TV Series - When "The Killing" Kills You & a Dubious Filipino Connection

In the bleak woodlands, beautiful Rosie Larsen flees for her life while someone pursues her in unfettered demeanor. The chase gets frenetic, then the scene is cut showing homicide detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) as she spends her last few hours in Seattle. She looks forward to a new life in San Diego where her fiancé has moved. Back at work, she meets former narc agent Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) who’s joining the homicide division. She’s cleaning house, taking the last vestiges of her Washington memories, while the latter moves in.

We are then ushered into the lives of the people around Rosie’s bleak community: her loving parents, her bestfriend; her mean, influential and complicit boyfriend Jasper (Richard Harmon); and Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell), a charming and soft spoken councilman who’s running for Mayor in Seattle. Within 24 hours, Sarah and Stephen follow the track that leads to Rosie’s dead body – inside the trunk of the popular council president’s campaign car, submerged under the river! Was the affable politician connected to her disappearance? He seems to be covering clues. Or is it Jasper? Holder has also uncovered a blood bespattered basement that reeks of carnage and violence.

Then there’s Mitch and Stanley Larsen (Michelle Forbes and Brent Sexton, respectively), Rosie’s parents. They last saw Rosie that Friday morning before she left for school. She was going to stay over her friend’s house for the weekend so they didn’t worry until Rosie’s absence from class was reported. Their marital relationship is depicted in tender moments, thus we’re taken into their lives like concerned neighbors. “I will find my baby,” declares Stanley, but what he eventually learns does not prepare him. The scene at the beach where they tell Rosie’s young brothers of how Rosie’s “Gone to heaven…like Grandma” is nothing short of heart breaking.

The narrative is well paced and compelling, you find yourself hooked to Linden and Holder’s investigation. There’s a sense of subtle urgency and understated pathos that’s hard to shake, you’re pulled into this dreary and cold, grey world that’s deceptively addictive. The series has been compared to the allure of “Twin Peaks”, what with its atmosphere of constant dread and desolation. That it is an adaptation of a Scandinavian mystery series is a risky proposition, but the production succeeds in bringing on something equally absorbing. Will Sarah be able to leave a case unresolved? Will Richmond unravel his secretive ways? Will the Larsens find their baby girl’s justice?

FILIPINO CHARACTERS

There's a dubious plot in episode 3 involving the discovery of the basement lot where kids "party". This leads them to the school janitor named Rosales. When Linden and Holder visit him home, an elder lady opens the door for them. When asked if they could speak with Rosales, the lady replied, "No here". When they came inside, she surprisingly muttered, "Wala!" I thought i was mishearing things. The lady after all doesn't look Filipina, but she followed this with "Wala dito!" (Not here.) The janitor turned out to be inside the house. When they found him, he was already unconscious after jumping from his 2nd floor window. He has indeed seen things. Funny thing is, he looks latino more than Filipino. Later that night, Linden visited Rosales at the ICU, post-op. She shows him a photo of Rosie. "Did you see whom she was with?" Rosales shouted, "El Diablo!" Nope, he sure isn't Filipino. If the woman were indeed Pinay, they she would undoubtedly speak English, instead of the moronic drivel of "No here!" But how is the janitor related to the non-Pinoy looking old woman who spoke Tagalog? Search me.

In the succeeding episodes, plot thickens when seemingly innocent characters gradually turn to have connections to the murder: Rosie's childhood friend Chris, the Somalian high school teacher, the teacher's young wife, and that uncomfortable undercurrent involving Stanley (Rosie's dad). Suspense lays on thick.

It kills me.

Mireille Enos as Detective Sarah Linden. She's leaving town, but gets her last case.



Agent Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) moves to homicide.


Charming councilman Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell) is keeping secrets. Does it have anything to do with Rosie's death?

Linden and Holder make an intriguing pair.


Finding something inside a submerged car.


Detective Stephen Holder


What does a mother and a father do?


Mireille Enos


Joel Kinnaman (above and below)





Richard Harmon

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives – Sublime Stories and Mortality

Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is sent home from the hospital. He survives kidney failure but is aware that he doesn’t have much time left either. In his remote farm in northern Thailand, surrounded by verdant greens, a tamarind plantation and the lush jungles, Uncle Boonmee receives guests out to help him recuperate. There’s Jaai, the illegal migrant from Laos; his nephew Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee); and his sister-in-law Jen (Jenjira Pongpas).

