Patikul (2011)

Patikul (Joel Lamangan, 2011)

There is no denying the sincerity of veteran director Joel Lamangan in making Patikul. Education is after all an issue that can never be overemphasized. It needs to be talked about because there is an alarming lack of it especially in the riskier and more remote areas in the Philippines. Patikul was born out of that very noble intention of educating the public on the deficiencies of the policy on education in the Philippines. Unfortunately, the film is as effective as a lousy kindergarten teacher teaching calculus to a room full of monkeys.

Patikul tells the story of Kan-Ague Elementary School in Patikul, Sulu. Two of Kan-Ague’s best students are chosen to compete in the region’s quiz bee. Determined to grab the top prize, the students prepare for the quiz bee with the help of the school’s supportive principal (Marvin Agustin) and teachers. However, the students get caught in the middle of the hostilities between the government and the terrorists.

Since Patikul borrows the name of an actual place for its title, one would logically expect Lamangan to shoot the film in that place. Instead, the film was shot in locations in Rizal and Cavite that could pass for the town of Patikul, or what Lamangan envisions Patikul in Sulu would be. The danger of the convenience-fueled resourcefulness is that it makes the film based on a certain interpretation of a place, an interpretation that is not unlike a ghastly stereotype. Thus, the film is erroneously emboldened by its pretty but empty visuals of rolling hills, dark forests, bustling town centers, and busy coffee farms. However, these locations are just stages, the characters are just performers, and the film is just an explicit exercise of fakery.

Sincerity and conviction are too different things. Patikul is a sincere film that lacks conviction. The confusion shows. The performances are obviously thinly inspired, grounded more on the need to get things done sure and fast than any genuine understanding of what their characters are going through. Agustin’s performance is predictably flat. The performances of Martin delos Santos and Angeli Nicole Sanoy, who gave life to the determined students who were chosen to compete for the quiz bee, are lacking in depth. The other supporting cast-members, with the probable exception of Glaiza de Castro who gives a modestly heartfelt depiction of one of the schoolteachers, are needless pretty faces and familiar names whose only contribution to the film is publicity.

The actors, however, are only acting out what the screenplay tells them to act out. Sadly, Kristoffer Brugada’s screenplay, which surprisingly won a Palanca award, is a horrendous mess. It is ridiculously talky, indulging in dialogue that makes more obvious the already obvious. Its desire to be “full of heart” (for a lack of a better phrase) is too put on, too manufactured.

Lamangan treats the screenplay with reverence it does not deserve. Thus, the result is this confused work whose only merit is that it seems to signal that the type of uninvolved filmmaking that Lamangan has gotten too used to from working as a hired gun for film studios and television stations can no longer work when the film that needs to be made involves the director’s sincerest advocacy that he longs to communicate. That said, Patikul is independent only by association, nothing more.

(Cross-published in Twitch.)

Deadline (The Reign of Impunity) (2011)

Deadline (The Reign of Impunity) (Joel Lamangan, 2011)

In the morning of November 23, 2009, a local politician who was on his way to town to file his certificate of candidacy for the upcoming elections, his family, his supporters, lawyers, and several journalists were ambushed and cruelly murdered. The massacre, more popularly referred to as the Ampatuan Massacre not only because it happened in the town of Ampatuan but because the suspected perpetrators bear the same name, became the much-needed signal that would alert the public of the systematic murder of journalists, a practice that has long gone unnoticed. Joel Lamangan’s Deadline (The Reign of Impunity) clearly takes its cue from these recent events that shocked the Philippines.

Ross Rivera (TJ Trinidad), a writer whose cynicism has converted him into a government apologist, is suddenly forced to reassess his role as journalist when he finds himself right in the middle of unearthing a conspiracy linking Muntazir Ghazi (Tirso Cruz III), a local warlord, with election fraud and the sporadic killing of journalists in various parts of the country. While Ross wrestles with his conscience and attempts to convince Greta Manarang (Lovi Poe), television newscaster and grieving girlfriend of a recently murdered journalist, of his newfound integrity in Manila, Azad (Allen Dizon) and Claire (Ina Feleo), local journalists who are deep into the tracks of Ghazi, are hunted down by Ghazi’s henchmen. Their stories eventually intertwine, revealing a more frustrated than concerned outlook of the state of free speech in a country that supposedly fosters democracy.

