Gabby Fernandez's "Mana" - The Stalling Game

News of Doña Concha Villareal’s worsening illness is spreading like wildfire across the sugarcane plantations of a quaint town in Negros Occidental. The once invincible matriarch (Fides Cuyugan-Asencio) of the Villareal clan is in fact confined to her sick bed, spitting blood, spending her waking hours wailing from excruciating pain. This has been a familiar scenario in the last couple of years. Fearing her impending demise, her children rush home. A salient matter needs to be settled soon before it’s too late. But everyone seems to be stalling.  

Rolly (Jaime Fabregas), the eldest, refuses to take the cudgels of the clan’s dilemma. He has been overseeing the hacienda’s operations for the past two decades. Meanwhile, Sandra (Cherie Gil) takes a sabbatical from her world travels to see her mother. 

Her twin Lino (Mark Gil) has taken to the booze to dull out bothersome visions. Mike (Ricky Davao), on a hectic campaign trail for the town’s mayoralty, is taking advantage of the choleric situation to gain publicity (or sympathy) before a concerned electorate. Half-sister Ces (Tetchie Agbayani), tasked to take care of the ailing matriarch, is on the throes of giving up her chores. Successful interior designer Bernie (Epy Quizon) takes his sweet time to head back home which he abandoned a few years ago. 

But time is ripe; they need to gather around to deal with a precarious situation - the bequeathing of a legacy, a family secret that would redefine the influential clan’s role, not to mention turn their briskly dwindling influence around, in a town steeped with tradition, political undertone and superstition.  

   

Director Gabby Fernandez deftly captures the old-world grandeur of a diminishing oligarchy as he endeavors to examine the intricate mechanics in an upper class family, once mighty and beloved. After the demise of its patriarch, Don Manuel (Leo Rialp), the Villareals' clout is gradually fading. Fernandez wastes no time recreating the delectable world of haciendas and sakadas, taking his viewers to this near-forgotten era of feudal lords and subservient tillers.

The film benefits from the glossy camera work and the perfect setting, allowing the viewers a glimpse of that glorious era of sugar barons and their rolling fields of greens. If you're familiar with those century old mansions of Silay and the surrounding communes of Talisay, then you know what a treat it is to have them "captured" on film. The opening scene alone is a virtual "slide show" framing the story of this once powerful clan, now a spasmic cluster of souls who just want to break free from a seemingly stifling family tradition.

On point of performance, Cherie Gil is a breath of fresh air amidst a flurry of downbeat characters caught in their own personal upheavals. Unlike every one else, she seems to be the only one genuinely happy to see her siblings again which is odd. True, these are some of the most competent actors in the business, but the complete thespic plenary tilts towards being heavy handed, an artifice designed by the story teller. Is this pre-meditated, considering how the story eventually unravels in the end? Maybe so. But something in the narrative structure suffers. When the magútud find themselves in a quandary, over something that is never revealed until the last 15 minutes of the story, they puff away in cigarette heaven. It was becoming droll. As earlier mentioned, most of the allegory stalls, giving us the impression that this narrative buffering has something more explosive than the death of the matriarch. Mostly though, it's a long painful wait.

The impasse in the story is dragged down by its glacially paced retelling. In fact, 40 minutes into the story, nothing was happening. The plot was headed nowhere and the story arc seem to have flatlined. The characters spoke in riddles and the requisite confrontations soon turn into awkwardly blocked theatricalities that eventually bored the shite out of me. At this point, I was tapping my heels impatiently. One hour and 15 minutes later, I was still looking for clues. What was the darn conflict? Why were there images of pernicious evil - church manangs cloaked in black; cryptic writings on the wall ("You promised you would make it easy for your mother..."); a dog with shifting color and luminous eyes; a child who speaks to an apparition; voices in the wind, etc. Is this moving beyond the legal implications of primogeniture?

Assimilating the concept of the aswang ("shapeshifters") with the realm of the hacienda-owning Visayan upper class is a savory affair. After all, the region is replete with folkloric creatures like the blood-sucking sigbin, the night-prowling wakwaks, the cigar-smoking Agta (left), the fire-spewing santelmo, the ungo, etc. The regions of Luzon aren't this rich, are they?

