March 18, 2024
While doing a television interview which talked about his family's legacy bakery Celine, Stephen Maravilla (Jeff Moses) and girlfriend Joy Decena (Pau Dimaranan) looked like the perfect couple. Joy even excitedly announced that they were going to introduce European pastries to Celine's classic menu of local delicacies. However, when the couple was by themselves, Joy broke the news to Stephen that she wanted to break up with him.
At that time, Stephen's grandmother Serafina Infante (Chart Motus) was in Bacolod after a bad quarrel with her husband Poldo (Joel Torre) caused her to leave their house in La Carlota. She encouraged the distraught Stephen to join the upcoming Concurso de Calamay, the most prestigious native specialty baking competition in Negros Occidental. While Stephen wanted to modernize his creations, Lola Fina advised him to stick with traditional techniques.
Set in Bacolod and surrounding towns of Negros Occidental, this film was in the Hiligaynon language, with that delightfully distinctive lilting accent. The story was set back in the 1980s, which necessitated appropriate period production design, costumes, hairstyles, without the high-tech gadgetry of today. The cinematography had such a quality that evoked nostalgia, as it made our mouths water with tasty close-ups of these sweet Negrense snacks, like bitso-bitso, pilit-turon, napoleones, and of course, the titular piaya.
Jeff Moses had a smiling face and friendly demeanor that immediately made us like him as Stephen and root for him to win the Concurso. Senior actors Chart Motus and Joel Torre had fun with their roles as Fina and Poldo, as they bickered bitterly at first, then made up so treacly sweet later. Pau Dimaranan's Joy was such an annoying character from her very first scene up to her last, you could not wait for Stephen to snap out of her toxic spell.
The script by Vicente Garcia Groyon hewed to old-fashioned linguistic styles to keep to the nostalgic theme of the film. It included a number of charming, kitchen-inspired sayings and mottos to keep to the culinary theme, ranging from sensible ("Kneaded dough continues to rise when left on the table.") to naughty ("The longer you knead it, the longer it needs to rest."). Aside from food, there were also side trips to other tidbits of Negrense culture, like betting at the cockpit or the story behind the song "Nitang."
This is director Kurt Soberano's feature film debut, but I had seen and loved his short film recreating the shooting of Peque Gallaga's "Oro Plate Mata" entitled "Sa Balay ni Papang" (MY REVIEW) (2021). In "Piaya Moon," the clash between traditions vs. modernity was brought up multiple times, but . Different generations will answer this question differently, but me, I am a sucker for this type of sentimentality and positivity. 9/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment