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MIDTERMS PART 2

Dimasacat Michael Kim

 MAYNILA, SA KUKO NG LIWANAG by Lino Brocka

For a long period of existence of Film Industry in the Philippines, a lot of movies were released with different storyline, genre and theme. Almost forty years ago, a masterpiece was created which considered as one of the greatest film in the field of Philippine cinema.

A film which directed by an influential filmmaker Cartalino Ortiz Brocka or famously known as Lino Brocka. He conquered filmmaking industry with the concept of social issues and reality happens to the Filipinos. He had much great works that put significance not only to film industry but also to have awareness in the society we belong and its actual scenario. One of that is Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag. It was based on the written work of Edgardo Reyes entitled Manila, In the Claws of Brightness. This film revealed the face of Manila during mid 70's especially labor issues and how Filipinos were embraced the pain of being a worker in order to survived from poverty. It was led by legendary actors and actresses such as Mr. Mr. Rafael Aranda "Bembol" Rocco Jr. who portrayed the main character Julio Madiaga with Ms. Hilda Koronel as Ligaya Paraiso. The story is about to a life of a fisher man who went to manila to find his lover who first went and adventured for her and family’s dreams.

In the very beginning, the mood of the story set through the help of colors and texture of the film. The black and white represent how Manila will be an instrument that suffer pain and society’s illnesses affects to the main character. It was associated by audio which sounds like dramatic and served as hint for the next scenerios. Julio followed Ligaya to manila. Ligaya took by a woman and offered a very flowery description of work and future for her family. Julio met different people but sadly he was still looking for Ligaya. But he found the woman who took Ligaya in manila and this woman who calls Julio as Mrs. Cruz, entered in a establishment owned by Chinese. He suspected that Ligaya was inside this establishment. In order to survive, he work as construction man somewhere in Cubao but suddenly he was needed to find new job because the contract was almost done. The town where Julio came from has a simple living. Fishing was a decent and traditional kind of work yet doesn't have huge amount money that's why it was looked as not professional just like white collar job. In manila, there are many kinds of immorality and indecent work. This comparison of the town where Julio came from and to Manila were reflection of the Filipinos who take risk and go to Manila without assurance to better opportunity. As a Manila boy, I really want to have changes especially to the injustice system and immoral things of society. In my personal experience, I am very scared about deteriorating happenings of society's unrighteous system. Sometimes I being attentive when I walk on the streets because of different news about crimes and worse case is murdering.

On the next scenarios, he found a construction site and hired him by a cruel and greedy foreman. He worked very hard yet his salary was very low and insufficient for his daily living. Until he met Atong, one of his co-workers who have helpful heart, he gave

Julio instruction and advice. Atong represent the laborers who followed the system because he needs money more that the rights they need. In his mind, he knew and wanted to escape the rules and system of his work but he didn’t know how to. He also met Imo who work and study for his future. Imo is the character who always enlighten the Filipinos especially laborers that education will lead them to a better future. Suddenly, the construction site he works for, needed to cut down the numbers of their workers and he was one of the workers who eliminated. Julio remained hopeful to find Ligaya until one day he saw her in a church. Yes, it was during Martial Law when the film was released, yet the status of society was not even closed to the law that enforced to the nation. Still, many people were losing their jobs and suffered more poverty. Just like when the two main character talked about life of both of them in Manila. It sounds horrible when they realized that going to Manila made your life worse than living in their town. The possibilities of having a better future was denied due to the greediness of powerful person without considering the beneficial effects to majority Filipinos. They only think about the money and wealthiness of their lives. This is the reason why many Filipinos who are in the lower class of society force to do unrightfully things. As a result, the entire nation is like a forest where the strongest will survive and the weak will die. The poor are prey while rich are predators that in a glimpse of an eye, the society become a food chain.

As continuously revealing of the face society, it was shown when they planned to escape whatever miserable happenings to their life by going back to their town. But in that night, Ligaya was died. Julio felt mixed emotions. The Chinese man who was being in love with Ligaya was the same man who killed her. That pushed Julio to revenge and planned how to kill him. In the very last part, the scene showed reminiscence of Julio and Ligaya’ loved in their town. In that scene, the idea of social status of the nation was well-defined as not opportunity of better future of one's life when you go to Manila. In fact, many lives became worsen because the battle ground makes little more than living in a province. It is just like in education; many students might graduate but not everyone will become rich or having a prosperous life.

Later on, Julio saw the Manila’s dark side. He found many issues and problematic situation of life in Manila. In that several scenarios, the film became realization of how’s system in labors work in the manner of inequality, lack of rights as workers and injustice treatment of the people above of the system. The society in the year 1975 was fully showed in the film. But until now, we really see and feel it. In accordance to the technical matters, the flexibility of the characters’ mode of portrayal was delivered with deep connection to the audience. It was effectively conveyed to the viewers because of the diverse style and attack of screenplay such as presenting the humor of the workers’ despite of the hardship in their life. The dialogues with different emotions and expression provided by the writers were properly carried by the actors. Even the facial expression was very convincing on their roles and single scene’s message.

Aside from that, the social context of the film precisely involves to the issues and happenings in the current society. The persuasive and the influences of the film were beneficial to open the eyes of many Filipinos and to thrive to be waked. Another tackled

issue was the prostitution. It was huge and problematic of our society. Either with consent or not, forced or willing to do prostitution, still it is a sign of destitution. They need to survive so even if it is truly wrong, they still do it. For the sake of little amount, they neglect and swallow their dignity and pride.