The film is obviously fuelled by anger and alarm, necessary emotions when the government itself, through its inaction and inattention, perpetuates these heinous activities. Lamangan’s activism however seems more reactionary. The film, instead of gnawing deeper into the cultural defect only dramatizes, probably for the sake of infecting viewers with the same disgust over the current corrupted state of the country, the social malaise.

There are attempts at exploration, as when Ross converses with a peasant walking along the dirt road where his vehicle stopped and gets told of the promises of the government of bountiful land in Mindanao that are broken for the sole reason of the fact that the lands promised weren’t the government’s to be given away. Unfortunately, the narrative cannot afford any time for idle talk that is only tangentially related to Lamangan’s agenda. The film moves on, interrupting possibilities of depth with the furtherance of its heavy-handed agitprop.

Lamangan, when impassioned by political themes, tends to substitute subtlety with forceful slogans and unsavoury didactics. Fortunately, in Deadline (The Reign of Impunity), the bluntness seems called for. Lamangan paces the film evenly, imbuing the briskly-told story with the same sense of immediacy that the still unresolved issues of media-related murders deserve. The film, armed with a rousing musical score and other commendable technical values, communicates its advocacy without necessarily surrendering the requirements of entertaining and intelligible cinema. Deadline (The Reign of Impunity), with its unrelenting thirst to display only the most dramatic of scenarios, has the same appeal as primetime sensationalized news.

(Cross-published in Twitch.)

Mano Po 6: A Mother's Love (2009)

The Mano Po Story: God Have Mercy On Us
A Review of Joel Lamangan's Mano Po 6: A Mother's Story
by Francis Joseph A. Cruz

FLASHBACK: The year was 2002. Besieged by film pirates and imperialist Hollywood, film studios like Regal Entertainment look forward to the annual Metro Manila Film Festival, a two-week period during the moneyed Christmas season where all of the metropolis’ theaters are only allowed to screen festival entries, to field what supposedly are their best films. A movie, conceptualized as a film matriarch’s ode to her Chinese-Filipino roots, opened successfully. Directed by Joel Lamangan with as much opulence he can imagine and Regal can provide money for, the film received critical attention only because it feels like the best film in a year of duds.

Melinda (Sharon Cuneta, in a role that fits her like Arnold Schwarzenegger fitting into a ballerina’s tutu) is alone in her office room, deep in contemplation. Olive (ZsaZsa Padilla, in a role that has all the stereotypical traits of a villainous in-law) storms inside, shouting invectives at calm Melinda in Filipino, bastardized by a lousily obvious Chinese accent. Melinda asks Olive to leave, threatening her that if she does not do so within the five counts she generously grants her, she will wreak havoc. Olive shouts and shouts and before you know it, a catfight ensues, with Melinda slapping Olive’s face left and right, before releasing a close-fisted blow on Olive’s surprised mug. This is supposed to be the film’s crowning glory: the triumph of the underdog, the oppressed character’s sweet revenge against her frustrating oppressor. Sloppily conceived, directed with the bluntness of a troll, and terribly acted, the scene feels like it belongs in an afternoon comedy sketch than the big screen.

FLASHBACK: The year was 2003. Enthused by the buckets of cash earned by Mano Po, the matriarch decides to do a sequel. She hires Erik Matti, a maverick of a director who usually churns out handsome films for very little, and comes up with a story about a presidential daughter who ages to look like a cheated presidentiable’s wife. The film, since it was also released as an entry to the Metro Manila Film Fest, made money. While it was infinitely better than Lamangan’s film, it was essentially more of the same: convoluted plots, unnecessary characters, faked chinky eyes and bastardized Chinese.

Carol (Ciara Sotto, who looks, feels, and acts like a tree stump during the entire film), the eldest daughter of Melinda, and Stephanie (Heart Evangelista, who is so pretty I can forgive the slightness of her acting), the other daughter of Melinda who was brainwashed by evil Olive to spite her mother, are talking in a meeting room. Melinda enters and a confrontation with Stephanie ensues. Melinda pleads that Stephanie believe her, but the latter refuses. Carol, on the background, is silently crying. I feel nothing. Joel Lamangan, who industriously directs this Mano Po film notwithstanding the fact that for these kinds of stories that have innate visual potential, his films are drab, flat and plain soulless, is relentless in his mediocrity and relies primarily on a considerably witty interplay of dialogue to bring life to a scene that is otherwise as dull as an unused hollow block.

FLASHBACK: The year was 2004. Lamangan returns to helm the third installment to the series. It’s a love story between two middle-aged Chinese-Filipinos. The woman’s married and with children. The man is a widower. It’s nice to see Vilma Santos fall in love again, and that is basically the strength of the film. It’s the only Mano Po where it didn’t matter that the characters were Chinese.

Melinda is the daughter of a Chinese woman and a Filipino man and because of that, she is unlucky. She marries into a wealthy Chinese family, but since she’s only half-Chinese, the family disowns her husband (played with such unsurprising inconsequence by Christopher de Leon). Melinda, her husband, all of their children, and even Olive, who spites Melinda because of her not being a pure Chinese, all speak in broken Chinese. Daniel (Dennis Trillo), Stephanie’s fiancé who also speaks in broken Chinese despite being a pure Chinese, is an active participant in a human smuggling ring and becomes the impetus for much of the film’s blatant attempts to be current and pertinent. Lamangan doesn’t achieve pertinence but downright annoyance.

FLASHBACK: The fourth and fifth Mano Po films were blurs. Directed again by Lamangan with a lot less excitement than the first Mano Po and more of the “this is just a job” attitude of a corporate ant, the films resembled television productions because of how haphazardly they were conceived and executed. Banking primarily on star-power and the inevitable pull of the Metro Manila Film Festival, the films were moderate box-office successes, evidencing that the Filipino people have grown weary and wary of these incessant mechanisms of translating the richness of Filipino-Chinese culture as a mere fetish, a fad, an entertaining curiosity.

Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love is such a bland film. While most people would consider it a harmless piece of entertainment, its effects are actually more devastating than the unhindered spreading of a disjointed contentment for substandard filmmaking in the country. It is first and foremost advertised as a mirror of the Chinese culture. Its gorgeous poster, backgrounded by what looks like a Chinese painting, with its posing actors and actresses draped in traditional chiong sam in the center, and Chinese characters adorned everywhere, can be considered as an invitation for an immersion on the culture and history of the Filipino-Chinese community. Unfortunately, the film, or for that matter, the entire film series, is simply a parade of stereotypes that only furthers alienation instead of planting an accurate understanding of the Filipino-Chinese culture. Bad and careless populist filmmaking coupled with ruthless advertising has proven to be very dangerous. Whether or not the intentions are pure is immaterial because subversion may be unintended, and history has proven that even the most innocuous of media can be converted as harsh propaganda.

I digress. As previously stated, Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love is a bland film. It could have been more than bland but it is what it is. It is a display of Lamangan’s indubitable incapacity to tell a story since the movie’s plot, as simple as it is, is made unbearably convoluted by a stubborn reliance on flashbacks, narration, and other frustrating clichés. While Mo Zee’s cinematography had promise, it was rendered inutile by a lack of any aesthetic integrity (Lamangan is unsure whether he wants to be stately, or hip; and in one scene where Lamangan nearly succeeds in creating authentic tension with a long take that follows characters into an abandoned warehouse for an illegal deal that mutates into a shoot-out, he proves himself to be incompetent with one incoherent cut). Von De Guzman’s music sticks out as the best thing that ever came out of the film or the series (his theme to the Mano Po series, a thunderous melody of clear Chinese influence, is probably the most recognizable Filipino movie theme; it is that music that plays the string that connects the films together: grandiose, well thought-of, and rich).

Where then does the failure lie, in the film’s overworking director, because of his failure to create something fantastic out of individually potent elements; in the film’s producers, for being nothing more than a factory of subpar movie while they have all the resources to be cultural powerhouses; in the present Metro Manila Film Festival, for being a festival that caters only to capitalist sensibilities instead of actual artistic merits; in the mainstream audience, because they couldn’t care less of what’s being produced outside thus, reinforcing the notion of all these directors and producers that mediocrity is lucrative; in the so-called movie press, for either being totally dishonest and parasitic in how they promote these movies, arrogantly displaying their utter lack of taste and in turn, infecting the country with their ignominious brand of idiocy?

FLASHBACK: The date was December 20, 2009. I watched a film entitled Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love. It’s utterly miserable. It made me miserable. Nonetheless, almost everybody enjoyed it, enjoyed seeing their idols act in the big screen, enjoyed being in the same theaters as the idols who are acting in the big screen. We remain unaware of this cultural bamboozlement.

(Cross-published in ClickTheCity, 25 December 2009 and Philippine Free Press, 9 January 2010)

Ang Huling Birhen sa Lupa (2003)

Ang Huling Birhen sa Lupa (Joel Lamangan, 2003)
English Title: The Last Virgin

Ang Huling Birhen sa Lupa (The Last Virgin) takes its cue from Ishmael Bernal's masterpiece Himala (Miracle, 1982). Both films have practically the same conceit: a provincial town suddenly bursting with life and commerce because of a miracle. Both writer and director of the film worked under Bernal in Himala: screenwriter Racquel Villavicencio as production designer and director Joel Lamangan as crowd director.

The biggest difference between the two films is that Lamangan's lacks a coherent direction, while Bernal's is grand in its cornered simplicity (that famous line by Nora Aunor's character "walang himala, ang himala ay nasa puso ng tao," translated in English as "There are no miracles, miracles are in the heart of men," is practically the film's lyrical cornerstone). If there's a line that probably paraphrases Lamangan's film, it would be the one spoken by Lorena (Ara Mina) in the end of the film, "ang maidudulot lang ng kasakiman ay kahamakan," or "greed only results in tragedy." It's hardly an original or interesting theme to ground your film on, and Villavicencio and Lamangan know that, as shown by the rows and rows of narrative embellishments and subplots that muddle the film.

An epidemic left the seaside town of San Rosario in social and moral disarray. Extremes populate the town: the pious as exemplified by Cion (Maui Taylor), who sees the Virgin Mary (depicted visually as a modern-day burning bush) regularly, her saint-muttering ill mother, and the ex-nun who teaches catechism to the children; those who have lost their faith on religion are Lorena, Cion's older sister and town whore, the town captain (Elizabeth Oropesa), who explains her lack of faith as a result of her daughter's unexplained crippled-ness. When Fr. Emman (Jay Manalo), who washed ashore one day, starts conniving with Lorena in making up a miracle to elicit a steady income from the needy faithful, greed unhealthily mixes with the affairs of the soul.

It's played out as straight melodrama with several encounters that expand on the logical limitations of human reason, like that unexplainable mutation of the priest's sexual lusting for Lorena into something so easily referred to by Lorena as love, or the relative ease that the miracle goes out of proportion (Lamangan even reprises the carnivalesque crowds, complete with journalists and television crews, furthering the implausibility of the exercise; especially since Villavicencio's story hinges on fake clergymen, corrupt low-ranking government officials, and shady crooks --- certainly, a grandiose media coverage would cause unwanted attention to an enterprise that works best if kept in an intermediate level of awareness; enough to arouse needy patrons but not large enough to create suspicion with the government and the church).

But there are the details that are unintentionally funny that counter its aims for social commentary and realism, or even its meager attempts at effective melodrama: the insanely large polyester breasts of Taylor in gratuitous display (abnormally gifted for a fifteen year old lass), or the libidous climax that seems drawn out of the many other Filipino films that require rape scenes (this time, the decision to rape seems out of place --- Mike Magat's character is supposed to be an enterprising businessman; why then would he allow himself and his gang to deflower their most prized commodity), or even the ridiculous ending that gives the film's title its meaning: an unintended conclusion that there's such a thing as hymen that remains indestructible despite a vicious gang rape (either that, or the men of San Rosario are not so well-endowed); or maybe, the hymen is really such an invaluable commodity for sanctification that divine powers are needed to preserve its intactness. Nevertheless, it's just such a silly, silly film.

