7.16.2011

don't follow your dreams

what have we been fed with lately? there's  transformers 3, harry potter 7 part2 and temptation island remake - all screaming big budget, cgi, famous cast, and predictable story lines.

transformers, the ultimate guy flick. they transform, endangers the earth and saves the earth too with humans in support. for a movie about transformation, it doesn't really transform much in plot and in impact. sorry, you had me at part1, then the rest just didn't match the first impact because the sequels felt almost the same no matter how much transforming and danger you put to earth. and to be really honest about this, you lost me the moment you replaced megan fox. there, i said it.

harry potter 7 part 2 - if you've read the books, watching the film version is just checking how truthful they've been with the book. it's not like they will largely change the story. this is validating your imagination when you read the book. now for the uninitiated who didn't read the books (how could you miss them out?!), it's checking what the fuss is all about. and then you'll go, oh, now i get it. and like the rest, will enlist in the cult and learn wizardry. hehe. with the countless global problems we have, having another world to worry about is a sweet escape (tip: the best way to forget about your own problem is to worry somebody else's). to follow a boy's life and his friends lives as they go from one mess to another that culminates in the fulfillment of a destiny foretold from a lightning scar. nope, i didn't see the last film yet. hehe. this puts great meaning, character and glory to scars. boo to the scar removal products. haha. don't get me wrong, i love HP, but am glad it's finally ending. the over commercialism of it just turned me off. but the love is still there, intact last i checked. =)

if harry potter is the boy who lived forever, megatron is the decepticon that doesn't die. hehehe.


temptation island - how many ways can you squeeze an orange? there's been a stage play, numerous animated gifs from the original, borrowed lines, now a remake. a remake that is funny, but not hilarious. to remake and make it almost an identical twin of the original in terms of lines and scenes is a moot point for me. because that' setting yourself up for failure. so i dunno why i even bothered watching other than the obvious that am a big gay fan of Bai Amaya, Marian Rivera. now am bigger gay fan of Lovi Poe. hehe.  

the original cast now has their own lives, one's in US, rich i bet, the other is a successful bizwoman, definitely rich, the third one rich in bf/ex-hubbies, and the last one i hope had a rich life, because i wasn't able to locate her in google. hahaha. the original cast has definitely moved on. it's time we do too. :)

i guess what am hungry for is a taste of something new and original. something basic and close to home. something meaningful on a personal level, that can leave a mark in the way i think, tempt me to action, and transform me to follow not my dreams, but my passion. *dreams feel so far away, while passion is already in us, ready to ignite*. and after that lengthy intro (i am known to digress a LOT. hehe), passion is cinemalaya. =)


SCHEDULE HERE

The new breed entries:


AMOK by Law Fajardo (Mature Content) 
The bustling and sweltering rugged intersection of Pasay Rotonda serves as the main setting for this story of interconnected fate and destiny. As a raging man’s bullets strays into different directions, the fate of several different characters are sealed and determined. As the temperature rises, the tension escalates and the story unravels with unforgiving immediacy and explodes in the end as each one struggles to survive and escape their inevitable end.


ANG BABAE SA SEPTIC TANK by Marlon Rivera and Chris Martinez
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank chronicles a day in the life of three ambitious, passionate but misguided filmmakers as they set out to do a quick pre-prod at Starbucks, a courtesy call to their lead actress, Eugene Domingo, and an ocular inspection of their film’s major location, the Payatas dumpsite. Director Rainier, Producer Bingbong and Production Assistant Jocelyn are well-to-do, well-educated film school graduates who are dead set on making an Oscar worthy film. They believe they have a winning script, the energy and the drive to make their dreams come true. Like most filmmakers they know, they have devised a screenplay that will show the real essence of our culture: poverty. In the course of one day, they brainstorm and exhaust all possible treatment of their project: the story of Mila (Eugene Domingo), a mother from the slums, who out of desperation to survive, has sold her child to a pedophile. As they discuss the possible executions of the story, the movie-within-a-movie gets reborn in Jocelyn’s imagination several times. As a gritty no frills neo-realist film, as a glossy musical, as an over-the-top melodrama and as a docu drama using non-actors. For their last task of the day, they visit the dumpsite for the first time. As filmmakers gunning for authenticity, they get excited with the ”beauty” of the squalor around them. Soon enough, they are faced with reality as they come face to face with the real effects of their chosen subject. Babae sa Septic Tank is a comedy about misguided ambitions, the art of making art and the romanticization of poverty.