As a whole, the film is a huge realization of Manila then and now. Brocka and Reyes are the person who open our eyes and spirit to the society we have. We really need to find ways how to change the injustice system and make more rightful things. It is also a slapped to us about mislead and misconception that Manila is the opportunity arena for everyone's life. Maybe some on us will stay on what they think about Manila, still we need to accept the truth. MANILA is just a place. But success is on our hands with enough skill, and proper manner.

 INSIANG MOVIE REVIEW by Lino Brocka

     At the very beginning of the movie, we could see pigs that are being slaughtered right in front of our eyes. It was a bold and raw thing to see since we had no idea why did the director of the movie put that over there in the movie and why in the very start. For me I thought it was just like a normal fill for the movie or just a stabilizing shot. Little did I know that in the end of the movie I would know the reason why the director put that gore scene at the first sequence of the movie. Moments later, the movie starts to show a family who are eating in a small house and by the looks of it, they are living in poverty and their struggle is how to survive on a day to day basis without having any problems.

As the movie progresses, they slowly showed that there were two families living on that house. The mother of Insiang, and a family friend who needed a place to stay in so the mother of Insiang insisted of taking them all in their house. There were stabilizing shots in the movie which showed the slums/ hood part of Manila. The side that the few doesn’t want to see and they want to forget about the people living in that place since that place is like a waste land and filled with garbage. Because of this, Most people living there had make shift houses from scraps like old pieces of wood , rusty metal wires, bent nails and old spare tires to add weight to their roof so when the rain comes and strong winds blow, their roof tops wont fly because of the strong wind currents. For me, this scene should be more put into focus since this is one of the many main problems here on our country. Also the point that most people there are over populated which makes them have a harder time to earn money since the quantity of people eating on their homes are a lot. There was this scene in which one of the sub characters was drunk with friends early in the morning and because of this, they had a little thing on almost raping this innocent girl who was just there to sell them food and drinks in the sari sari store they were staying at. This problem could still be seen in current events. But the difference today from before the time they shot the movie was today the voice of the women are now being heard by a lot of people and by the looks of it, there is a lot of improvement in this issue. Women can now report this to the police and the people who cat called/ disrespect them would be fined 15,000 pesos from what I have heard from the news.

Another issue from the movie that they showed was the abusive mother/parent of Insiang. Her own mother didn’t believed her and chose to side with her “boyfriend” who was clearly just using her to get near to Insiang. The abusive step father thing today could still be considered as one of the problems in the country but they are not that so publicly shown. Sadly I know people who struggle with their abusive step parents. In the end of the movie , I remember that Insiang finally had her revenge on all of the people who hurt her and it was all strategically planned from the very beginning. She used her mothers’ anger to kill the step father who clearly raped her while she slept.

  BATCH 81 FILM REVIEW

At the very first part of the movie, there was this bubbly type of music which is kind of misleading to the dark truth of this film. It was like taken from a carnival or an old cartoon in which the scene would be the main antagonist would chase the protagonist in a loop.

After watching the movie, I realized that the stories of my friends who joined fraternities like tau gamma , apo , and tbs were real. The things that they would do to you before you could enter or join their botherhood. To be honest I really don’t know why do people want to join fraternities so bad just like Sid Lucero in the movie. Is it because they lack the love of their parents? Or just simply because they want to be “cool” in the eyes of their co-leagues. When I was still in highschool, I remember a close friend of mine who is a high academic achiever student asked me if I wanted to join a frat near our school. He said that if we would join, we would be untouchable to bullies since the original members of the frat would help us beat anyone who disrespects us. I respectfully declined the offer of my friend. Months later I heard a news that he had a trouble with a professor who bad mouthed him and disrespected him in front of the whole class and days later, the car of our professor was stabbed with a knife on the tires and on the side was a spray paint message stating “do not mess with us”. Things like this on our school are not ignored and they took responsibility as soon as possible. My friend who was now a member of the frat got kicked out of the school with a penalty of paying our professor a new set of wheels and a new paintjob. Till this day, I won’t forget the way our professor looked because that was the first time I saw a professor being afraid of his student. After this incident I knew that the reason why my friend joined that frat was because he had enemies outside the school due to his easily angered personality.

He has this war freak attitude which made him a violent person and because of this, he easily crosses paths with other students or people who are near to him. But to me, he is just a misunderstood person.

To me he was my brother. Like a big brother to me who just wants things to be done in his own way but due to his personality, it doesn’t always work the way he wants it to be. In the modern day life, we could still see the strive for dominance in this society. An example for that would be, who wants to sit in the presidency table to lead their country and people who want to enter the congress just so that they could get a hand of the money laundering happening under the table of the people who are living in the country. In the end of this film, the protagonists finally got what they wanted and they are now part of the brotherhood and is now considered as a “master” to the next batches who also want to join the Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity. For me, this cycle for dominance has been already around for thousands of years. Imagine life before us and during the times of the Jurassic times. The top predators compete for their next meal and for some, they fight for their territory.

As time progresses, the fight for dominance would always be there ever present to what ever era or generation it is. People want to be the star or leader to a specific group. Like who would not want to become the high command of people willing to do anything what the high tables say.

        KAKABAKABA KA BA film review

 The movie for me was a lot trippy and kind of odd to the other films that we have watched since the movie had a spice of comedy and a lot more racism than the other ones.

The movie showed how the stereotypical people portrayed the Chinese people and the Japanese people before or during the 80’s times. They mimicked how the Chinese people talked and how they were seen in the movie playing and gambling with friends and while the Japanese as Yakuza mafia people. How they used people to transfer their cash and how would they cut the fingers of the mule if they would get caught.