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh (2006)

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh (Joel Lamangan, 2006)

Carlo Vergara's graphic novel Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah details the adventures of a timid gay man who transforms into a Wonderwoman-type superhero every time he swallows a rock that landed on his head. It is a significant addition to Philippine pop literature: a superhero who clearly represents the plights and fantasies of the local gay community. Not long after the graphic novel's publication, a musicale on Vergara's creation was staged, which became a hit, not only among the gay community but among mainstream theater patrons. Regal Entertainment took an interest on the material and bought the rights to produce a film based on the musicale in time for the lucrative Metro Manila Film Festival. Mark Meily (director of charming features Crying Ladies (2003) and semi-musicale La Visa Loca (2005)) was supposed to helm the project but left because of creative and budgetary issues. Joel Lamangan (who is also no stranger to musicales or gay films, having directed Pusong Mamon (Soft Hearts, 1998) and awful musicale-comedy I Will Survive (2004)) took charge.

Philippine cinema is perhaps one of the oldest that had openly homosexual main characters (although initially these characters portrayed the stereotypical crossdressers, usually for comic relief (with Dolphy, Roderick Paulate or Joey de Leon's comic creations)). A common stereotype on Philippine cinema is that veers towards homosexual issues (especially after Lino Brocka's Macho Dancer (1988), Mel Chionglo's shallow reproductions of Brocka's film, Lamangan's own gay-themed dramas, the utterly lovable Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, Auraeus Solito, 2005)). However, Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh offers something fresh: it is significantly jovial, blunt in its political incorrectness, and just utterly unmindful of the harsh realism that usually pervades queer cinema. Of course, those are basically the imprints of the source material and the subsequent musicale which Lamangan borrowed heavily from, using most of composer Vince de Jesus' songs.

The budget is obviously meager. The special effects are not polished. The production design is at times haphazardly done. The chorus of the initial song is awfully recorded which turns De Jesus' song into a muddled and incomprehensible mess. Lamangan is clearly opting for camp and it shows. It is refreshing to see Lamangan direct with lightheartedness. The material being a stage musical, it certainly feels that Lamangan is right at home (he used to direct theater before delving into film). Most of the musical numbers are bright and fun, choreographed with cheesy dance numbers (the initial number is reminiscent of Jacques Demy's The Young Girls of Rochefort (1968) wherein dainty citizens of a French port town suddenly erupt into old-Broadway style song-and-dance numbers; only in Lamangan's case, the numbers happen in an obviously made-up shanty town); and sung with the most heartfelt histrionics. Vince de Jesus is clearly no Sondheim as there is a lack of biting or groundbreaking melodics to his work. The lyrics aren't all that either. However, they serve their purpose, which is to entertain.

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh is of course made for mainstream audiences. With that, it doesn't have much to say in addition to what was already written by Vergara. Compare this to something similar made by Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In Weerasethakul's The Adventures of Iron Pussy (2003), a transvestite agent (think James Bond wearing make-up and dresses) fights, sings, and adventures his way towards his true love, a rich man who, if I remember correctly, turns out to be a close relative. Within the construct of a ridiculously conceived plot line, Weerasethakul has said a lot of things with regards to unpopular issues such as homosexuality, incest, and other dividing topics. However, the bitter pill is swallowed with delightful ease because the film dons a diverting garb. Openly gay Lamangan has no politics to forward (now at least, I thought he has turned into a mere employee of Regal Entertainment rather than an artist). He crafts something out of Vergara's rich material and whatever survives from Vergara's politics is clearly a mere by-product of the unimaginative director who is more interested in keeping deadlines than making art. I would've loved to see how a straight director (Meily) handle the film, but that is now an impossibility. All we have now is this, a movie that certainly entertains but delivers no real memorable punch.

Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di (2006)

Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di (Joel Lamangan, 2006)

The series should've stopped at 3, but it just kept going and going. The Mano Po franchise started in 2002 when Regal Films matriarch Lily Monteverde became sentimental about her Chinese roots and decided to produce a film that will celebrate the culture and discuss the issues that pervade Filipino-Chinese life. The term "mano po" is a Filipino gesture, presumably inherited from the Chinese, of respect, where a person takes the hand of the other person and brings it to his forehead .The gesture is predominant during Christmas when godchildren would start their yearly rounds of visiting their godparents to ask for gifts and money. In a way, with all the three Mano Po films, its comedy spin-off Ako Legal Wife (I, Legal Wife), and now this, a romantic-comedy which pairs for the umpteenth time television stars Richard Gutierrez and Angel Locsin, the series suddenly feels like a yearly "mano po" by the film matriarch to her moviegoing patrons with the accompanying asking for their well-earned pesos, which sadly will be blindly given out to the film outfit whether the film is good or bad.