Trouble is, a certain degree of urgency is vital when you're laying down "monsters" on your cinematic platter. You don't get the necessary effect based on mood or atmosphere alone. The dramatic showdown, i.e. the confrontation scene, felt too wayward and misplaced because, frankly, the audience's window of attention or interest has long passed on and expired. When the siblings are finally standing in front of their dying mother's sickbed, I couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. It was high time to move the story, instead of forever stalling it for a rousing, albeit explosive climax that didn't quite arrive. When Fides finally feeds Cherie the monster's stone (think Darna passing on her "bato" - her stone amulet - to a successor), the scene settled into one lukewarm tableau. Uh, okay, that was the inheritance. Right. Next, please.

They all wait!

And they wait again!

Old world charm of the affluent Negrense.

RD Alba's Biktima - Befuddling Suppositions & Cinematic Deja vu

Alice de la Cruz (Angel Aquino) is a news correspondent in a struggling network thirsting for the big break; the breaking news that would make her a household name in her industry. When Boss Jane (Sunshine Cruz) offers her a crucial assignment in remote Camandao village, she grabs the chance and heads to the Sumal Coast leaving her unemployed husband Mark (Cesar Montano) and five-year old son Buboy (JM Ibanez). However, her ambition would take her off-track as she convinces her contact (Lloyd Samartino) to head to a treacherous area. She gets caught in a crossfire, killing most of her colleagues, but she survives and becomes captive, taken as a “ransomless” hostage.

Six months later, Alice is found unconscious at a secluded roadside. Though she’s amnesic, she gradually regains her memory. In stages, she regains these harrowing vignettes in flashbacks, each one punctuated by acting out and re-experiencing her ordeals (she joins a group of intercontinental hostages; people get killed; she gets raped; she tries to escape but gets caught; as punishment she is tasked to kill another hostage; she tries to escape again).

When she eventually reunites with her family, she finds out that she was indeed taken for dead. Her family and friends have buried her. And Mark and her son are on the throes of moving on. She also discovers that Mark has engaged in an “extramarital” affair with her best friend Sandra (Mercedes Cabral). What’s more confounding are her intermittent anxiety attacks as she re-experiences her harrowing ordeal with the bandits. She suffers blackouts, inflicts pain on herself and conflagrates into bursts of anger. Suddenly, her once amorous family life has turned acetous. Young Buboy had to move in with her aunt while Alice tries to recuperate from her trauma.

But Alice is more concerned with the growing bond between her husband and her bestfriend. And she has decided to unravel the truth behind this coupling. Moreover, she wants her son back. She will get him – at all cost!  

There’s a sweeping sense of déjà vu watching RD Alba’s “Biktima”. On one side, the dubious hostage situation reminds me of Brillante Mendoza’s recent “Captive”. On the other side, there’s Topel Lee’s also-recent “Amorosa”, and if that isn’t enough, it browsed on sketchy post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that also had Angel Aquino herself skirting through cuckoolandia as the titular Rosa. Finally, anyone remembers Lino Brocka’s “Biktima” (1990) which starred Sharon Cuneta and Christopher de Leon? The latter actually won several awards for Gina Alajar who, in her prime, was the most brilliant actress of her generation (she won Urian and Famas for the film).

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

But let’s get to the nitty gritty. First off, I have to run a discourse on this oft-misinterpreted psychiatric entity because it’s getting too erroneously overused. Mostly, PTSD is an anxiety disorder caused by an extraordinary major life stress; an accident, death of someone, ravages of war and survival, serious threat to one’s life or physical integrity, sudden destruction to home or property, witnessing physical violence, etc. These events are relived in dreams and waking thoughts. These anxiety attacks don’t necessarily become PTSD unless they satisfy specific criteria called DSM-IIIR in psychiatric parlance. Needless to say, PTSD doesn’t exactly equate to “insanity” because reaction to trauma doesn’t make you crazy! It just makes you scared! Klaro, Topel Lee and RD Alba? When you get scared and jittery, you don't turn nuts. So for the sake of the clueless, albeit lazy film makers and their researchers who keep espousing on PTSD, here is your coffee table criterion:

DSM-IIIR for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

A. The person has experienced an event outside the range of usual human experience and that would be markedly distressing to anyone.