Another scene that would hit us would be how they showed that the people who are running the churches are just using that as a front but they are actually earing more money behind the scenes because of what the people are. This shows us how the higher countries are just using the Filipinos as victims of the underground forces of the Japanese and the Chinese people and the religious people. There were also scenes there that showed the nuns and the priests singing and dancing mimicking what they do during the mass hours inside the churches but that is just a distraction so that the Filipinos wouldn’t see or understand what they are really doing under the tables. There is no doubt that the movie shows a lot of cultural and racial problems such as stereotypes and  racism. If the movie was shown to us today, it would be highly unaccepted and most likely it would receive a lot of bashes in the social media and the producer would probably have a lot of death threats and hate mail or worse, a time at the jail for showing an explicit movie plot.

But during the time it was shot and directed, I believe that it was the main reason why the movie was created and the whole story of the movie was just a mask so that it could get the message covered and the director just wanted the viewers to understand and grasp the hidden message of the movie. The offensive points of the story back then was really impactful to the viewers point of view. But in the end, this movie should be seen by a lot of people today since the main message of the movie could still be implied to today’s world problems. If only directors and script writters would still write movies as bold as the movies before during the 80’s to todays time not just some random stand up comedy movies as we could see on today’s movie genres and movie titles. We need more films like this that would really make the viewers think of the scenarios and on why would the director put that on the movie script. Is he or she thinking of something or it was just simply for entertainment. Before what I also noticed was that most of the  films before was musical and  I think a reason for that is because Filipinos love to dance and sing a lot. And to get the approval of most viewers, the directors used that factor to get the attention of most of the viewers. That musical vibe to the theme. A part of all of the things added to the film, the thing that really hit me was the movie showed how in the early 80’s they made films so trippy that even in the movie scenes the main characters got a chance to be high. During one of the times the group of protagonists visited a friend, they tried on getting high on one of the vhs tapes that they brought to the groups friend. In the next few minutes of the movie, it showed how the three of them were tripping and even had the visuals of getting high to mix with the scenes being portrayed in the movie. Its funny because during the 80s from what ive heard, that was the time cocaine was booming in business with the whole world and it was the next thing people tried after weed/ pot sessions.

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FINALS MOVIE REVIEW PART 1

Dimasacat Kim        

Javier Noah          

MM23

  LSS MOVIE REVIEW

As an artist I could point out details of the movie that are true and that most artists not just local but all around the world go through. An example for that would be when I go somewhere like from a commute I would listen to underrated music artists and also mainstream ones because this helps me get to a mood in which I would be able to think scenarios’ , frames, compositions, poetry that would be made in my head. It somehow connects to me the lyrics that are being sung and in a creative way it somehow becomes part of me. Another scene from the movie was when Sarah (Gabbi Garcia) connected to a complete stranger just by hearing the music taste of the stranger. This stranger down the line would become her lover. With this, I could rest my theory that if you have the same music taste with another person it won’t matter whatever social class you’re in or what age nor gender you have. You would connect instantly just like wifi to gadgets. In a parallel timeframe, Zack (the complete stranger Sarah met while on her commute) was struggling with the relationship of him and the love of his life. Because eventually his love liked a different person and she was a woman. As this scene was shown, I liked how slowly the Filipino movies are injecting the idea of the support for the same gender love and on to this day, relationships like these are now normal and should be accepted by the society. To release Zack’s stress, he remembered before that he asked Sarah to go watch Ben and Ben with him at Route 196 on their live gig. It was funny cause in real time, there are a lot of indie bands who play there to showcase their talents to the music junkies such as myself. But when Zack went there, he wasn’t able to see Sarah because she was late. Devastated and a bit problematic, He called his mother to pick him up and they both went home. The next day was he met up with his step sister because he wanted his mom and dad to meet once again and make up since his dad was dying slowly. Before that day, he asked his mom to watch a movie with him. But little did the mother know that most of the movie titles that Zack picked foreshadowed the history of his mother and father. This was a way so that he could try to talk about his father to his mom. The history between Zack’s mother and father was quite simple. His father left the Country so that he could work abroad but the father had an affair and got the girl pregnant. Because of this, Zack’s mother hated and forgot about her husband. But I know deep inside she felt guilty because she was the one who told her husband to go abroad to work there so that they could have a better life.

Meanwhile in Sarah’s current timeline, she just broke up with her boyfriend since her boyfriend didn’t believe in her dreams on becoming a successful musician. So later on she went to this local restaurant where in she saw Zack with a girl (she was the step sister of Zack) holding hands with each other. This made Sarah a bit jealous. As she enters the restaurant, her ex-boyfriend chased Sarah and asked for forgiveness but Sarah had enough and she ignored him. Later on she noticed that her favorite band was right in front of her. She quickly ran out of the restaurant and followed them and the band if they needed extra hands while on their gig. They respectfully declined her offer but gave her a little advice that she should continue pursuing her dreams that the beginning of everything is just the hardest part of everything. To be honest that line could be applied to anything in this world. That whatever happens we need to succeed no matter what since the first part of everything would always be the hardest.

