From Dec. 17 to 24, the Metro Manila Film Festival held its Filipino independent film side-section at the SM Megamall and Glorietta cinemas, called the MMFF New Wave, which for the past few years has already become an annual film event happening a week before its mainstream counterpart. The New Wave section features five full-length films, along with animated works and student shorts (these latter are being shown before the feature film itself). For a mere price of 120 pesos (at least for this year), it's already a treat seeing all three films (an animation, a short and a full-length) in a single screening. Let's take a look at the three New Wave feature films that I was able to see for this year.
- "M. (Mother's Maiden Name)", written and directed by Zigcarlo Dulay, RT: 90 mins
Zigcarlo Dulay's third feature film tells the story of Madam Bella (portrayed by Zsa Zsa Padilla), a high-profile lawyer and a single mother who has been diagnosed with a late-stage pancreatic cancer. On a face value, one might expect of the film to become another insufferable piece of miserablist cinema, wherein the dying lead character spends his/her few remaining days fulfilling a bucket list and doing charitable work or making amends with those around him/her. Thankfully, the writer-director has a different agenda in mind. For one, Padilla's character isn't someone particularly likable or sympathetic. As a matter of fact, she's rather insensitive and vitriolic to the people around her, including her own son (portrayed by Nico Antonio). As the latter wisely remarks, his mother's day won't be complete without looking down on other people. In local parlance, Madam Bella is your typical matapobreng donya. Had the film been R-rated (it was only classified as PG), we're sure that we'd be hearing a whole lot of cuss words coming out of the lady's mouth (just like Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). And yet, Madam Bella isn't someone whom we altogether despise. Padilla's thoughtful performance makes sure that her character's cruelness doesn't become overblown or larger-than-life. By virtue of wit, common sense and no-nonsense disposition, the actress makes an inherently acidic character still very much grounded in reality. There's no conceit of having the character undergo a mandatory "self-realization";she's simply presented the way she is. Padilla's "divine" presence threatens to swallow up all the persons around her, but her performance possesses an ironical self-effacing quality that, instead of towering above, she just blends along with them. Had Madam Bella been on the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, she could very well be alongside Anna Magnani's Mamma Roma.
Another important thing is that "M.", as it gradually makes its points across, becomes a brilliant social commentary, at times even becoming a satire. This satiric streak is already evident in the previous films that Dulay wrote ("Ekstra" and "Kasal"), but a Filipino film that doesn't hold back in directly attacking the system, or at least a part of it, is a rare thing nowadays. Aside from Padilla's excellent lead performance, a potent attribute of "M." is its thinly-veiled stride against the questionable healthcare system and practices in the country (whether provided by doctors, network entrepreneurs or quacks) and the world of differences between the kind of healthcare that the rich and powerful, on the one hand, and the lowly and destitute, on the other hand, get and can afford. Dulay's screenplay doesn't attempt to cover everything in subtlety or to lay down long-term solutions to the issue. The points are put across neat and dry, as if to say this is la réalité telle qu'elle existe. How this is to change, if ever and, if possible, for the better, will rest largely on the persons concerned (both the citizens and the authorities). Thus said, instead of wallowing itself exclusively in an individual suffering miserably from an incurable disease, "M." admirably broadens its horizons to press on some urgent issues that have a direct impact on the individual him/herself. And do we also have to say that there's also a light-hearted mother-son story involved in this?
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| Zsa Zsa Padilla and Nico Antonio as mother and son in Zigcarlo Dulay's "M. (Mother's Maiden Name)". |
- "Magkakabaung", written and directed by Jason Paul Laxamana, RT: 100 mins
As in "M.", one would initially think that Jason Paul Laxamana's similarly third feature film would singularly deal with an individual's personal tragedy, something in the manner of a stream-of-consciousness narrative. It's true that "Magkakabaung"'s dramatic core is the pain and guilt that a Kapampangan coffinmaker (magkakabaung, portrayed by Allen Dizon as Randy) bears after he wantonly administers medication to his sick daughter (portrayed by Dizon's real-life daughter Felixia Crysten Dizon as Angeline) that leads to the latter's untimely death. Yet, that personal tragedy, which Dizon downplays to an admirable effect, serves as a springboard for the film to become a compelling social commentary. As the burden of the father's guilt and pain becomes even more hard to bear, like a cross being carried towards Calvary, we are brought face-to-face to an ugly reality that has mostly gone under the radar: the dubious practice of selling corpses (unclaimed or otherwise) to medical students for a hefty sum of money, for reasons that are mostly economic, that is to avoid the costs of giving the dead a properly solemn burial. In a sense, this harsh reality serves as a nail on the father's cross. In "Babagwa", viewers were impressed with how Laxamana's astute storytelling skill has turned a seemingly banal plot into a riveting neo-noir tale of love and deception. In "Magkakabaung", we see another aspect of that skill: with the aid of cinematographer Rain Yamson's tracking hand-held camera, the writer-director slowly and patiently tells his story in long takes, in a manner that lets us feel the weight of the father's cross. It's even curious how the over-all dramatic feel is less "cinematic" by melodrama standards, which lends the proceedings a downbeat and defeatist air. There are even times where this down-on-one's-luck tale feels close to a Coen brothers dramedy or a Dardenne brothers morality play, minus, of course, the comedy and the Marxist strain.
"Magkakabaung" is admittedly unpleasant to watch, not your perfect holiday viewing fare. It's both harrowing and sad, with some harsh images that will readily stick in your mind. Yet, like some act of grace, there's a sense of divine triumph and justice one feels when the film finally comes to its closing image. It may not be the kind of solemn ritual that we've come to expect, but there's no denying the love and respect that the father imbues it with, in much the same way as he probably shows in his titular craft.
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| Allen Dizon as the guilt- and grief-stricken father in Jason Paul Laxamana's "Magkakabaung". |
- "Gemini", directed by Ato Bautista and written by Shugo Praico, RT: 85 mins
Maverick director Ato Bautista's latest film is an artsy exploration of mental illness, truth and subjectivity. It's the "everything is not what it seems"-type of mindbender, something that kind of mixes Lynch and Cronenberg. It mainly involves a detective (played by Bautista regular Mon Confiado) interrogating a troubled young woman about her and her twin sister's involvement in the murder of a man some years back (the twins are played by real-life fraternal twins Sheena and Brigitte McBride;and thus the title, which refers to the horoscope's identical siblings). As the interrogation and confession progress further down the road, some unsettling truths and facts (or are they?) are eventually revealed. If you're the type of cineaste who religiously follows his arthouse mindbenders, it wouldn't really take much of an effort to figure out how "Gemini" would reveal its mysteries and puzzles in the end. That is to say, the film has no exclusive claim to originality and vision. What's of strong interest, though, is the film's visual aesthetics. As Bautista has already shown in his previous works like "Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula sa Kamulatan", "Palitan" and "Mga Ala-ala ng Tag-Ulan", "Gemini" exhibits the director's keen visual sense that makes everything feel like a waking dream - or nightmare - which is immensely aided by (again) Rain Yamson's intriguing monochrome and desaturated cinematography and (my favorite) Richard Somes' no-nonsense production design. And as before, the director once again ably displays in the film his cinematic nods and references (this time, the two above-mentioned filmmakers and those European arthouse headtrips, with some bits of '40s noir). Like the inherent danger in McBride's character though, the film runs the danger of becoming pure abstraction being merely shaped by ideas, neglecting or overlooking along the way the human pulse that should ground its conceptual tendencies.
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| A woman alone (or is she?) in Ato Bautista's "Gemini". |
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