One night at dinner, Boonme and his guests are surprised by the arrival of the most unexpected visitors: his wife Huay (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk), and his son Boonsong. But Huay passed away 19 years ago and Boonsong – now a red-eyed monkey - disappeared 6 years after Huay’s death. Over a delectable bowl of Jen’s glass noodles and chilli soup, Boonme regales his guests with vivid memories of his past lives: as a carabao and a catfish. He even foresees his future, reincarnated as a political dissident who falls victim to an oppressive military regime. ("They have the power to make you disappear," he says.) Is Boonmee delirious? A case of renal encephalopathy where toxins circulate around, affecting the thought process? Or is Uncle Boonmee in the incipient stages of goodbye?

Director Apitchatpong Weerasethakul languidly takes us on a ponderous and ruminative journey to mortality the way Thais view life in terms of merit making, reward and punishment. The Buddhists believe that your past has a bearing on your present life; that fate is an amalgam of deeds we've accumulated from past lives, and that we live an imminent existence. Making merit (among men especially) is a goal as it helps stir us somewhere better..

Narratology employs Real Time Film Making (as when we find the carabao escaping from his tree; or when an ugly princess is taken in stark darkness to a mystical river; or even when Tong enjoys a warm shower as a monk) rendering a hypnotic milieu to the story. Story telling is almost passive, allowing time to pace and almost stagnate. The technique is of course being criticized,their film makers labeled as “self indulgent”, but some of the most sublime films are products of such technique. To mean something, such artifice has to have a direction, instead of being randomly aimless. Turk director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Uzak” (Distant) is a fine example.

A few scenes remind us of Auraeus Solito’s “Busong” and Adolf Alix’s “Isda”, local auteurs who employ reel time story telling. This narrative strain takes us to the time-warped anecdote of the grotesque-looking princess who’s besotted with one of her tribesmen. Though the “warrior” welcomes the princess’ advances, he kisses the princess with eyes shut, imagining instead a mirage of the beautiful maiden that is reflected from the magic lake. These midnight jaunts through the jungles and to the lake have afforded the royalty a false sense of levity. Her minions carry her on a veiled carriage, an image not dissimilar to Alessandra de Rossi’s Punay in “Busong”. When the warrior finally flees, the princess is left conversing with a catfish who proclaims her the most beautiful maiden he’s ever laid eyes on.

The princess, unnaturally pleased with the adulation, submits herself to the wiles of the fish. What follows is a scene so out worldly as we find the strange couple consummate their relationship – on the water! Have you witnessed a fish make love to a woman? Much like Alix’s “Isda” where a woman named Lina (Cherry Pie Picache) suddenly gives birth to a fish! Yes, they both sound ridiculous, but we don’t call our fables and fairy tales that, do we? We use terms like “magical” and “bewitching”. Words that I illustriously bestow on “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”, “Busong” (Palawan Fate), and “Isda” (Fable of the Fish).

“Uncle Boonmee” is not for everyone. It requires patience and a leap of faith. It follows a semi-linear story fraught with flashbacks and flash forwards. Heck, it requires a degree of cogitation. After all, discernment isn’t born when you’re spoonfed details. You have to maladroitly realize a few things along the way. As when the closing frame shows Jen and Tong with seemingly discordant, albeit identical mirages diverge. The first pair is watching television, and their mirage is shown leaving the room to get dinner. WTF indeed.

Tamarind fruits have worms.

The princess touches her favorite warrior.

Wife Huay: "Heaven is overrated. There is nothing there."

Sa Ngalan ng Ina - An Epic Drama Worthy of a Superstar

When Mayor Armando Deogracias (Bembol Roco) decided to seek higher office, he didn't bank on his ambition costing more than he expected. Incumbent Governor Pepe Ilustre (Christopher de Leon) and his minions weren't pleased. One fateful night, during a campaign sortie, a bomb was thrown at the stage where Armando and daughter Andrea (Nadine Samonte), who's running for Mayor, were making speech! Though Andrea was spared from the explosion, Armando wasn't so lucky. He was rushed to the hospital. When doting wife Elena (Nora Aunor) arrived by his side, he had expired.