There is also a scene there in which the little brother of Sarah fought with her because she finally new that her little brother didn’t go to school and wasted all the cash that she gave for school turned into studio recording money. The brother also stated that he has a better chance in the music industry because he is far more better than Sarah. For me this was one of the most painful scenes in the movie because after all that trouble with her brother, Sarah still accepted her brother with open arms and surprisingly she supported her bothers dream of becoming a famous musician. A dream that she wanted for herself but she put it to the side and supported her brother instead. She was like a mother in this scene because she sacrificed her life-long dreams just so his little brother would be happy and would be able to fulfil his dreams of becoming a famous rapper. A little time frame jump happened and now Sarah is supporting her little brother perform in a live gig with a lot of people. This foreshadows of what could have been Sarah if she continued to pursue her music career. Later on The manager of Sarah approached her and asked if she would want to manage her little brothers careen despite of what Sarah’s true dreams. This tore Sarah’s heart because she knew that she should be the one performing at the stage and not her little brother. Later on the film Sarah finally had her break and she was one of the assistant managers of her favorite band. This is a proof that no matter what happens, no matter how long you wait, if its for you and you wished for it, you would have it. As the movie progresses, Sarah had her chance to showcase once more her talent to her idol band Ben and ben and they were sitting beside a campfire eating and just jamming with their guitars. The band was impressed with her voice and praised her for that. On the next day, Zack finally went out to see his father and he brought her mother with him but she didn’t know what was the place they were going and she was asleep the whole time they were at the bus because she had drank with her friends the night before. Later on when they got to the house, Zacks mother got mad and cried as she saw her old husband and argued with Zack. In this scene she said that she felt guilty about everything because she was the one who convinced her husband to take the job abroad so that they could have a happy life. The scene just ended with Zacks mother leaving them behind and crying. On that night, Zack and Sarah stayed on the bed and played an old demo tape that Sarah recorded. It was a song she wrote before she was with Zack.

On the next day, Zack finally told that he needed to go with his father back to the states so that he could take care of him but that would mean that he would sacrifice his time without Sarah. Both of them sat at the bridge and talked to each other heart to heart. A time frame jump happened and now, Sarah is now a recording artist and performs with her favorite band Ben and ben.

During the last scene, as she played the song she wrote to Zack, Zack appeared in the crowd and Sarah saw him and she sang their song together with her band. To me, this means that no matter what happens, we just need to trust the process we have a head of us and it would all make sense once we are there in the very end. In my final words here,If we have a dream, the key to have it is something called the law of attraction. We should send out energy or positive vibes so in the near future, all of our hopes and dreams would come true. No matter how long it would take. We just need to stay positive and adapt to whatever is given to us.

    Lola Igna Movie Review

 Lola Igna is a 2019 Filipino comedy film directed and written by Eduardo Roy Jr. and starring veteran actress  Angie Ferrero, and former Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition 4 housemate, Yves Flores. It had a theatrical release in the Philippines on September 12, 2019 as one of the entries of the 2019 (PPP) Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino.The film has received an award “best picture”, Best screenplay, Best musical score and Best actress for Angie Ferrero.

According to the director Eduardo Roy Jr. the film originated to his own reflections on his relationship with his great grandmother who is a resident of Sagada who died in 2012 at the age of 80 years old. The film was a tribute for his great grandmother, a story of what if he got to bond with his grandmother since he didn’t get the chance to learn more about her since she lived in the remote mountain province. Lola Igna is a representation of the main protagonist. Imagine what would his grandmother say to him if she saw the movie tribute he made for her. He did that with pure heart even though director Eduardo Roy Jr. didn’t had the chance to meet his grand mother.

The film is about an old woman named Igna or called as Lola Igna in the movie as it goes to the title, she is a 118 year old woman who wanted to die as if she already feels she had seen it all. Imagine out living all of your friends , families and relatives that was so dear to you but you cannot do anything since it isn’t your time yet to leave this life. Her remaining grandchildren then made her to join in a contest for the Oldest Grandmother in the world as she is a contender of a fascinating age and she could to win a millions of dollars. Because of her age and as for her gates to open for being the Oldest Grandmother in the world this made her popular and kibitzers from the city come to visit her in her bahay kubo in the middle of the verdant rice fields. Sound familiar right? It is also as the same story of Apo Whang Od, the oldest tattoo artist from the Kalinga Highlands.

As her continuous popularity bought by her age of wisdom, other people also tried to make profit from the tourists who shows up just to see her by selling souvenir merchandise, as if it’s like she’s a part of a circus for someone’s entertainment. She was actually the town’s most sought after midwife, but she already retired. As for Lola Igna’s relatives, her only remaining relatives are her granddaughter, Nida and her son, Bok. Think about this, you are already done working and once you get home, there are people who want to visit you just because you are now treated as a “tourist attraction” booth or like a wild animal trapped in a cage. It may sound rough but by the looks of it, most likely Lola Igna feels that way on how the people treat her. She just wants to rest in peace but the people who know her won’t let her achieve her inner peace.

Then one day a young man appears who claims to be her great great grandson and already calls her “Lola Lola”. The young man is named Tim, the son of Ana, the sister of Nida who left them a long ago and never felt a presence. The reconciliation of the two estranged sisters is a dramatic high point that will make you shed a tear or two. Lola Igna appreciates Tim’s company and asks him to make a coffin for her. Just think of yourself tired from all the work you’ve done and all the things happening to your life but when you are on the verge of breaking down and giving up, a guardian angel appears and gives you the light you need and the energy or power you lacked before. That guardian angel of Lola Igna was her great great grandson Tim. Even though Tim didn’t knew her lola that much, with open arms he embraced her.

Lola Igna has lived a full life of serving to their community, all her life assisting mothers to give a precious life of their kids. Imagine yourself as an assistant of God to help make life to the new born babies but you yourself wants to rest her soul but deep inside you know God still has a plan for you and that is the meain reason why you out lived most of the people you used to be with in your youth days. As Lola Igna says, we should not be afraid of death, which for her is just a start of a journey, a journey which a soul may feel freedom. She wishes for a dead bird and a dead friend Gusting, (the first baby she had ever delivered) for her to have safe travels in the great beyond.

