While there’s no good reason to remake Celso Ad Castillo's Patayin Mo sa Sindak si Barbara (1974) it’s not an inherently terrible idea. A pity, then that Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara (Star Cinema, 1995) is such a slog. From the beginning, this version does what it can to distance itself from the original. By relaxing the focus on Barbara, the remake sacrifices the intense empathy which made the original version so potent. If there was anything to replace that loss, it wouldn’t be an issue, but none of the new material ever coheres into anything more than placeholder scenes, exchanges which tease at depth and history without ever following through. As for the performances, Antoinette Taus (Karen) manages to suggest a sort of knowing detachment and Dawn Zulueta (Ruth) is easily the most compelling. As the hapless Nick, Tonton Gutierrez is a nonentity, fading from memory whenever he’s off screen. Lorna Tolentino’s Barbara is stronger, but she’s ill-served by the screenplay. Her charismatic presence is undone by a character who is independent, passive, paranoid and naïve by turns, without any consistent through-line to explain her behavior beyond a need to sustain the plot. It’s doubtful any performance, no matter how well-judged, could save the film. Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara is, at best, a glossy, flat reminder that there is a better version of this story. At worst, it’s just flat.
This high definition transfer is sourced from a brand new 2K restoration. The film looks healthy and vibrant that it can easily fool someone to believe that it was shot less than a year or so ago. I upscaled this release to 4K and was quite overwhelmed by how great it looked. The improvements in terms of depth and delineation are staggering and since there are plenty of darker footage with specific nuances there are also entire segments with ranges of detail that are basically missing from previous releases. Fluidity is also very impressive, especially on a bigger screen. Furthermore, it is easy to tell that the entire film has been carefully color-graded because there are solid ranges of excellent organic primaries and even better ranges of beautiful nuances. Image stability is great with no traces of any compromising digital tinkering. Grain exposure is stable and very consistent. Lastly, there are no traces of conventional age-related imperfections. The quality of the 2-channel track is hugely impressive. The dialog is crystal clear and the overall dynamic movement is as good as it can possibly be. This is a great presentation.