The catastrophe threw the bustling town into a frenzy. Who plotted the dastardly deed? Before the dust settled on this political arena, the grapevine has pointed its finger at the Deogracia's political rivals, the Ilustres. Was the paraplegic governor responsible? Or was it a strategic device of the governor's wife, Lucia (Rosanna Roces) who's as beautiful as she's cunning?

This fortuitous turn of events turned the Deogracias household upside down. And as fate would have it, Elena, the reluctant, albeit unsuspecting widow is suddenly jostled into the tumultuous political platform. After all, aren't widows potent instigators of change? Despite her reservations, Elena is aware of the grave repercussions if she were to decline the position. And everyone else is on tenterhooks from the expeditious sway of events.

In 2002, ABS-CBN launched a great singer to stardom – Carol Banawa - for a teleserye called “Bituin”. She played Melody Sandoval, a singer who rose to fame despite the odds. But one salient detail in this “Pangarap na Bituin”-styled drama was the participation of an icon, a name that can never be omitted in the annals of Philippine Show Business – Superstar Nora Aunor!

But in the fracas of building up a star, the station myopically sidetracked the Superstar’s participation. She was relegated to second tier-territory. In fact, as the series went on, La Aunor’s character was reduced to a mere afterthought! And what a shame that was; an embarrassment of gargantuan proportions, for how can the Queen be relegated to a minor throne in favor of a newbie who, though talented, will never approximate the scope of grandeur and legacy that is Miss Nora Aunor? Roughly a year later, Ms. Aunor decided to pack it up and seek greener pasture elsewhere! In fact, she left with a broken back and a crashed ego, she thought she was done and over with!

But time has a way of mending iniquities. Directors Mario O'Hara and Jon Red's "Sa Ngalan ng Ina" is fixing the aberration. Nora Aunor is back in a panorama that befits her talent and stature. In ABC-5's miniseries, the story revolves around Elena and every character gravitates and orbits around her! It's taken time to finally field a vehicle that once again showcases La Aunor's enviable thespic facility.

Yes, those expressive eyes once again pull the ponderous punches, as when, in her grief, Aunor (as Elena) laments with her slain husband's 3 favorite "barongs". The framing of the scene is well conceived - she's seated on a bed beside her sister Pacita. There's a door on the foreground, adequately spotlighting a widow's grief! It was like watching an intimate act from a chamber play on stage! And why not? Director O'Hara is as much a famed theater director as he is a film megman. There are remnants of her Richard Merck-era grunts, but Ate Guy's emotionality is corporeal, earthy, and palpable as when she once appeared before a crowd, declaring to spiritually desperate people that there was no miracle after all! Walang himala indeed!

The series' supporting characters are nothing to scoff at: Eugene Domingo, who plays Pacita (Elena's younger sister) is a calming presence; a wonderment of sobriety in Elena's turbulent world; Rosanna Roces, as Lucia, is the perfect mischief-maker, the miscreant who'll stop at nothing to protect the interest of the Ilustres; Ian de Leon, playing the security officer of the Deogracias, is an ambiguous character when it's revealed that he shares Lucia's bed. And Christopher de Leon's Governor Pepe is a sketchy character; he's hard to read for now. We do know that Pepe and Elena once shared intimate moments.

Among the younger cast, Karel Marquez and Eula Caballero make the grade! Marquez, who plays Carmela Ilustre (Pepe and Lucia's only daughter), looks exceedingly beautiful, yet her comeliness never distracts from the dilemma that she's in, i.e. she's the girl friend of Elena's son Angelo (Edgar Allan Guzman, who plays a police officer). Their tale provides a Romeo and Juliet predicament. I'm not familiar with Caballero, but so far, she displays a sympathetic affect as Pacita's daughter. This, in itself, is a triumph considering the crowd of reliable veterans she's working with. Otherwise, it's easy to get lost in this privileged company!