She even talks regularly to her deceased husband and treats him like he is still around. This is a proof that even though lola Igna wants to finally rest her soul, she still continues to love her husband and imagine that he is still walking with her on her journey so that she won’t feel lonely. From most people, when they go through dark times or they are on a new journey / chapter in their life, they want people who they know or who they could trust stand beside them so that they could be influenced by their power of undying support.

The film progresses very slowly, familiarizing us with the character of Lola Igna's daily routine upon waking up, from her chamber pot ritual to her fly-infested breakfast. However, once the main story got its way, there was so much more to tell than just Lola's life story. Aside from the evocative drama within her family, the film also comments on rural politics, folk superstitious beliefs, as well as on social media phenomena. It was like an update on "Himala," but lighter, spices with a generous sense of humor.

The uniqueness of the film Lola Igna is there in the young people who may have been tired already of beaches and camping. One of the more poignant experiences in the film is seeing young people trekking all the way to the small home of Lola Igna for anything at all that would make their lives exciting and unique, as a source of entertainment which arrogance and naivety is within.

The film actually is a celebration of life and even death as it shows how the cycle of life is precious and is beautiful, that we should give it more value as we ride along in our journey from life and death. As for the long life of Lola Igna it may not cut deep into your soul, but it transports you to the alienated world of human being who has lived too long as it shifts one’s perspective about death and aging. Also this movie shows that sometimes, the more you have seen and experienced in life, it helps you get the wisdom and the stories you could share to the youth in a way you could guide them like their guardian angel but this time you are physically there to guide them.  But little did lola Igna knew that she also had a guardian angel herself. This Film is a reminder to us that no matter what happens in our life, we just need to get back up when life brings us down and continue walking our life journey. If we see people who struggle with the problems we used to experience ourselves, we give them a hand. No matter what age, gender, or religion they are. Life goes on and time flies fast as we progress to the next chapter in our lives.

      The Panti Sisters Movie Review

 The “Panti Sisters” is a film that deals about family, pride, acceptance and love. Directed by Jun Luna, this movies is such an enjoyable movie to watch.   Not only is it entertaining, this movie also gives the audience as different perspective of the plight of the LGBTQ community.

The movie tells about the story of the Panti sisters.   The sisters are affluent but their toxic rich father is not accepting of their choice in life, that of being homosexual. The movie takes us to a long plight of hardship in dealing with their father’s open rejection to their ways of being gay. The siblings Gabbi, Samuel and Daniel, went their own separate ways only to be summoned back by their father whose days were numbered because of his terminal cancer illness.  He asked the siblings to go back to their old house where they grew up and gave them an offer of receiving 300 million pesos if they follow his rules.

The father’s intention of getting his gay children back is because of his ulterior motive to have a grandson.  He believes that this is the way to keep the next generation alive.  The father, in an attempt to make sure this happens, asked them to impregnate a woman and stay in his abode for him to see his sons for a while being what he wanted them to be.  As the story progresses, there are hardships that the Panti sisters encountered towards the rules that their dad gave them but only one successfully advances the offer by having a child of his own, but suddenly things didn’t come up as plan as it ended into miscarriage.

With that miscarriage it ended the feud of the sisters and ended up for them to be closer together. The siblings, as much as they love their father, could not fathom to do what their father wishes them to do, that is to bear him a grandson.  As the movie is about to end, one of the sisters died because of a gunshot which leads to the grief of the family including their father. This incident led to the father’s regret in proposing the offer as he knew that he was the root of every misfortune that has happened.  Realization came at the most unfortunate moment as the father realized that he is responsible for the death of his own son. The story ends with the children finally forgiving their father for what has been done wrong to them while the father finally accepted his sons for who they are and ended up to becoming a happy family with acceptance and ended with a happy ending.

At first, I was thinking the movie was just about fun and comedy, but as it progresses it’s all about the toxicity of us humans for not accepting special people around us because of just rules and misconceptions that had been imbedded and taught to us by some religions and society at large.  It is in this context that we see the plight of a lot of homosexuals and the daily suffering that they have to bear not only from people who are small-minded, but also from society at large that have been misguided by false teachings.  The plight of homosexuals in the Philippines is still a struggle.  A lot of homosexuals are still hiding behind their closets because their families themselves do not accept them or are ashamed of them.  Filipinos are “status quo” sensitive, which is a sad reality but true nonetheless.  Old ways don’t go away easily for Filipinos.  In this movie, this reality still holds true for a lot of Filipino families.  It seems that a family’s integrity, or the lack of it, depends on how the head of the family sees it.  The father figure is still the revered person in a Filipino family.  In this film, the familial representation is so vivid.  The stark truth that Filipinos still see homosexuals as an undesirable member of a unit of the society is so heartrending. Rejection and discrimination are just some of the dilemma that homosexuals experience.  The problem, advocates stress, goes beyond equality.  Our government does not even protect the LGBTQ rights.  Without a national law, several LGBT Filipinos continue to live in layers of fear and inequality. Some stop living all together.  

           The ordeal of the “Panti Sisters” to fight rejection based on their sexual orientation or sexual identity has shown anew a spotlight on the grueling situation on the of the LGBTQ movement in the Philippines.  The film has strikingly shown how the supposedly widely held belief that LGBTQ people have gained acceptance or tolerance in Philippine society can be a fallacy.  