ANG SAYAW NG DALAWANG KALIWANG PAA by Alemberg Ang and Alvin Yapan
Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa explores the intersection and divergence between feminist and gay concerns in the third world context, as it features the poetry of Merlinda Bobis, Ruth Elynia Mabanglo, Joi Barrios, Rebecca Anonuevo, Benilda Santos and Ophelia Dimalanta. When Marlon, a college student, stalks Karen, his literature professor, he finds out that she moonlights as a choreographer and dance teacher in a dance studio. Frustrated over his performance in her literature class, he plans to impress her instead by learning to poeticize his body movements and enroll in her dance class. He hires his classmate to teach him the basics of dancing. As Dennis, his tutor, teaches him how his body should move, Marlon begins to understand the intersections between the art of poetry and dance. This opens up his world to new insights about the life of Karen as a single woman who chose to live the life of an artist in a third world setting. Marlon begins to understand how the poems being discussed by Karen in class are testaments to her choice to stand by her art.


BAHAY BATA by Eduardo Roy and Jerome Zamora
Sarah is a nurse at a Public Maternity Hospital. The hospital is abuzz with pregnant mothers of all shapes and sizes in different stages of labor. The hospital is short on staff on Christmas Day so Sarah is forced to put in a double shift. Sarah observes the women coming and going in her ward, noting who is a first-timer and who is a veteran. Meanwhile, the wards are overcrowded : two women and their babies sharing single beds while those in labor are spilling unto the hallways. Sarah takes these all in stride, her heart and mind laboring over her own personal pains.


CUCHERA by Joseph Laban (Mature Content)
Based on a true story, Cuchera is about Filipino drug mules, drug couriers and their recruiters. It follows the story of Isabel, a veteran drug mule, in her first attempt at running her own drug transshipment operation between Manila and China. Isabel’s character is based on the story of an actual Filipina drug mule who was caught with eight capsules of heroin lodged in her sex organ, 48 in the rectum and 11 in her abdomen after an x-ray was conducted by Chinese authorities. Cuchera presents an accurate depiction of how some Filipinos end up becoming entrenched in the world of illegal drugs. Currently, the Philippines leads all Southeast Asian countries in the number of nationals arrested for drug smuggling charges in China. As of 2009, there are currently 95 Filipinos languishing in various jails in Chinese territories---four of whom are on death row. Violators include minors who enter China with fake passports.

I-LIBINGS by Rommel Sales
A coming of age story about Isabel’s lessons and realizations on life and death as a funeral videography intern. Due to her family situation, Isabel is cynical and skeptical of everything that comes her way. When she enters the I-libings for her required college internship, she sees it as the worst internship her college adviser could suggest to her. Later as she accumulates her required hours, she realizes that the company is not just a place where videographers make money out of other people’s misfortunes but is a place where the dead and the grieving receive special attention. It all comes full circle when Isabel is faced with an unusual family tragedy. Isabel realizes that her internship might have been just 200 hours, but the lessons that the I-libings left her would last a lifetime.


LIGO NA U LAPIT NA ME by Noel Ferrer, Jerry Gracio and Erick Salud (Mature Content)
Karl Vladimir Lennon J. Villalobos, aka Intoy, is secretly in love with his friend Jenny, the most beautiful girl in the campus. Jenny is rich and quirky; Intoy is street-smart and ordinary. But this friendship is not simple, since Jenny has bestowed on Intoy some perks and privileges, including going to bed with her on the condition that they will not fall in love with each other. Before graduation, Intoy feels that he has to shed his pretensions of being astig and finally profess his love for Jenny. But he is devastated to learn that Jenny is pregnant. Worse, Jenny tells him: “Don’t worry, this is not yours.” Based on the bestselling novel of Eros S. Atalia, Ligo na U, Lapit na Me is an examination of postmodern love and relationship and the way this generation deals with their love and fear.