B. This traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollection of the events (in children, repetitive play in which aspects of the trauma are expressed)

2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event (the most common)

3. Sudden acting or feeling as if the traumatic events were recurring, i.e. illusions, hallucinations, dissociative episodes like flashbacks, even those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated

4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to events that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event, i.e. anniversaries, etc.

C. Persistent avoidance of the stimuli associated with the trauma – or numbing of general responsiveness (not present prior to the event), as indicated by at least THREE of the following:

1. Effort to avoid thoughts or feelings associated with the trauma

2. Effort to avoid activities or situation that arouse recollection of the trauma

3. Inability to recall an important aspect of trauma (psychogenic amnesia)

4.  Markedly diminished interest in significant activities

5. Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others

6. Restricted range of affect, e.g. unable to have loving feelings

7. Sense of a foreshortened future, e.g. does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, long life

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least TWO of the following:

1. Difficulty of falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty of concentrating

4. Hypervigilance (paranoid)

5. Exaggerated startle response

6. Physiologic reactivity upon exposure to events that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event (e.g. a woman raped in an elevator breaks into sweat or hyperventilates whenever she takes the elevator)

E. Duration of the disturbance (duration of the symptoms in B, C, D) of at least 1 month or longer

Though this list tends to be overly didactic and/or laborious, fact is, this criterion is quite specific and almost exact. Let’s take Angel’s condition. Item B begrudgingly satisfies only two items where there should be three. Most other features are sketchy and lead more to psychotic criterion than anxiety disorder.

Most PTSD patients would rather shy away from anything that would remind her of the traumatic event, yet Alice is intent on getting her job back. Moreover, we never see her get nightmares or have difficulty falling or staying asleep, usually a hallmark – though not pathognomonic – of PTSD. While most PTSD patients get disinterested or dismissive with significant events, Alice dives into things as though it was another day at work. These are salient points that seem uncharacteristic of PTSD cases.

The point here is, if you’re focusing on a specific diagnostic entity, why not study the case well? Don’t assume you can create situations out of suppositions or hearsay. Consult a specialist because you’re going to feed these indolent thoughts to a paying crowd. They even had to clutter the situation by saying that Angel’s father had a “history of insanity”. It’s muddling an already muddled narrative strain. How convenient, right? Let’s make sahog everything para masaya. LOL

The film is likewise guilty of fast resolutions. This was a woman afflicted with PTSD who actually had violent streaks. In fact, she murdered her aunt. Yet they released her easily like she just recovered from typhoid fever or malaria. What should prevent her from killing her own son since PTSD may have long term repercussions; the symptoms can recur intermittently for years. Isn’t “suicidal or violent ideation” a cause for concern? After all, “killing someone” isn’t part of the criterion for PTSD. How about schizophrenia? Why not Major Depression? How did her closest ties (her best friend Sandra and her Auntie Jean) remind her of the trauma? Were they abrasive or intrusive? Jealousy couldn’t be a stressor for PTSD. I’ve never heard of such thing until now so this one is for the books! We all should make a medical journal out of it.

HOSTAGE WITHOUT RANSOM

Angel was supposedly taken hostage by some terrorist group akin to the Abu Sayyaf bandits, yet despite her stature (a famous TV personality and a news anchor), the authorities or her family were never informed about her being taken hostage. Akala ko ba, hostage situation? She was in fact considered dead after the bomb explosion. Her husband and son have moved on quite easily. What’s a hostage situation without demand for ransom? Don’t tell me they forgot. J She could have fetched a considerable amount, not to mention media mileage because of her stature, couldn’t she? The bandits could have taken the media blitz for their notoriety yet her capture was never known and you simply wonder why.

BAFFLING SURPRISE

When Angel first saw Mercedes, her “bru” (their term of endearment) best friend at a supermarket, their reaction was one of surprise - and discomfort. Not elation. This was again spurious, if not suspicious. Yet Angel was stunned and, once again, this baffles. Did she have an inkling of Mercedes’ indiscretion with her shaggable hubby? Not at that point. Prior to her capture, she received a ring from Mercedes that she was coming home soon from her work overseas. Her presence in the country couldn't be surprising.