But many can find solace in the words of Pope Francis who, in stressing homosexuals should not be condemned, said in 2013: “If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?” Years later, the Pope said that when he blurted his famous words on homosexuality, he was “paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”

          This film has a message to offer us, Filipinos, and to the whole world.  We need to be accepting and understanding.  We need to find it in our heart to realize that homosexuals are persons, just like you and me.  Homosexuals have feelings, too.  As much as we want to have a decent and happy life, they, too, are entitled to it.  Who are we to judge when we are no better than anyone.

The message of the movie is loud and clear.  We should all take heed, take the movie personally and seriously. It’s not just about the comedy of stereotype gay people making jokes of their own but the story is about them, where they bring happiness to us by making the world more colorful and vibrant.

I personally find the movie very interesting and an eye-opener.  The artists gave justice to the film.  I would be wanting to see more of these movies specially with the LGBTQ supporting the likes of these movies.

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INSIANG MOVIE REVIEW

Michael Kim Dimasacat MM23

               At the very beginning of the movie, we could see pigs that are being slaughtered right in front of our eyes. It was a bold and raw thing to see since we had no idea why did the director of the movie put that over there in the movie and why in the very start. For me I thought it was just like a normal fill for the movie or just a stabilizing shot. Little did I know that in the end of the movie I would know the  reason why the director put that gore scene at the first sequence of the movie. Moments later, the movie starts to show a family who are eating in a small house and by the looks of it, they are living in poverty and their struggle is how to survive on a day to day basis without having any problems.

As the movie progresses, they slowly showed that there were two families living on that house. The mother of Insiang, and a family friend who needed a place to stay in so the mother of Insiang insisted of taking them all in their house. There were stabilizing shots in the movie which showed the slums/ hood part of Manila. The side that the few doesn’t want to see and they want to forget about the people living in that place since that place is like a waste land and filled with garbage. Because of this, Most people living there had make shift houses from scraps like old pieces of wood , rusty metal wires, bent nails and old spare tires to add weight to their roof so when the rain comes and strong winds blow, their roof tops wont fly because of the strong wind currents. For me, this scene should be more put into focus since this is one of the many main problems here on our country. Also the point that most people there are over populated which makes them have a harder time to earn money since the quantity of people eating on their homes are a lot. There was this scene in which one of the sub characters was drunk with friends early in the morning and because of this, they had a little thing on almost raping this innocent girl who was just there to sell them food and drinks in the sari sari store they were staying at. This problem could still be seen in current events. But the difference today from before the time they shot the movie was today the voice of the women are now being heard by a lot of people and by the looks of it, there is a lot of improvement in this issue. Women can now report this to the police and the people who cat called/ disrespect them would be fined 15,000 pesos from what I have heard from the news.

Another issue from the movie that they showed was the abusive mother/parent of Insiang. Her own mother didn’t believed her and chose to side with her “boyfriend” who was clearly just using her to get near to Insiang. The abusive step father thing today could still be considered as one of the problems in the country but they are not that so publicly shown. Sadly I know people who struggle with their abusive step parents. In the end of the movie , I remember that Insiang finally had her revenge on all of the people who hurt her and it was all strategically planned from the very beginning. She used her mothers’ anger to kill the step father who clearly raped her while she slept.

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BATCH 81 FILM REVIEW

MM23 Film Language

At the very first part of the movie, there was this bubbly type of music which is kind of misleading to the dark truth of this film. It was like taken from a carnival or an old cartoon in which the scene would be the main antagonist would chase the protagonist in a loop.

After watching the movie, I realized that the stories of my friends who joined fraternities like tau gamma , apo , and tbs were real. The things that they would do to you before you could enter or join their botherhood. To be honest I really don’t know why do people want to join fraternities so bad just like Sid Lucero in the movie. Is it because they lack the love of their parents? Or just simply because they want to be “cool” in the eyes of their co-leagues. When I was still in highschool, I remember a close friend of mine who is a high academic achiever student asked me if I wanted to join a frat near our school. He said that if we would join, we would be untouchable to bullies since the original members of the frat would help us beat anyone who disrespects us. I respectfully declined the offer of my friend. Months later I heard a news that he had a trouble with a professor who bad mouthed him and disrespected him in front of the whole class and days later, the car of our professor was stabbed with a knife on the tires and on the side was a spray paint message stating “ don’t mess with us”. Things like this on our school are not ignored and they took responsibility as soon as possible. My friend who was now a member of the frat got kicked out of the school with a penalty of paying our professor a new set of wheels and a new paintjob. Till this day, I won’t forget the way our professor looked because that was the first time I saw a professor being afraid of his student. After this incident I knew that the reason why my friend joined that frat was because he had enemies outside the school due to his easily angered personality.

He has this war freak attitude which made him a violent person and because of this, he easily crosses paths with other students or people who are near to him. But to me, he is just a misunderstood person.

To me he was my brother. Like a big brother to me who just wants things to be done in his own way but due to his personality, it doesn’t always work the way he wants it to be.

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Yanggaw film review

Dimasacat Michael Kim

 The story is focused about the ordinary life of a family in a community in a far place province. One day a girl from the said family went home who had been infected by an illness not so normal. She is then becaming weak as the days gone by and slowly turning into a mystery. Later on the story, she was seen without her slippers and she is covered in blood. The Father of the family later on new that his daughter was possessed by an evil spirit and since they lived in the province, he thought of her daughter at night becomes into an “aswang”. A local healer or witch doctor said that his daughter is now an “aswang”. Soon the news spread to the town and to the authorities. They were alarmed about this “aswang” thing.

