#Kenneth Dagatan

[cinematicjourney]

In My Mother's Skin (2023) | dir. Kenneth Dagatan

[filmap]

In My Mother's Skin Kenneth Dagatan. 2023

House Hacienda Santa Rosalia, Western Nautical Hwy, Manapla, Negros Occidental, Philippines See in map

See in imdb

[adamwatchesmovies]

In My Mother's Skin (2023)

The film everyone will compare In My Mother’s Skin to is Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. From the child protagonist to the wartime setting, the fairytale characters that turn out to be more sinister than at first glance, the sick mother a young girl has to care for, they have A LOT in common in content and tone. That’s pretty good company to keep.

In 1945, in the Philippines, World War II is coming to an end. The occupying Japanese soldiers know it. Though many of their neighbors haven’t been as lucky, Aldo (Arnold Reyes), his wife (Beauty Gonzalez) and their two children, Tala (Felicity Kyle Napuli) and Bayani (James Mavie Estrella) have managed to remain relatively unscathed through the conflict. As the soldiers become more nervous, the rumours that Aldo’s home contains a stash of stolen gold forces him to leave the family behind. When her mother suddenly becomes ill, Tala must take care of her. In the nearby forest, the young girl meets a fairy, who promises to help.

Though it’s being distributed by Amazon, this is a Filipino film. The folklore it's portraying will feel new to most viewers. The fairy, for instance, isn’t tiny and winged. She’s a full-grown woman wearing an elaborate dress and head piece covered in glittering jewels that evokes insect wings. Though that description doesn’t match what you had in mind when you read the synopsis, you immediately recognize her as a magical creature and Jasmine Curtis-Smith’s performance lets you know right away she’s not to be trusted. Tala knows this. Unfortunately, she has no choice but to accept the creature's help. Laura's mother is sure to die if nothing changes. Things going horribly if Tala accepts the fairy's offer is not necessarily a guarantee. Her father is gone. Tala is certain he'll return soon. You’re not so sure. There’s the housekeeper (Angeli Bayani) there to help, but a part of you wonders if she’s really committed to the family, or if she’s been sticking around because there’s nowhere else to go. Maybe she's hoping to get wind of that rumoured gold. The young girl truly feels alone.

This is a harsh film that doesn’t hold back. Sympathetic characters suddenly become villains. Lives end violently and without warning. The people who aren’t desperate are too consumed by the thought of gold to pull back their punches - children or no children. It’s hard to tell who are worse: the people or the magical creatures with a taste for human flesh. At least the fairy lets you know right away she’s sinister. The betrayals in this story cut deep and everything feels even more impactful because the people in it are so vulnerable.

The one thing holding me back from giving In My Mother’s Skin a higher grade is its similarity to Pan’s Labyrinth. If someone told me they could only watch one, there's no contest. This also means the picture is not quite as memorable, unpredictable, or impactful as it could be. I’m not saying the two films are the same. You could definitely watch both in quick succession without feeling like you’re watching the same movie again. We haven’t seen so many of these grim fairy tale stories that there isn’t room for more - in fact, “In My Mother’s Skin” proves we should be getting them more frequently - but one is just better than the other. That's more of a praise for the Del Toro picture than a criticism for In My Mother's Skin - which leans more into the horror direction and showcases a lot of gore. It's an unsettling tale that showcases a unique folklore and some strong performances from the child actors. (November 30, 2023)

[fearsmagazine]

PRIME VIDEO Acquires Filipino 2023 Sundance Midnight Title IN MY MOTHER’S SKIN

Global video streaming service Prime Video announced today that they has acquired worldwide rights to In My Mother’s Skin, written and directed by Kenneth Dagatan (Ma). In My Mother’s Skin, a horror fairy tale which will make its world premiere in the 2023 Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight Section, tells the story of how a young girl's duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy.

The film stars Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, James Mavie Estrella, and Angeli Bayani. In My Mother’s Skin is the only non-English language film in Sundance’s Midnight Section this year, and will launch on Prime Video in multiple countries by the end of 2023.

Set in the Philippines at the end of World War II, In My Mother’s Skin follows the story of Tala, a 14-year-old daughter of a textile merchant who lives in a war-worn colonial house with her sickly mother Ligaya and younger brother Bayani . When Tala’s father mysteriously leaves once more to barter for his family's freedom with the Japanese, his family finds themselves alone in their isolated forest mansion, awaiting his return. With Ligaya’s condition rapidly deteriorating, Tala seeks out a mysterious fairy who has promised to protect her. Happy to oblige, the fairy gives Tala a magical insect to cure her dying mother. This initially provides Ligaya with relief, but later leads to disastrous consequences that force Tala to make a distressing decision.