It's not all bad, I think. The first Mano Po (2002), directed by Joel Lamangan, is a skin-deep social commentary on the role the Chinese community has in the Philippine setting; there's an attempt to explain the fencesitting tendencies of the community in National politics by using history. Mano Po 2: My Home (2003) is more competently directed by Erik Matti and still remains to be the best entry to the series. Lamangan takes over Mano Po 3: My Love (2004) and creates a rather involving but ultimately illogical love affair film with Vilma Santos headlining as an unhappily married Chinese wife who rediscovers romance with a former fling. Ako Legal Wife (2005) is a satire about the infidelities of a Filipino-Chinese patriarch with too many issues juggled.

Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di, which is also directed by hardworking Lamangan, doesn't have the burden of being too deep and has the blessings of being about a topic that is close to the hearts of many Filipinos: the traditionally forbidden relationships between Chinese and Filipino individuals. The film is scripted by Dode Cruz, Abi Parayno and Andrew Paredes, regular writers for television network soaps and shows. The television experience shows in the film's dialogue: it's mostly cheesy stuff, nothing too extravagant to dissuade the typical masses. Also, the script is far too talkative; there's too much dialogue, too much loud and histrionic exchanges of words. It would work for TV wherein you can easily lower the volume, but in a theater, it's just a bit too hard on the ears. The film also dillydallies around too much. Again, that kind of storytelling would've worked on television, wherein there'd be breaks in between scenes, or a continuation the next day. However, in film, that kind of storytelling is simply tedious. The film could've used some trimming, some lessening of characters, a complete revamp of its screenplay with an economic use of screentime.

Let's face it, Lamangan is not the good director he perceives himself to be. He works too hard (he has two projects in the film festival; makes you wonder how he manages to conjure a level of artistry when he treats filmmaking as a mere craft and profession). To give Lamangan some credit, he is a fine actor (he is the saving grace of Mel Chionglo's Twilight Dancers (2006)) and manages to squeeze out decent acting from his actors and actresses. To cover up for his directorial incompetence, he usually has a fine production team behind him. In Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di, the acting is merely decent. The leads are watchable enough, but at the same time, they lack that certain fresh charm one usually looks for in romantic team-ups. It's probably because whatever charm their cinematic rapport has was already tarnished by overuse: they're playing the same characters over and over again with just slightly different scenarios. It's bound to get tiring.

The film starts promisingly though. Von de Guzman's efficiently picks up the film's light, fast and sure-footed pace. Editing in the early scenes was breezy and crisp. The cinematography is glossy and makes the viewing experience light on the eyes. I honestly thought Lamangan finally got it right; to just play it by the book; no need to inject the film with all the grease and all the starpower this film industry badly needs to lose. Then, the gloom starts pouring. Family members and other characters get introduced, and they're just there, playing cardboard cutouts or flower vases. They're just there for decoration or a slight chuckle the film could've done without. After thirty minutes, the film plateaus, a very low plateau at that --- and it's like that for the rest of the film: a host of screaming, a number of jokes executed unsuccessfully, some dramatic points cheapened by histrionics and shallow acting. The love triangle doesn't provide any steam either. It doesn't help that the character, Felix Yan, an Asian singing idol who returns to Manila to reattach with childhood fling, is underwritten and is portrayed with incomparable dullness by pop singer Christian Bautista.

Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di is a film that shouldn't have been made; it's television fare and doesn't deserve the amount of money the producers and theater owners ask for it. The topic is something most will relate to; if you haven't dated a Chinese individual, I'm sure you know someone who has or at least have heard the typical tragedies that surround such relationships. With that, the film might work for you at a mere popcorn level, or if you're looking for fairy tale endings for real life scenarios such as the one the film is emulating. I only wished that the fairy tale was told better, and bolder.