And as the movie progresses, you would see that the father would really do anything to protect his own family even if it costs his life. This film tells us how the people in the province would think of illnesses and they would believe witch doctors over real doctors. The Aswang folklore also has been already a part of the Philippine horror/ mysteries. If you would ask me personally, Im not quite sure if they are real and if they do really exist since all of my life here on the Philippines has been in the cities far away from the mysteries of our ancestry roots. But I remember that my grandfather before told me while I was still young that when he and his friends were still living in Mindoro, they have seen and heard “aswang’s” in their area. I know my grandfather and I know for a fact that he is not lying since he has seen a lot of things before he and my grandmother moved here in Marikina.

 There is still a lot of mysteries that science can’t explain and to be known till this day. If aswangs do really exist or not, this movie shows us that it would really be creepy if they do exist in this world. Think about women flying half of their bodies and unborn babies being eaten.

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Anino film review

Dimasacat Michael Kim

MM23

Anino Film Review

 At the very beginning, the intro starts playing an old Filipino music “banal na aso��� by yano and because of this I was hooked to the movie because while hearing this song, it gave me so much of my childhood memories. When I heard that song, it made me remember times when it was played on the radio while my dad was driving us while we were stuck in traffic. And somehow that was the next scene on the movie. Just a daily reminder on how badly the traffic here on our country really is. No matter how many years would have passed, it would still be the same. Later on, we are now taken to a church where in we could see a man sitting down while holding his vintage camera while he is looking at the people praying inside the church with him.  Just like any one of us inside the church while the mass is ongoing, he wanders his eyes to the beautiful glass paintings on the walls of the church. Then an old lady catches his attention since she tapped her on the side which made him come back to his senses that he is still inside the church.  By the looks of the old lady, she is a nun in that church since she was wearing a white polo and a bible in her hands. The man with the camera was ashamed to himself so he left as soon as possible. As the photographer walked away from the church, a man standing next to the door spoke to him that he’s been praying all the time but nothing was happening to him. Then the man asked have the photographer eaten. He just stated that he ate yesterday. A little chat happened and then the man standing next to the door asked what job did the photographer do. He just stated that he was there on the church to take photos of people there even though that the job he is doing is a dying commission.

They had an argument then the man on the door said that there are no real persons inside that church. The real people are out there on the streets and the church goers are just bunch of hypocrites.

As the photographer leaves the church, he turns back for a second and the man standing at the doorway is now gone. Vanished into thin air. As he continued walking the next scenes show us how he wanders around metro manila and those imageries showed how the people payed cops “suhol” to bribe them.

The photographer now ends up inside an eatery but he just went there to look for food because he knows that he doesn’t have money to pay the restaurant. So he just sat there for hours. Later on he sees a kid looking at his camera so he asked that street kid to come close to him. He asked if he wanted to show his little toy of his. The street kid replied that he also had one of those and the kid offered the photographer that he would take a picture of him. The photographer agreed so he walked away for a second to get into frame but little did he knew that he street kid already ran and stole his camera. The smile that he was supposed to do in front of the camera became a frown and now he wanders off again thinking of what he had done. While he was walking in the middle of the street, a car behind him was mad because he was walking literally in the middle of the street. The mad man shouted at the photographer to get out of there but he didn’t walk away. The mad man got out of his car and pointed a gun to the photographer. But in his surprise, the photographer got his gun. But he was quickly beaten by bystanders since they thought that the mad man was being robbed by the photographer. When the photographer wakes up, he was in a car with the person he saw at the church

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Confessional movie review

Dimasacat Michael Kim MM23 Confessional movie review

At the first part of the movie, we hear a voice that is casually talking to the audience.

He is just stating that would you lie or would you tell the truth. Also he is pointing out that the smaller the number of people around you, the better since those who are close to you are the ones most likely true to you. One thing that he said was if you were supposed to live in the mountains, would you leave all of the things behind. Just like internet, PS2, Friendster and sushi. And in the end of it, he said that he is also one of the liars around the world. The story revolves around the character Ryan who is a video editor and at the same time, a videographer. Here he gave 3 rules or tips to the viewers. Make everything look good, play smooth and lastly sound true by any means necessary. Even if you have to lie. The next scene shows a wedding. Everyone is happy, a lot could be seen with a smile on their face and at the part where the groom and bride kisses, everybody explodes with joy. But you want the scene to be more touching, so you look for the positive moments that could make your video a lot better. A person once said to him that Lies + lies is equals the truth. On the next frames, we are now given a tour inside Ryan’s house. And later on, he shows us his girlfriend, Monnet. They actually met in an awkward way. Then few years had gone by and now we are in the present timeframe. Since Monnet was bored, she asked Ryan if he wanted to go on a vacation with her. She tries to convince him by letting him join a film documentary contest in Cebu. The task is to document the festival and the 1st place would earn 50,000 pesos. The reason why Ryan hesitated to go with her girlfriend at first was because the last time he went to Cebu, he lost his old girlfriend. But eventually he went with his new girlfriend. They went to Cebu via boat. When they finally landed in Cebu, Monnet left Ryan because she was going to stay with her relatives. During his time spent there, Ryan already interviewed some locals there. One named Sister Maria, One tourism manager, and one dance choreographer. They all have different points of view which made Ryan have a hard time asking the truth because they don’t have the same answer. But the next one was a former mayor in Mindanao. He was Lito Caliso. Ryan needed a government official to interview but during that time, he was the only one available. So they met and the former mayor started to casually talk to Ryan. They talked about how beautiful Cebu is and why most Cebuano’s stay in Cebu. Moments later they reached the house of Mayor Lito. They continued to talk there but eventually Ryan just thought of the mayor as weird since he keeps on saying that he is going to die after this interview. But as he plays back the video, he remembered that the mayor had an “affiliation” with the beauty queens in the Sinulog festival. And the average age of a contestant is 15 -16. After that the next day comes. A new day means a new start. But sadly it was the last day of the festival so Ryan went to interview one last subject. But Ryan was stopped by the mayor and he had no choice but to go with him again. To continue the interview. This time the mayor told Ryan that he was in a little situation with a drug cartel. He killed one of the people on the high tables and now that is why he knows that his time is now limited. Ryan was a bit suspicious about what the mayor said so mayor Lito walked with Ryan to the woods. He said he wanted to show Ryan something but little did he knew, it was the skull remains of the person mayor killed. He ran as fast as he could to escape the mayor. Ryan went back to the festival and there he met Monnet again. They met up with the Cebuano friends of Monnet and they began to drank and talk to each other. But a part of Ryan remembers that he left his camera with the mayor. So Ryan told Monnet about everything and he went back to the mayor to get his camera. As he went to the Mayors house, he interviewed him once again. The mayor said that he has been getting death threats but he is not afraid to die. To calm Ryan down, he said to him that “don’t be afraid, think of this as an adventure but real life”. Later on, Mayor Lito also stated that he had been taking the funds to make school projects but he took 20% of the profit. While the mayor was eating and talking to Ryan at a garden, a gunman approached him and shot him in the head. He was going to say something else but he got shot. Ryan ran as far as possible but he turned around to look at the mayor. Then he saw the gunman pointing the gun at him. The only reaction he did was he pointed his camera at the gunman. later on we can hear the voice of Ryan saying that this is the first time he saw a person get killed.

