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A BITTERLY SENSUAL CHARGE
For a long spell, Law Fajardo’s Scorpio Nights 3 (Viva Films, Pelikulaw, 2022) emits a bitterly sensual charge. The film’s unexpected intrigue is partly a matter of context. In the 1980s, when...
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STAGGERING POWER
Himala (Experimental Cinema of the Philippines, 1982) directed by Ishmael Bernal is a powerful and successful experiment in minimalism. Ricardo Lee’s screenplay takes on a documentary aesthetic,...
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AMOROUS FISSION
Romance, so I’m to understand the term (and I don’t), is predicated on petite, strategic lies. It’s the confluence of many different slightly altered postures and highly self-moderated...
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A SLOW-MOTION PUNCH TO THE GUT
Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio's Broken Blooms (Bentria Productions, 2022) follows a volatile relationship as it flowers and wilts, thinking about what went wrong. It sounds like the cruelest sort of...
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PURE GOOD AGAINST PURE EVIL
Fantastika with Wonder Woman (Prima Productions/Petersen Film, 1976) follows Fantastika (Pinky Montilla) and Wonder Woman (Alma Moreno) as they attempt to defeat an evil sorcerer with immeasurable...
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A BITTERLY SENSUAL CHARGE
For a long spell, Law Fajardo’s Scorpio Nights 3 (Viva Films, Pelikulaw, 2022) emits a bitterly sensual charge. The film’s unexpected intrigue is partly a matter of context. In the 1980s, when...
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DEEPLY SATISFYING
Mike de Leon's Itim (Cinema Artists Philippines, 1976) is a quiet, delicate piece, one aching with loss and regret. It's the kind of film which demands patience, not least because of the static...
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A TRANSCENDENT HOWL OF HOPE
The main focus of Eddie Garcia's 1978 feature, Atsay (Ian Film Productions) is Nelia de Leon’s odyssey and its emotional core is provided by Nora Aunor's intense, gestural performance, which is...
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EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
Nurses play a critical role in our health care system and have touched the lives of just about everyone, sometimes in the most intimate, difficult or joyful moments of the human experience. But...
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SKILLED FOOTING
It’s a testament to director Chito S. Roño’s Ang Mga Kaibigan ni Mama Susan (Regal Entertainment, Inc., CSR Films.Ph, Black Sheep, 2023) that it manages to incorporate so many of the visual and...
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PROVOCATIVE AND SATISFYING
Stylized and visually arresting, Lawrence Fajardo's Mahjong Nights (Viva Films, 2021) complicates and perverts the simplest of interactions. It unfolds at a languorous pace, ultimately leaving...
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DEEPLY COMPELLING
In May-December-January (Viva FIlms, 2022) Ricky Lee and McArthur C. Alejandre create an emotional and dramatic spaciousness making a far richer, more provocative and deeply compelling movie....
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LOFTIER AMBITION
Alan Filoteo's The Restless Heron (Filcor Multimedia Studio, Cronasia Foundation College, 2022) succeeds in its loftier ambition of taking such a story and placing it within a cinematic tradition...
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BOLD AND SIMPLE
Communication is vital for human existence. Unfortunately, we live in a continuously isolating world, partly by choice and partly by global circumstances. How often are you truly sitting down with...
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BETWEEN DANGER AND DESIRE
One unfortunate trope of independent filmmaking is the near-silence of working-class characters, as if a relative lack of formal education deprived a person of ideas, emotions and experiences....
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INCEDIARY AND EXTRAORDINARY
The opening moments of Memories of the Rising Sun (Pelikulaw, P.D. Class 2014) shows filmmaker Lawrence Fajardo at his most confrontational, setting up the idea of what his central character, as...
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ANGUISHED LOVE
The political landscape that seeps through Joel C. Lamangan's Lihis (Film Development Council of the Philippines, BG Films International, 2013) is as deep as the movie's heartbreaking story of two...
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BROAD COMEDY DONE RIGHT
Romantic comedies are only as good as their leads and To Love Again (Viva Films, 1983) is no exception. It's already hard to imagine the movie without Sharon Cuneta and Miguel Rodriguez. Their...
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HONEST AND UNFLINCHING
Romy Suzara’s Somewhere (Viva Films, 1984) achieves thematic unity through its theme, that man is a victim of circumstances. Silvio Logarte (Rudy Fernandez), is imprisoned for a crime he did not...
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QUIRKY, OFFBEAT
Much like Kapag Tumabang ang Asin (1976), T-Bird at Ako (Film Ventures, Inc., 1982) peaks to the creative and sometimes delusional nature of desire. Director Danny L. Zialcita plays their...
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