What is Cinema?

It was my first time watching Akira Kurosawa's " Seven Samurai " (1954, Japan). That is, on the big screen in a 35mm version. In fact, it was already my third time. The first was at a film club screening at CCP some years ago, having a VHS tape (or perhaps a Betamax tape) projected on a wide screen. The second was through my own DVD copy of the film, a Criterion edition. A big screen showing of a classic film is a seldom thing in our country, so when something like this comes by it's a golden opportunity that should be grabbed. No small thanks to Eiga Sai, an annual festival of classic and contemporary Japanese films held during the months of July and August, we were treated to a special screening of Kurosawa's masterpiece at the UP Film Institute. A noted Filipino film critic once said that "Seven Samurai" is his favorite Kurosawa film (while Yasujiro Ozu's " Tokyo Story ", another masterpiece, is his favorite Japanese film). It isn...

Though Erik Matti's " BuyBust " (2018) may initially look similar to the Indonesian action film " The Raid ", it is really a far cry from it. Even if it is entirely implicit for the majority of its running time, the film's political message finally rears its head in the later part, something which cannot be found in "The Raid", which is purely a non-stop genre exercise in brawny and bloody thrills. Suffice it to say that the film could not be more timelier given the current administration's brazen all-out war against illegal drugs in the Philippines. But we will get back to this particular point later. As an action-thriller, "BuyBust" delivers the goods more than enough. It can definitely be put alongside such extreme Asian action flicks as Indonesia's "The Raid" and " Headshot ", Thailand's " Ong Bak " and Cambodia's " Jailbreak ". It is as visceral and graphic as it can get, unl...