In the end, Ryan just called Mayor Lito as a liar

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Maynila sa kuko ng liwanag film review

This would be my first ever blog movie review. I am currently a 2nd year multimedia arts student in iacademy. The reason why I created this blog is supposed to be a requirement for my class film language. We watched a movie and now we need to write a movie essay about everything we noticed, liked, and understood. The first thing I noticed that it was a remake version of the original copy of the movie. And now, because of that, the audio quality was a bit rubbish. The bass was too loud and you could barely hear some of the lines. The background sound effects were too loud and it foreshadows the lines of the characters. The framing of the film during their time was amazing but if you would compare that to the cinematographers from today, you would see the difference were the art of framing has evolved. The storyline for me was likeable since they made the storyline like a mystery. They showed only few pieces of the history of the protagonist guy. This made a mystery vibe to the movie and during the year they showed this movie to the people, most likely their response would be amazed since back then you don’t usually see that type of art in the movie industry. The movie also showed that most of the people living in the province want to travel to Manila since they thought that life is better here and they would have a better chance of earning money. But in this film, when we follow the life of the protagonist, it showed the dark truth about migrating here in Manila. He earned below minimum wage and at the same time he didn’t have a place to sleep in. Luckly his fellow workmates allowed him to live with them near the construction area where he was going to work for the day.

 The movie also showed that in a regular day basis, a construction worker needed to work hard enough to earn money but their boss or recruiter would treat them as low as possible since they are just treated like sheep. During one of the scenes of the movie, the protagonist collapsed since he didn’t have enough sleep and didn’t ate anything before going to work and that made him pass out for a bit. His workmates helped him out and told him to rest even though their boss told them that they could only rest 3 times a day and during only a specific time. One of his colleagues gave him his lunch food already in advanced just so he could regain back his energy.

The next scene was all of the workers finally had their rest time and most of them were tired and that caused them to use their break to sleep. Some of them were eating, some were smoking and others were just talking to each other. In this frame, the protagonist had a chance to talk to some of his fellow workmates and asked how long have they been here in manila and how is the life here since he just moved here. They told him the truth that life is harder here since they are paid below the minimum wage.

After days have passed by, an incident happened and the protagonist saw the death of his friend. He fell from the building that they were constructing since there was a wood that fell on his head which made him fall down to his death. On the next day since the building was near to be finished, the recruiter told the construction workers that they would lessen the people working there. In other words, they would fire people.

Sadly our protagonist was one of the people to be fired. He then continued to find a work there in Manila but he was recruited to be a macho dancer.

At first he didn’t want this to be his job but he needed money and a place to stay so he did what he had to do. During this time, there were flash backs about the protagonists’ past and there was a girl he was following.

Turns out that this girl was his lover who went to Manila earlier and she was the real reason why he wanted to go to Manila. Not to work, but to find her. This was one of the mysteries solved.

He then went to this bar that was on the side of the eatery where he always stayed late at night. He was looking at this window that he would see a shadow form of a girl but he was not sure if that was his lover.

Days have gone by and while he was travelling near a church he saw a lady that looked like his lover so he followed him to the church. Eventually she was her.

They went to a movie to chat. He asked why didn’t she go back and what happened to her. Moments later, both of them were in bed and they continued to chat with each other. On that moment, the girl told the protagonist that she didn’t go back because she was locked most of the time in the building and she cannot escape because she has now 4 children with her. The protagonist was shocked but he planned to help his lover escape. His lover agreed.

On the night that they were supposed to escape, the girl didn’t show up at the randevu.

The protagonist didn’t hear from his lover for weeks. Days have gone, he went to a burial of a person then he saw that the person to be buried was his lover. At this point he just lost it. He bought an ice pick and rushed to the place where he knew his lover was kept captive and when he went there, he stabbed the owner of the place brutally and eventually he was chased by the bystanders that was there. In the end scene, he was cornered and he was crying. And it was an open ending to the story