“We’re proud to support Kenneth and  to be the home for  the best Filipino storytellers across all genres. It is exciting to see this beguiling movie generate international recognition in the Sundance Film Festival’s Midnight Section,” said Amazon Studio APAC’s Head of Originals, Erika North.  “In My Mother’s Skin is a uniquely Filipino story and a highly elevated horror film, we are delighted to bring this movie to not just audiences in the Philippines but to Prime Video members  worldwide.”

Director Kenneth Dagatan, who will be present at the film’s world premiere at Sundance, adds, “I’m excited that In My Mother's Skin has been recognized at such an important festival like Sundance, and will now also have the chance to be watched by a global audience on Prime Video. This is truly a moment for Filipino filmmakers to be seen by the international audience, and I hope this opens doors for more Filipino content to be watched by the rest of the world."

Written and directed by Kenneth Dagatan, In My Mother’s Skin is produced by Bradley Liew, Bianca Balbuena, Huang Junxiang, and Stefano Centini.

[news-buzz]

Philippines' QCinema Market Awards Grants to Southeast Asian Projects News Buzz

The QCinema Project Market, the industry platform of the Philippines‘ QCinema International Film Festival, wrapped its second edition with grants and co-production support distributed across multiple projects from the region. Three Filipino projects secured the market’s top Philippine Co-Production Grant of $34,000 each: Martika Ramirez Escobar’s “Anak Alon” (Daughters of the Sea), Eve Baswel’s…

[movienized-com]

In My Mother's Skin

In My Mother's Skin (2023) #KennethDagatan #AngeliBayani #JasmineCurtisSmith #JamesMavieEstrella #BeautyGonzalez #FelicityKyleNapuli Mehr auf:

Jahr: 2023 (Oktober) Genre: Comedy / Drama / Sport Regie: Kenneth Dagatan Hauptrollen: Angeli Bayani, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, James Mavie Estrella, Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli … Filmbeschreibung: Als sich der Zweite Weltkrieg 1945 auf den Philippinen dem Ende zuneigt, ist eine wohlhabende Familie in ihrem Landhaus gefangen und wird von japanischen Soldaten terrorisiert, die die…

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: ‘In My Mother’s Skin’ Review: A Grim Fairy Tale by Claire Shaffer

By Claire Shaffer Kenneth Dagatan’s new folk horror film acts as a cautionary tale about putting one’s fate into the hands of the enemy. Published: October 12, 2023 at 07:00AM from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/gLI7cTK via IFTTT

[ramascreen]

Amazon Studios' "In My Mother's Skin" Launches Globally on Prime Video October 12

Amazon Studios’ Philippine original, In My Mother’s Skin, is launching globally on Prime Video on Thursday, October 12th. In My Mother’s Skin is directed by Kenneth Dagatan, and stars Beauty Gonzalez, Felicity Kyle Napuli, James Mavie Estrella, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Angeli Bayani, Arnold Reyes and Ronnie Lazaro. The film launched out of Sundance with great reviews, currently holds an 88% on…

[suchananewsblog]

Prime Video Picks Up Sundance Flesh-Eating Fairy Midnight Title ‘In My Mother’s Skin’

In what reps the primary acquisition of this yr’s Sundance Film Festival by a streamer, Prime Video is taking international rights to Kenneth Dagatan’s Filipino horror film In My Mother’s Skin which is premiering within the Midnight part on Friday, Jan. 20. A This autumn drop date in a number of international locations is at the moment scheduled. In My Mother’s Skin is the one non-English title…

[natehoodreviews]

With the coming of mid-July comes the ending of the New York Asian Film Festival. Now in its 18th year, this annual collection of films remains one of the only places in New York City where audiences can watch films from such cinematically overlooked Asian countries as Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines while indulging in rarer offerings from mainstays in the international movie scene as Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. From its humble beginnings as an eleven film retrospective held at the Anthology Film Archives courtesy of Subway Cinema, it has exploded to feature a whopping forty films this year including several international premiers alongside panels with filmmakers and actors. The NYAFF has always prided itself on programming the unusual and offbeat and a cursory glance at their line-up confirms that they’ve maintained that giddy love of the unexpected: Singaporean zombie comedies, Tibetan art films, Chinese CGI adventures…the list goes on.