NIÑO by Loy Arcenas
The once illustrious Lopez-Aranda family has faded. Celia, once the darling of Philippine opera, and Gaspar, a distinguished ex-congressman, lacked the shrewdness to maintain their once elegant status. Saddled with a failed marriage, a vanishing career and mounting debt, Celia sold her share of their house to Gaspar, now bedridden. She managed to stay for free in exchange for being Gaspar’s caregiver. Gaspar loves listening to Celia’s arias. This idyllic arrangement is shattered when he slips into a coma. His daughter, Raquel, comes home from the US, determined to sell the house to salvage her own economic woes abroad. This signals Celia’s impending homelessness. With only a few heirlooms to sell, she is at her wits’ end. A fervent believer of the Sto. Nino, she hopes for a miracle. She dresses up her grandson, Antony, in Sto. Nino robes to prepare him for the coming fiesta. She insists this will invoke a miracle that will awaken Gaspar and stop Raquel from selling the house. Antony’s father, Mombic, while processing his travel papers to work in Dubai, tries to strike a deal with Raquel in selling the property without his mother Celia’s knowledge. Merced, Mombic’s sister, reluctantly takes on the burden of taking care of Celia and a household sliding to ruin. The family members clash in a confrontation that reveals their weaknesses and their hopeless ideals. Mombic leaves his son to the care of his mother and sister, Merced, the only family member who quietly accepts her fate. As a final ditch to awaken Gaspar, Celia holds a tertulia, inviting her aging opera singer friends. They sing arias, oblivious to the ravages of time, crippled reminders of a glorious past. In the middle of a chorus, Gaspar quietly dies, sealing the fate of his sister and the mansion that once was called Villa Los Reyes Magos. Celia looks out into her once beautiful garden. She sees Antony, still in his Sto. Nino robe, playing in the garden, offering a little illusion of hope to a past that can never be rekindled.

TEORIYA by Zurich Chan
Teoriya is a story about loss that centers on the film’s main character, Jimmuel Apostol II. After hearing the news that his father has passed away, Jim goes back home to Zamboanga City after leaving ten years ago in bad terms with his father. He arrives in Zamboanga only to find that his father has already been buried and he doesn’t know where. Jim takes a journey around the Zamboanga peninsula and ultimately into his own self, finding the missing piece of his life.Teoriya is a story about loss that centers on the film’s main character, Jimmuel Apostol II. After hearing the news that his father has passed away, Jim goes back home to Zamboanga City after leaving ten years ago in bad terms with his father. He arrives in Zamboanga only to find that his father has already been buried and he doesn’t know where. Jim takes a journey around the Zamboanga peninsula and ultimately into his own self, finding the missing piece of his life.


****this was supposed to be a super quickie post. was supposed to just put the cinemalaya pic and schedule. but i guess am not for quickies. thoughts just rushed in and fingers just kept on raging. maybe this unstoppable force is passion. it's right there, right now kind of thing that marches on in command, gripping my heart to gush with blood to be the ink in my thoughts so i can splatter it here. this blog is my crime scene. ****

4 comments:

tcf said...

Re: Ligo na u Lapit na me, my friends and I were just talking about this. haha. the book wasn't received too well, but hopefully, a film adaptation would remove much of the book's unnecessary chapters. para hindi masyado convoluted. :p

firewomyn said...

@tcf - i have the book too! and what a waste. i didn't go past page 5. hay. i overheard the screenplay was ok. dunno if i will watch. and they keep advertising ligo na u as based on a bestselling book. haller! define bestselling. hay again.

seen Isda,Nino, Shorts A, Ang Sayaw ng 2 kaliwang paa. So far Sayaw was best for me, the blend of poetry, music and dance. gosh, i'm inlove! :)

Isda, Nino ok. Shorts A, mixture of ok and not so. Set to watch others next week. :)

SuperK said...

I saw Sayaw too!! And it turns out the director used to be a professor of mine. Clap clap! I wanna watch Septic Tank!!!

Usiserang Pinay said...

Are they gonna released a dvd copy for this. I really wanna watch this but have no time. :(