There's something strange: Cinema One Originals '14, pt. 5

Something strange is brewing in the following films that I saw on my last day of attending the still-ongoing Cinema One Originals. I'm pretty clueless. 

• "Violator" (In competition, 100 mins), written and directed by Eduardo Dayao

Films dealing with an apocalyptic scenario are a common staple in European and American cinema, but not in our own. Perhaps, we aren't just "brave" enough. On that point, Eduardo Dayao's "Violator" can be considered a rare breed. With its predominantly darkly-lit interiors and characters who are hiding mostly in shadows, the film resembles the look of a David Fincher noirish thriller. As a strong typhoon approaches the country, inexplicable occurrences abound: people commit suicide, police murder apprehended suspects, apparitions of pig-headed persons appear, cult groups conduct strange rituals, a child seems to be possessed by the devil. What makes these things the more perplexing is that they're presented in something of a vignette style, thus they're not necessarily logically connected with each other, like in a Roy Andersson drollfest. Albert Banzon's and Gym Lumbera's cinematography evokes a genuinely creepy and sinister atmosphere, with something evil seems to be just lurking in the shadows, whether seen or not, while Richard Somes' work in the precinct gives it the appearance of a private hell. The actors' portrayals are likewise etched in despair and limbo, even if what they do and say is no more than cryptic. It's like they are desperately trying to hold on to something in their hell-bound situation, yet it's simply not there, amounting to a combination of a Kierkegaard-Camus dilemma. Notable among these performances are those turned in by Joel Lamangan and Victor Neri as the despair-ridden policemen and by Timothy Mabalot as the "possessed" child, whose menacing and puzzling presence is like something straight out of Dostoevsky's devil. 

"Violator" is in fact one of the most potent works that I've seen among the competition line-up in this year's edition of the festival. Dayao's bold direction generates a truly palpable sense of dread and anxiety. The apocalyptic threat is evinced in a somber yet vivid fashion. There's even an air of familiarity as the calamity through which such a threat is chanelled is something that we've always collectively experienced. Thinking further, the film's scenario may not really make any sense at all. But then, probably that's the point: that is, in a world on the brink of collapse and destruction, nothing makes sense anymore. 

• "Bitukang Manok" (In competition, 100 mins), written and directed by Alec Figuracion

"Bitukang Manok"'s story premise is like something straight out of the 80s TV series "The Twilight Zone": three groups of travellers (a family, a pair of young couples and a truck driver and his aide) become mysteriously trapped in a seemingly circular and repetitive drive along the titular provincial road. As they slowly come to realize that there seems to be no way out of their bizarre situation, they begin confronting their own personal demons, with the circular road serving as a kind of private hell. The film's supernatural conceit is unique and ingenious, with Adi Kumar's cinematography lending an otherworldly atmosphere to the surroundings and the musical score enhancing the eeriness and strangeness of the proceedings. It's basically being trapped or confined in an "open space" - couldn't be more ironic. Alec Figuracion's screenplay is to be commended for how it tries to explore the darker workings of the psychological and the supernatural through such a "confined" space. There's an exceptional challenge involved when one tries to make a full-length movie's worth of story out of confinement and Figuracion admirably pulls that off. Plus, up until "Bitukang Manok", no other Filipino film has seriously utilized the trapped-or-confined thriller sub-genre. Yet, how the director tries to wrap up the bizarre scenario is something that's quite off. At this point, the marriage between the human and the supernatural becomes highly improbable and awkward. I mean, is it some kind of "magic"? It would've been better perhaps if everything just borders on the supernatural all throughout. 

And thus concludes my Cinema One Originals film festival experience for this year. Out of the 10 competition films, I was able to see 6 and among them, those that I wouldn't have second thoughts of watching again are Kanakan Balintagos' "Esprit de Corps", Antoinette Jadaone's "That Thing Called Tadhana" and Dayao's "Violator". These films further cement the festival's reputation as a bastion of out-of-the-box cinematic endeavors (this isn't to say though that the other films that I saw were not;on the contrary). I hope that I'd still encounter in some other occasion those films that I missed. While in the international line-up (Best of Asian Cinema), I was able to watch 3 out of the 7 entries - Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Winter Sleep" (Turkey), Hong Sang-soo's "Hill of Freedom" (South Korea) and Diao Yi'nan's "Black Coal, Thin Ice" (China) - and I can say that all of them are truly exceptional. 

(Eduardo Dayao's "Violator": Strange things abound.)