Tagalog

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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 »

Synopsis:Lola Sepa’s grandson has been killed by a cell phone snatcher. Despite being devastated by the sudden violence, she must bear the burden of making the funeral arrangements. She and her family are poor, and there is not enough money for the coffin nor the legal pursuit against the suspected murderer. But the elderly woman is ready to even seek a bank loan to assure both a proper burial and justice for her beloved grandson. Lola Puring is committed to getting her grandson Mateo out of jail, although he has been accused of senselessly murdering Lola Sepa’s grandson. But the poor aged woman doesn’t have the bail money. Each time she visits her grandson in prison to bring him proper meals, it breaks her heart to see him wasting away behind bars with countless others. At the first court hearing, the two grandmothers must face one another. Both frail and poor, each is determined to do everything necessary for her grandson. The future of the case is dependent on grandmotherly love…Read More »

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One of the best films of 2005. — Paolo Bertolin

In the extraordinary film “IDOL”, all aspirations are stunted and all beyonds are ludicrous. The brilliant farce that is “IDOL” is so profoundly pathetic, it is hilarious. Indeed it is so unusual, provocative and at times shattering that a new aesthetic category might be required here. In “IDOL”, Khavn has hit upon a method adequate to the full-of-shitness of the world and a new modality for realism. — Jonathan BellerRead More »