Cinemalaya 2020

I had mixed feelings about this year’s Cinemalaya. It was an introvert’s dream. Everything online for a really affordable price and you can enjoy at the comforts of your own sofa. No need to form a group chat, meet with friends, pick what to watch, struggle to get tickets and gather at CCP. At the end of the day, who am I kidding? Do I really want that?

We usually just watch one main competition shorts and two full length film but with Vimeo, the roster is just overwhelming. Once you sign in there are 60 films available, old and new, main competition and exhibition. They also had quarantine experiments that I wasn’t able to see because there’s just not enough time for all these in 6 days. Yes, that’s the duration of the rental. In the end I saw three full length and a LOT of shorts. It was a lot to take in so here’s a list of what I remember.

Watch Me Kill – Very good cinematography, DP and color grading but I can’t even remember the ending. Maybe plot line didn’t quite hit the mark for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jesusa – Highly recommended. Good story. Great character development from start to finish. It’s inconceivable to for that persona to even exist. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Circa – Star studded! This is definitely an homage to Philippine Cinema. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ang Gasgas na Plaka ni Lolo Bert – So cute =) I was able to predict the ending but it was still sweet to see it coming. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Excuse Me Miss Miss Miss -Oh, the struggle to hack the unfair system of this fucked up society. — That was beautifully illustrated in this piece. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Living Things – A fresh take on how we choose to live. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fatigued – Tried to play along but didn’t get it at all. ⭐️

Pabasa Kan Pasyon – Bad son selling religion. Great DP too, Mayon volcano was so majestic. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Slums – Media tries to falsely exaggerate the condition of minority but I think Filipinos are generally happy people which isn’t that common in other nationality. You can’t beat that spirit. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tokwifi – Love doesn’t need to be in the same language. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Tahanan – Heartbreaking father who went out of prison, unwanted by his family, metaphorically enters another prison as he go into a home facility. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jepoy – Sad animation with an open ending but I don’t want to imagine! I just really wanna know what happened there. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cinemalaya 2019

I’ve been watching Cinemalaya films for quite a few years now but this year I braved the heavy rains and drove to CCP. We saw Tabon by Xian Lim, Shorts A and Belle Douleur (A Beautiful Pain) by Atty. Joij V. Alonso. To be fair I wasn’t expecting anything because I just paid for the tickets not knowing what we’re going to watch. I just made sure one of them is one of the three cougar film entries.

Tabon was less than Ok, well I didn’t expect much from this one. The plot twist was okay but the progression of the story was a little bit predictable. Why is the title even Tabon? Was this somehow because of the cave? ⭐️⭐️

Gatilyo was a good take on PTSD. ⭐️⭐️

Heist School was remarkable! Go USTe!! Few minutes of this gave me the satisfaction and different emotions I can get from a full length film. It was so funny, all the comic relief, conflict and resolution was very well established and the high school set plot can be paralleled to a real life adult heist. Maybe it’s just me having this analogy in my head that Mik Mik = coke that reminds us that drugs fucks up everything and no one gets left behind but the best part is the ending. I really loved every bit if of the main story but these guys weren’t done, they still had to give us that fantastic ending we never could have guessed. Bravo. Bravo. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sa Gabing Ang Tanging Liwanag ay Paniniwala was just confusing. I thought there was something deep that I didn’t get but when I was discussing it with friends, it has been unanimous there was really nothing. All I remember was the running scene that will give you vertigo and the disproportionate cgi fire on the tree. ⭐️

Disconnection notice was so cool. It was a very good portrayal of a relationship between two siblings from the province sharing a dorm in Manila. Cinematography was really cool and the whole film was shot in black and white. Use of local dialect with subs is always a good idea. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Wag Mo ‘Kong Kausapin has maximized it’s medium for the story that it’s trying to tell. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Belle Douleur was well done. From script, synopsis, musical score, cinematography to casting, I wouldn’t have it any different. Everything was in place. All sex scenes made sense and were so beautifully done with such class. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Malamaya was lacking a tiny bit of something I can’t figure out yet. The director of photography and set design was so good but the script and character development didn’t cut it. I wish there was more explanation on where the protagonist was coming from. ⭐️⭐️

John Denver Trending needless to say was great. It’s so real and raw and sad. Won all the awards. Just google it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️