy, but he was also shown to have a very violent temper when he got triggered. While Guidicelli possessed the physicality (fit toned body and martial arts skills) required of this role, he was awkward when attempting to be cute (in some silly anime-like exclamations), and was too over-the-top when erupting into explosive rage.
Getting "inspiration" (euphemism for "copying") from Hollywood movies is a very big issue in this year's MMFF. This film took on the most famous film of the three being accused. The whole first half of this film was practically a rehash of "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion" (1997). All the main characters were there at their high school reunion with the same conflicts, where a major lie was said in public and perpetuated as truth until it could not.
So indeed, the two senior protagonists meet under unpleasant circumstances, to the point of calling each other "bru" (short for "bruha" or witch). However, as expected, they began to like each other when they got to know each other better, then eventually fall in love. Despite being the overdone romance cliches that they were, these scenes were the best parts -- so sweet and heartwarming. I was smiling, laughing and actually tearing up in spite of myself.
King Palisoc directed this film, certainly a long-overdue follow-up to his auspicious debut, "Tandem" (2015). Unlike most local horror films, this one did not go much for jump scares (until those shocking "Scanners" via "Poltergeist" explosions in the final act), instead opting for more subdued scare techniques. Having a little girl Jade in the center of nightmarish demonic events made the proceedings even more intense and unsettling.
There had already been several films about the lengths mothers go for their children, from childhood up to adulthood. This is a mother's happiness to be of service to their children at whatever age and condition in their lives. What made this Nuel Naval film particularly heartwarming and tearjerking was the natural chemistry and real rapport between Cuneta and Richards as mother and son, which made audiences deeply feel whatever their characters felt.
The fact that Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera were a real-life married couple made their onscreen love and chemistry effortless. It also made the marital troubles John and Mary were experiencing much tougher and more heartbreaking to watch. The way they played their heavy tragic scenes felt so intensely real, acting citations are forthcoming. It was their affecting performances that gave this film its special radiance beyond its familiar plot.
Meticulous attention and generous budget had been spent to make sure that the production design and costumes looked realistic. Director Pepe Diokno and writer Rody Vera did not seem take much cinematic license to enhance any dramatic elements of the accounts on record. This storytelling felt very sincere and authentic. The message to promote patriotism was very eloquent. With the Jesuits as producer, I trust that historical details had been thoroughly researched and accurately depicted.
Director Derick Cabrido also had his share of horror films recently -- "Clarita" (2019) and "U-Turn" (2020) -- before this one. Here, the richness of Santos' epic story was a much bigger challenge to tell cinematically, but Cabrido more than pulled it off here in "Mallari." He was able to tell his story very clearly, even if he had one actor in three roles, astral-travelling in and out of three separate time periods, with scenarios crossing over from nightmares into reality.
From a script written by Angeli Atienza, director Zig Dulay beautifully tells the story of a little boy's quest to find the island of fireflies in his mother's stories. Dulay used animation to execute the fantasy elements of the story, like the red-eyed wild dog of Tonton's nightmares and the guardians he met on his road-trip across Bicol -- the fairy with the wide green skirt, the sleeping giant who sneezed, and the stone man with a big mouth.
Dulay knew very
well how to best stage dramatic situations in order to maximize bittersweet emotions to move viewers to tears, especially with the sensitive way he directed child actor Euwenn Mikaell, who was such a natural actor for his age. That scene with the snatcher at the ferry pier was so masterfully staged that it elicited an audible collective gasp from the audience, creating a tearful moment with major emotional impact.
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