And why is Angel’ Alice, the psych patient, confined to her sick bed and hooked to an oxygen nasal cannula? Are PTSD cases in respiratory distress? It couldn't be bronchial asthma or COPD, could it? Anyone can check out our Mental Hospital and other hospital psychiatric wards to know that these patients aren’t exactly bed-ridden unless they undergo special procedures like the electro-convulsive therapy (which shouldn’t take an hour). Most cases are ambulatory. Heck, even the catatonic ones aren't confined to bed. Co-writer Disi Alba (who also plays Tita Jean), supposedly a Family Med physician, should at least be aware of this.

PERFORMANCES

“Biktima” is buoyed by earnest performances lead by Angel Aquino who’s always dependable. In fact, she kept this middling effort afloat. However, you are acutely aware that her depiction is a redundant exercise. Wasn’t she a hostage victim a few weeks ago in “Captive”? Didn’t she get raped in the Brillante Mendoza flick? Moreover, didn't she play the post-traumatic case in "Amorosa"? Cesar Montano is unusually relaxed and casual as the unemployed husband who lost his wife to bandits. He used to be one of the country’s most dependable and insightful actors yet in his older years, he has failed to impress. And I am mostly bothered by his middle-class Taglish dispatches. When he gets news of his wife’s “demise”, he delves into a spine-tingling, “What?” By jeeves! Ano ‘to, English-language flick with subtitles? J  He must have thought he’s still hosting “Singing Bee” or that creepy-crawly talent search “Artista Academy”.

Mercedes Cabral is likewise conjectural. In fact, it feels like she couldn’t make sense of her narrative stock. Why was she suddenly the psychological stressor that stimulates Angel’s aggression? She is, for Pete’s sake, the best friend of our protagonist! Her presence is supposed to provide quiescence and sobriety to her friend’s psychogenic dilemma. When psych patients “panic”, doctors call on their family and closest friends. Does Mercedes look like a bandit for Angel to actually consider her foe? She is, after all, one of Europe’s loveliest, debah? She couldn't be scary.

LOOKING FOR THE SANDRA SHE ALREADY FOUND

After Angel’s threesome dinner with Cesar and Mercedes, Angel went berserk and acts up at the restaurant. She throws plates and bolts out the door – then she drives to her tita, looking for her son Buboy! Then the flustered aunt calls on Cesar and Mercedes warning them of Angel’s state. Why would Angel look for Mercedes when she just left her at the restaurant? She could easily do that by going back to the restaurant. In the following scene, a hospital bed was shown vacated, and the nurse scampers to report the escape of a patient. Was Angel actually confined? How can she join her husband in a restaurant traipsing like a model while being confined in a hospital? Did Cesar help her escape from confinement for a sumptuous dinner out? There’s a stark disconnect here, obviously. Someone got confused. The editor? The story teller? The director? All of the above? 

THANKLESS

The film has thankless cameos by Lloyd Samartino as Fred, the Liberation Organization’s contact; Ricky Davao as Officer Bondalo; Mark Lapid as leader of the kidnap group, Disi Alba (a doctor by profession) as Auntie Jean and Sunshine Cruz as Jane, lovely but otherwise miscast as a television station’s news chief. The production values are a hit and miss. One scene (Cesar takes his child to bed, then the scene cuts to a birthday celebration) runs without sound. And the visuals, dark at times, could be better. The cages where “kidnap victims” were kept look like school play set, I could probably kick a branch and it would fall off like Lego pieces.

“Biktima” is mostly a rendered version of an incipient idea not fully threshed out into a coherent fictive . It is undecided, befuddling and psyched out (no pun intended). I was mostly left disaffected, stolid and phlegmatic for the remainder of the cinematic sprawl. For a flick that’s supposed to conjure high drama, thrill and edge-of-your-seat suspense, “Biktima” drove me to ennui. That can’t be good.

Philip Anthony as one of the hostages. He also co-wrote the story with director RD Alba.

Ricky Davao (right) as Officer Bondalo interrogates Alice.

