Tagalog

Jonathan Romney, Vienna IFF wrote:
A relatively concise example of Lav Diaz’s expansive essays on Filipino history and imagination, HISTORY OF HA is a period drama set in 1957, although Diaz is characteristically cavalier about authenticity, with modern wheelie suitcases visible and references to algorithms sprinkled across the dialogue. But the past is always visible in the present in his films, and vice versa. This is often expressed by the idea of living in the wake of something, in this case, the death of the Philippines’ then president Ramon Magsaysay in a plane crash.Read More »

A couple’s marriage gets tainted as the husband cheats. How can the wife take her husband’s dying plea to be with her and his mistress at the remaining days of his life?Read More »

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Lino Brocka’s adaptation of Mars Ravelo’s “komiks” melodrama about a successful businessman trying to hide his homosexuality.Read More »

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The situation is ordinary enough: a woman (Nora Aunor) falls in love with a man (Dennis Roldan). To say that she “loves” him, however, is an oversimplication, because he is a retardate. What she feels is a mixture of pity, sympathy, maternal love, and -of course sexual love for him. On the other hand, though a mere child as far as his brain is concerned, he is physically grown-up, as portrayed in a clever drunken scene where he mimics raping the mistress of a neighbor. There’s no doubt about it: Mario O’Hara is a major director. In Bakit Bughaw ang Langit?, he tackles the same basic situation Lino Brocka deals with in Bona. In the comparison Brocka suffers. Where Bona fails, Bakit Bughaw ang Langit? succeeds.
– Isagani Cruz, Movie TimesRead More »

Intoy takes care of his parents when his sister moved out to work overseas. Since he lives in a remote area in Samar, the only way he could contact his sister is by going to strange rock formations on the island.Read More »

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Bulaklak sa City Jail–1984 Metro Manila Film Festival’s grand slam winner–is a tale of female empowerment in a patriarchal society, an exercise in observation of its female characters struggling to survive in the cruel society and a revelation of the many injustices, gendered or not, that Filipinos encounter in their lifetime.Read More »

The search for the body of Andres Bonifacio.

Clavis Films wrote:
A cinematographic fresco on the Philippine revolution against the Spanish colonial regime at the end of the 19th century. The film tells the story of several women, one of whom is in search of her husband kidnapped by the settlers. These damned souls roam a jungle of astonishing beauty. Like Bela Tarr, Lav Diaz is reinventing cinema here.Read More »

Silip (1985)

Synopsis:
Bloodshed and bouncing bosoms abound in this wretchedly violent and nearly pornographic horror film from the Phillipines. The story is set within a tiny village located near an idyllic nude beach where beautiful young women play. Poor local boy Joseph is terribly aroused and becomes obsessed with having his teacher, a virgin. This does not set well with Joseph’s lover, an older widow. Joseph meets his end after he is blamed for butchering a classmate. Joseph’s teacher and one of her friends are in turn blamed for cutting off the lad’s head and burned alive.Read More »

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Madmen control Manila in 2034 after massive volcanic eruptions have plunged Southeast Asia into darkness.Read More »