And here it is, Cinemanila!, part 2
Just like on the first day, my second day of the Cinemanila International Film Festival (Dec. 22) was characterized by some "unexpected" turn of events - Tsai Ming-liang's "Stray Dogs" did not see the light of day, while Amat Escalante's Cannes-winning "Heli" was finally able to grace the big screen. Nevertheless, the films that this film junkie saw did more than enough to satisfy his cinephilic cravings.
"Karaoke Girl" by Vasra Vichit (Thailand)
The hooker with a heart of gold and her bittersweet life is an archetypal filmic character whom we have already encountered in the cinema not a few times before. What can be of note, however, in this Thai film is the unsentimental, non-sensational and almost impressionistic manner that it takes in dealing with its female protagonist - a 23-year-old bar hostess (or "karaoke girl") named Sa, who moves in to the city in hopes of providing a better life for her family. Also, there appears to be no separating of fact from fiction in the film as its narrative method assumes a somewhat semi-documentary style. There are times wherein Sa and her family look like they are being interviewed and filmed by an off-screen documentarist;while there are others wherein the situation takes on the quality of a soap opera (like how Sa is actually being taken-for-granted by her supposed-to-be knight in shining armor and how she has to make a living as a bar girl to make sure that her ailing father gets the proper medication). And as can be seen in the works of a compatriot, Apitchapong Weerasethakul, the pacing here is languid, observant, even deadpan at times, just minus the supernatural and mythical elements. This calm tempo in fact reflects the over-all persona of the titular character, in that rather than someone who would fight teeth and claws to free herself from her kind of life, she appears to have quietly embraced already the course of her fate, with an assured and dignified smile to be gleaned from her face, as if in some kind of a Buddhist self-realization. For a debut film that deals with an oft-sang melody, Vasra's rendition is remarkably devoid of weariness. There are no tiresome inflections, but rather an assured and unassuming tempo.
"The Missing Picture" by Rithy Panh (Cambodia)
As in Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing", one of the strong entries in this year's Cinemanila, "The Missing Picture" deals with one country's dark history:the atrocities and misdeeds committed by a supposedly revolutionary government. Here, we become witness once again to a first-person account, as the filmmaker himself recounts his childhood experiences during the time of the Khmer Rouge, under the communist rule of Cambodia's "Brother No. 1", Pol Pot, a burly figure who exuded an amiable and charismatic mien but who was in fact capable of wiping out a mass of dissidents, those who did not possess the "collective" proletarian spirit. However, if in Oppenheimer's film we get to see a more sensational and in-your-face approach to the historical events, in Panh's documentary the presentation is low-key and subtle, as he uses immobile and meticulously-drawn clay animation in dealing with the subject. But the effect is no less harrowing and disturbing. By way of the filmmaker's vivid narration (in French language, as he has lived in France for many years since), some rare archival footage and the aural aesthetics that accompany the clay animation, we get a telling picture of how more often than not a school of thought that sounds perfect on paper does not translate well in practice, sadly. It is not that the ideology itself is intrinsically imperfect, sometimes it is just how such an idea is made to suit a megalomaniac's myopic and self-serving leadership platform that everything turns from ideal to tragic. In its core, the communist school of thought as propounded by the likes of Marx, Engels and Rousseau could very well be the perfect utopia that humans could all aspire for, with its notions of collectivity, common wealth and a society devoid of any status quo. But if this also means the destruction of hundreds of individual lives and the crushing of the basic notions of human rights, will and liberty, then something must have gone wrong in the execution of the idea (or "ideal") along the way. Relevant, even dissident, cinema like these recent works by Oppenheimer and Panh may not bring back anymore all that has been lost during those dark historical times, but they ought to contribute something valuable in putting the course of our historical destiny in its proper, judicious and more humane path.
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| Rithy Panh's Oscar short-lister ''The Missing Picture'':One of the relevant works in this year's Cinemanila |
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