Alice

Alice and son Buboy

No Other Woman, anyone?

Angel Aquino as Alice, Cesar Montano as Mark and Mercedes Cabral as Sandra

RD Alba

Cesar Montano's "Hitman" - Inferiorly Channeling Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Headshot"

During a short, albeit relaxing getaway from work sometime November last year, I chanced upon Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s “Headshot” in Bangkok’s Lido Cinema. It ran alongside the Cannes’ winning apocalyptic drama, “Taking Shelter” and Julia Leigh’s surreal “Sleeping Beauty”. In the movie, Tul (Jayanama Nopachai), a hitman sustains a near fatal head wound that leaves him in a coma for 3 months. Fast forward to three months hence, Cesar Montano’s “Hitman” opens in local cinemas with dejavu’ish plot that had me thinking, “I know I’ve seen this before”. Unfortunately, that’s where comparison ends.

Ben Murillo (Cesar Montano) is sidetracked for years after miraculously surviving a gun shot in the head. Left for dead, Ben was comatose for 7 years, but he is gradually recovering. His memory has been spotty since then. One day, he meets Gina (Sam Pinto), a popular model who, unknown to Ben, is the daughter of Amando (Ricky Davao), a casuistic character who runs an illegal ring of activities that range from white slavery and drugs to gambling. At the very heart of this business is Tomas (Phillip Salvador), the head assassin. Tomas is tasked to eradicate any impediment, including Ben, a promising assassin under Tomas’ care. When Ben tells his superiors of his intention to retire and leave the group, the big boss decides to obliterate Ben.

Meanwhile, there is much internal strife within Amando’s “kingdom”. Tomas is demanding P10 million from Amando for an earlier deal they’ve supposedly agreed upon. But Amando is defiant. Moreover, the web of deceit reaches Alvin (Mark Herras), Amando’s much abused adopted son. When Amando’s other son Mike (Joko Diaz) gets killed in the crossfire, another set of henchmen have been tasked to take Gina who’s estranged from her father. But Gina fortuitously harbors an indecent stash of dirty money hidden somewhere so she conveniently becomes a target.

When Ben hooks up with flirty Gina, he gets thrown back into the same quagmire he once escaped from; the same people who had him assassinated. And this time, he has to protect her to his death. He once lost his pregnant wife to the same people. Never again!

Cesar Montano was always a competent actor. After his Seiko days, his career choices were note worthy. But "Hitman" is a baffling cinematic comeback. Despite his character being a former assassin - who should have a dark, brooding persona (after all, his pregnant wife died and slices of his memory have been staved off his consciousness) - but Montano's Ben is curiously chirpy and upbeat, posturing as though he runs with the hip and yuppy crowd! In fact, he even mutters cringe-worthy english phrases: "See you, guys!" This is how a hitman talks? There's more where that comes from, but we've noticed Montano's awkward penchant for intermittent Anglican lines (think: Piolo Pascual, Jericho Rosales, Diether Ocampo).

Posturing for effect works when you're relatively juvenile, but when you're pushing 50, such tack becomes gag-worthy! I suddenly remembered his "Bandila" interview with Boy Abunda where he would painfully dive into the Queen's tongue, forthwith stalling when he loses grip with the language. In the same interview, he lovingly refers to his mother as "his" - "his prayer", "his dream", "his intention". Bandila, as far as I know, is a news magazine show spoken in the vernacular. Ba't kasi ipinipilit ang 'di kaya, di ba? Speaking Tagalog is never a fault, and running around town to promote an action picture in fractured English can only do your promotion harm! I remember Montano's "Singing Bee" days where even pronunciation of the song's English titles are an afflictive; sheer agony! Desperation to speak the Queen's language should never be caught on camera! Do your practice behind the cam, lest you want your audience nauseating over your despondency!