Though Alwyn Uytingco, who plays the volatile Alfonso Deogracias (Armando Deogracia's son), is never awkward, his performance isn't as forthright as it should be, which is a shame since we expected a lot from him. I have a feeling he'll get into his usual competent groove as the narrative unravels in the coming episodes.

WEAK LINKS

The series isn't spared from weak performances, the most glaring would be the lovely Nadine Samonte, playing Armando's daughter Andrea, a lawyer who's running for mayoralty vacated by her father. Nadine figures in several highlights, constantly leering at her stepmother Elena (she's Armando's second wife). Nadine populates her performance with sneers and smirks, throwing her lines with utter disgust, yet they all end up perfunctory and one-dimensional. As eye-catching as she is, Nadine is a blank canvas devoid of real and insightful emotion. Her conversations with Elena (well, she's always talking down on her stepmom) come off vacuous, like a girl who's in a constant bad temper. Now that's a shame again, considering she's "consecrated" a sundry of highlights!

Didn't Samonte star in Rod Santiago's "The Sisters" prior to this series? That should have provided her with adequate experience, i.e. "dry run". In one scene, she trades barbs with Elena. She declared: "Tatlong gabi akong umiiyak para sa ama ko." Elena replied with: ""Di ko mabilang ang luhang galing sa puso." Despite the mawkish line that Aunor was made to deliver, she owned the silliness with stark earnestness, while Nadine's was not dissimilar to a child reciting a nursery rhyme! It was a painful scene to digest.

Another sore point is Raquel Villavicencio playing Vice Governor Dorinda Fernando. Now whoever gave her the illusion she could act should be burned at the stakes! Yes, we heard she won a major award from the recently concluded Cinemalaya festival (the same festival group that awarded a disputable supporting trophy for Jim Pebanco's abhorrent and absolutely dreadful turn in Lamangan's "Patikul"), but goodness gracious, Villavicencio is such a disgrace! Even when she's spouting a potentially powerful line like, "This is a politically motivated violence," it becomes such a mundane drivel with her! Moreover, when Villavicencio was made to deliver a speech on stage as she tries to persuade the crowd (that she should take over the governorship instead of inexperienced Elena), she appeared weakly sniveling and tentative, and curiously unconvincing. She bears no gravitas expected from a seasoned politician. How she became vice governor escapes me!

There's a certain carelessness in a few scenes, like when the bloodied mayor was rushed at the hospital. While emergency measures were being given to the fatally wounded politician, you would know something was amiss at the E.R. Now, here's a bleeding patient, with blood gushing on his shirt, but where's the intravenous fluid? You wouldn't wonder why the patient eventually expired. The incompetence of the medical staff is daunting! Don't tell me they don't have "dextrose" in that institution? Or was it a veterinary hospital the poor mayor was rushed to? LOL

TOP CALIBER

On the plus side, the production is top caliber. They commissioned Mr. Ryan Cayabyab to compose the theme song, a song that's melodically rich it cajoles the auditory senses. You never hear such soaring theme songs anymore, but soul-less covers ("Mahiwaga", "May Bukas Pa"). The song is beautifully sung by Basil Valdez whose rich lilting voice deserves to be heard again by a prime time crowd! Moreover, during the first episode, almost every scene had a propitious staging, most of them involving large crowds. The scenes have been briskly paced and mindfully staged like snippets from some epic masterpiece! Who can accuse them of scrimping production expenses? The atmosphere created therein concocts a distinct narrative macrocosm, making "Sa Ngalan ng Ina" a unique television experience worthy of our patronage.

I've always thought of TV5 as a refuge of 2nd-tier personalities who can't find employment elsewhere, and for a while, I knew I was right. After all, how can you think otherwise when they're fielding god-awful TV dramas like "Star Confessions" (I caught 3 horrible episodes). But with a class act like "Sa Ngalan ng Ina" providing a hopeful and inspiring gleam on TV land, there's no doubt TV-5 has joined the big leagues! That, my dear, is to our advantage!

Cheers to the one and only Superstar - Miss Nora Aunor!

Lucia


Alfonso


Andrea


Dorinda is as hammy as her alter-ego! She can't even give a believable campaign speech!