Sam Pinto looks immaculately beautiful all throughout. Her early scenes look relaxed. She is, after all, portraying the role of a model - so how hard can that be? This is promising since in her past movies, she has always delivered mind-bogglingly flat characterizations. It's clear she needs to do something about her thespic acumen - or the lack of it. As the movie unravels to its hundred-and-one twists, we realize that Pinto is in dire need of help. In a scene where gun men break into her place, as Ben fights the hooded henchmen, Gina (Pinto) comes out of the bathroom looking awkward, not to mention oblivious to the gun shots heard all over the place. She tentatively calls: "Ben? Nasaan ka?" Yet all we witness is a blunt affect, an emotion-wanting facial expression if you will. She didn't look perturbed of the bullets flying around - or her appliances breaking and crashing down the floor. Yeah, forget those bullets! She needed Ben to dry her wet hot bod! Her stark cluelessness was a spectacle in itself. She personified blank emotionality where there should be fear, concern, and even histrionic demeanor!

AFTER THE ELABORATE EXPLANATION

This is repeated in a scene where Mark Herras, playing the avenging brother, delivers a 7-minute spiel about "taking charge" in front of sister Gina who's crying invisible tears. After the line, Herras declares: "Akin na ang kaharian n'yo!" Everyone understood what he was saying. I did! It was retribution and ambition coming into place. Then Pinto replies: "Ano ang ibig mong sabihin?" I almost fell off my chair! After a seven-minute explanation, she obviously didn't get a morsel of epiphany from Herras' confession? And it showed in Pinto's face! She was baffled to bits! Poor, poor girl!

Phillip Salvador does better as the head hitman Tomas who trained Ben. It was inevitable that the "teacher" and "student" would eventually dive into a scuffle. This was cinematic conjecture. After all, Salvador's mano-a-mano with Montano would convey gravitas - in an action showdown between the two formidable action-drama actors, each one as competent and iconic as the other! Unfortunately, the artistic choices for the staging of the climactic shootout comes off with an uneven and misguided strategem. Suddenly, Montano decides to infuse ill-advised humor, one-sided and flat as his leading lady's expression:

During the shootout, Ben would say: "Pinapakain pa ako ng alikabok ng matandang yun."

"Nakakatakbo pa ang matandang 'to eh may rayuma!"

"Ang daldal ng lolo ah."

"Akala ko tuhod lang ang mahina, pati pala mata!"

Yet all these lines were mere passing of gas where Tomas was concerned. In fact, he never acknowledged any of them. And there's something about badly delivered humor without a reciprocating audience, right? It drives the salient point that it's falling on deaf ears because it just isn't funny! How do you reconcile someone with a massacred family and a bullet in his skull delivering jovial lines as though he's in a sitcom?

This discrepancy of character is similarly evident in Phillip Salvador and Ricky Davao's characters where they play brothers. Phillip inconveniently calls Ricky "kuya"! Is anyone blind? Ricky maybe heavily built, but you can't deny Phillip's seniority where facial features are concerned. By at least a decade! His facial integument sags and his wrinkles abound!

Mark Herras looked alarmingly gaunt. It looked like a sea breeze could throw him down easily. He's cachectic and tuberculous. If he's gunning for the action genre, he would need to bulk up a bit - instead of looking like there's an on-going famine in the Philippines. In fact, I didn't realize it was Mark until the latter half of the film when he was finally given lines! When his character came out of his shell, he was emphatic, bearing pellucid motives. He understood where his character Alvin was coming from. That was good enough for me... as long as he doesn't use his brawn when there's none.

"Hitman" underlines a few of the reason why the action genre died a natural death. Like its predecessors, Director Montano's film is recklessly written, even incoherent in narrative structure. The story is derivative; the skill in film making unimpressive. Montano's action hero is an amalgam of characters that contradict with his past and present. In fact, you don't understand how he became as he has become. There's a palpable disproportion to the way he's depicted, making it easy not to empathize with him. Heck, I never even found myself sympathizing with Ben from start to finish. All I kept thinking was how he was able to enveigle Sam Pinto to do bath tub scenes and half a dozen of lip service with him! Inspiring eh?

As for mirroring Ratanaruang's vision, it's better if we forget this connection all together. Someone's bound to deplorably suffer in comparison.

Tul, a hitman, sustains a bullet wound in the head in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Headshot".


Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Headshot

Sam Pinto and Cesar Montano's constrained pairing. She speaks English, he speaks quack.

Cesar Montano postures like a yuppy action hero: "See you, guys!"