Ligo Na U, Lapit Na Me - Sexual Games

Intoy (Edgar Allan Guzman) is having the time of his life. In his junior year in college, he crosses path with Jenny (Mercedes Cabral). While Intoy – Karl Vladimir Lennon J. Villalobos – seems content with his occasionally cash-strapped existence, Jen sashays around the campus in fashionable garbs like some object of male adulation. And she is! Fortunately for Intoy, Jen isn’t disinclined to hide her fondness to our protagonist. But despite appearances and cool-campus-dude disposition, Intoy is a novice by way of sexual kinship. One day, during a break from class, Jen asks him point blank, “How’s your sex life?” Though initially dumbfounded, he replies, “Lahat natikman ko na. Tao lang hindi.” (I’ve tried everything, except humans.) Then Jen furthers her proposition, “I want to go to bed with you now.” What’s a red-blooded young man to do?

Jen is a free spirit. She speaks her mind and does what she wants. She’s someone "who’s curious of her own body". She is generous, yet never accepts gifts. When made aware of Intoy’s financial predicament, she insists on paying for their every rendezvous. After all, they’re usually her ministrations. She scoffs at any romantic gestures, making their couplings fancy and commitment free. She insists, they’re just “friends… with benefits.” Isn’t this any guy’s fantasy?

But Jen is also loopy and labile. She would, at the drop of a hat, declare, “Ang hirap mo naming ligawan.” Or insist that Intoy trades barbs with her: “What is a good day to commit suicide?” After a few prodding, Intoy had to come up with a delightful enumeration why: “Not January because it’s the new year. Not February because it’s our prelims and people will be busy studying. Not March because it’s graduation, not to mention fire prevention month; and people might not attend your funeral. Not July because it’s the nutrition month. ” And so on... One day, Jen drops a bomb: “I’m pregnant… but this baby isn’t yours!” Then she disappears from his life forever. Well, almost.

Written with tongue-in-cheek candor and some of the most ineffable ideas that espouses everyday life, Erick C. Salud’s “Ligo Na U, Lapit Na Me” (Star-Crossed Love) is a brave exposition on present day sexual mores. It’s tantalizing and presents feminism by way of sexual liberation. The concepts here spread out of our comfort zones, like sympathizing with a woman who gets into a sexual relationship by dissing emotional commitment altogether. Yet we do relate to Mercedes Cabral’s enigmatic, albeit flawed Jen. Her character is too befuddling and deserved an adequate historical backgrounder (how has she evolved into this vamp? What made her become so emotionally distant?). Otherwise, it's difficult to take her character seriously. There has to be a legible explanation into her eccentricity; her stand-offish demeanor. We are creatures shaped by our past, aren’t we? Though Cabral adequately personifies Jen’s abundance of sensuality and impulsiveness, we find her just a wee bit too mature alongside her supposed junior classmates.

Edgar Allan Guzman has had prior experience relevant to thematic slices within this film. In last year’s “Magdamag” (also scripted by Jerry Gracio), he essayed the role of a young man who spent an intimate night with an older married woman (Rita Avila). Some of the intimate scenes and verbal tussle in “Ligo Na U…” are reminiscent of the narrative atmosphere in “Magdamag”. Guzman exhibits a winking portrayal that displays both his dramatic and comedic skill, all in one coherent, insightful package. His flirtatious interplay with Cabral is entertaining, and the scenes involving his financially hard-up parents (Mel Kimura and Simon Ibarra) are soberingly affecting.

Gracio’s script is a delightful drollery. But they make you think. To say that Burmese people eat cats like we devour burgers seems like a misleading idea. I’ve heard of a small group of Koreans and aboriginal Australians, but Burmese? When Intoy wonders of Jen’s influence in him, he remarks: Why can’t she stay in my loins, and not in my head? And you wonder why some people do the same too. Other remarks verge on being silly, but hilarious nonetheless: “Walang suka (vomit) na di nakakatawag pansin.”

Luis Alandy cameos as a taxi driver who takes Intoy around on the night of his graduation. The latter has been given P3,000 as his parent’s gift – to splurge (for a change). But Intoy instead heads to the seedy sidewalks of Quezon Avenue, looking for Jen (who’s gone incommunicado since the big news). I’m a bit lost why he would look for Jen among street walkers. Jen was supposed to have come from a rich family (her parents were former bankers).

I have a problem with last 3^rd of the narrative as it awkwardly tries to settle into a more appropriate conclusion. We’re made acutely aware that the undeniable energy and verve that jumpstarted and buoyed this movie has all but dissipated. It wasn’t a very satisfying finish. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Eros Atalia. We're not quite sure how the story was tweaked to suit the cinematic palette, but this should explain the sundry of verbose clutter found in its text work: "Bakit gusto natin ng mainit na kape kung pinapalamig din naman natin ito?" Because hot temperature helps dissolve the caffeine bits thus affecting a good mix? There's more where that came from, and if you like these smart alecky lines, you'd find pleasure in this film. “Ligo Na U, Lapit Na Me” (Star-Crossed Love) is an inspired and gratifying cinematic frolic. With an engaging story and earnest portrayals all around, it shouldn't be missed. Does it mirror the sexual games you play?

Mercedes Cabral: Indie babe!


Edgar Allan Guzman: Appealing take as Intoy.


Mercedes Cabral

Falling Skies - Surviving Alien Invasion

It’s been 6 months since the aliens have invaded earth. Ninety percent of the population has been decimated and the remaining survivors have all gone into hiding. A ragtag community of about 300 civilians have banded together to fight back and survive. Others have hopes of claiming their kidnapped children, brothers and sisters – 8 to 16 year old children who have been turned into drones through an obedience device attached to their spines.

Among these children is Ben, one of the three sons of Tom Mason (Noah Wyle), a former Boston University history professor, now the 2^nd in command of this post-apocalyptic group of fighters called 2^nd Massachusetts. Tom is conflicted in planning an attack that would release Ben, but his direct superior Captain Dan Weaver (Will Patton) isn’t supportive. Hal Mason (Drew Roy), Tom’s 16 year old son, is frustrated. He is planning a heist to rescue his younger brother. Unfortunately, Boston has ceased to become a safe place. Navigating the city is a treacherous endeavor. The buildings have all been deserted, looted or destroyed, and several different alien creatures are constantly patrolling the metropolis. People live to survive and compete for the limited supply of resources made available in deserted groceries and warehouses.

“Falling Skies” echoes the predicament of Andrew Lincoln’s “Walking Dead” without the zombies, but the concerns are identical: survival in a fast dying, albeit competitive dog-eat-dog world. The first episode is a 2-part scorcher that had us sitting at the edge of our seat while our survivors battle against the Skitters (lizard-like creatures), the heavy-footed Mechs (Attack Drones), and those grayish humanoid forms! As if that weren’t enough, they had to face bandits headed by John Pope (Colin Cunningham)! On board this little throng includes a pediatrician Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood) and an interesting line-up of characters that keep the narrative exigent and tense. It brims with fast paced action, moved by dynamic story lines.

Moon Bloodgood is Dr. Anne Glass

Noah Wyle, sporting a beard and a goatee, initially looks like an unkempt Dr. John Carter (“E.R.”) but as the story unfolds, Wyle comes into his own as a struggling father who tries his best to keep up with the action. After all, what can a history professor do where muscles and might are concerned, right? Drew Roy registers impressively as headstrong Hal (one of Tom's three boys) who’s desperate to rescue his younger brother Ben (he's been spotted held captive by the aliens). Moon Bloodgood plays another passionate character who constantly talks down her field of specialty (she’s a Pediatrician). “I’m the only doctor you’ve got!” she would defensively point the obvious.

Will Tom and Mason get to rescue Ben? I am tempted to cheat, but I have a hunch I’d end up pleased. The series comes straight from the creative minds of Robert Rodat and that other vaguely familiar guy named Steven Spielberg. Do you then doubt its entertainment quotient?

Noah Wyle as Tom Mason, a former history professor.

Drew Roy is broody Hal. He's itchin' to rescue his younger brother from the clutches of the aliens.

Drew Roy

Moon Bloodgood

Moon Bloodgood

Moon Bloodgood: Not just another sexy magazine bod.

Jessy Schram is Karen, Hal's girl friend.

Sarah Carter is feisty, gun-toting Margaret (above and below). She survives John Pope, rape and those pesky lizard-like creatures.