Long-time attendees will be relieved to learn that 2019 sees the return of a modestly interesting main slate of films vying for the annual Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film. As we reported last year, the 2018 main slate was a puzzling mixture of some of the most tepid and underwhelming films featured at the festival. It was almost as if the festival organizers were worried they’d lose critical credibility if one of its more bizarre offerings took home the big prize. (How else to explain the sidelining of Anthony Chan’s dazzling rock musical biopic House of the Rising Sons in favor of the woefully tepid Men on the Dragon?) But 2019 sees a more modestly robust lineup of riskier, bolder films. There are still a few clunkers, but overall the slate hopefully demonstrates a move towards the defiant brashness of the festival’s founders.

[Full disclosure: due to scheduling conflicts, we were unable to view the seventh film competing for the award, Wu Nan’s Push and Shove.]

To read the rest of this piece, click on the link!

Published on TheYoungFolks.com

[cinematicjourney]

In My Mother’s Skin (2023) | dir. Kenneth Dagatan

[modernerealisateur]

[vanna-ch]

Sanctissima

A film directed by Kenneth Dagatan. A cinemalaya production.

Kenneth Dagatan a director who has overcome his fears of watching horror films by making himself to watch alone as an achievement. 

And I quote; “And I promised myself I would watch “The Ring” (the older one) to watch it alone. So I watched it alone because that was the time I was interested in filmmaking and as I was watching it I was like ‘Oh, they did a good job making this horror film.’’ 

https://asianmoviepulse.com/2019/07/interview-with-director-kenneth-lim/

This was a beginning for him to start experimenting on how he would make his own horror films as an inspiration to himself for doing something scary for us children would do. 

As he was interviewed he stated that for Sanctissima that thing that would be an important element within the film was the ‘cause-and-effect’ idea. Because you would immediately vision that happenings then after causing a domino effect to the idea of your desired story making it continuously play and play finally finishing the film.

This film is about the old lady who lives in a barrio age setting and who, apparently harbors a gore-ish living by helping women with problems relating to birthing problems or the women just want to throw away the fetuses inside them by aborting them with the aid of the abortionist Marissa.

Marrisa who happens to be the old lady’s name, lives alone with no one aside from her profession of helping her patients which are women who harbors pregnancy complications or just simply want to abort fetuses inside them, relieving them of their pain and suffering from the real world that they have in contact with. With a twist of course. In the house of Marissa, home of an entity that keeps Marissa a slave to her own guilt. A demon spawn whom the aborted fetuses are chopped into limbs therefore turned into a dish for the demon to feast on.

From the film setting it was a silent yet abruptly disturbing settlement the film gives a vibe in which everyday reality happen (them eating fetuses are real believe it or not). It’s just like your everyday lifestyle but in our imagination we cannot discord these events to not happen.

The panning alterations from the film shows how connected and in an instant we know the story doesn’t have cuts and it just go continuously telling the progress of the story with cliffhangers that you ask yourself, what on earth happened, stuff like that.

To every Horror and Drama genre that these types of film have, they all try to expose the viewers into a reality truth told from your childhood stories that you wouldn’t want to dream about, from the demon spawn of satan, yes, to the bloody spurs of guts, who wouldn't want to experience that if that were you in the set.

Sanctissima proves that some thing that looks so innocent, friendly, and helpful isn’t the case. Later on it could be someone putting motives on your disadvantages and then pursue such tragedies to give themselves a good ending, selfishly. 

You thought that there’d be jump scares but no, sanctissima offers the best meal for your stomach to afford on. From the eerie feeling to blood guts spreading everywhere.

To me, Sanctissima is a hidden mine for someone to stumble upon on, facing the brute, utter disgusting reality that we are at. Then once you try watching the film itself clarifies and opening to more jurisdictions and questions to which one finds.

It’s a great film, smooth interface and action.

[lebjaperal]

The first time we heard Kenneth Dagatan pitch "In My Mother's Skin" to us, we knew there was something special about it. Congratulations, Kenneth, for winning the BIFAN Discovery of Asia Award! Thank you, Bianca and Bradley, for guiding Kenneth! Tara, shoot na natin nila Kriz ito! 😊 https://www.instagram.com/p/CCtAe2RntEosTjTtixTGJkDHX0CLcuME7zsd8w0/?igshid=1v6hqgcaqaaz1

[huttson-blog]

Cebuano filmmaker’s ‘MA’ to compete in New York Asian Film Festival — Cebu Daily News

Read more at Cebu Daily News

— by Michelle Joy L. Padayhag: A movie helmed by Cebuano filmmaker will be competing for the 18th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF).

The Film at Lincoln Center and the New York Asian Film Foundation announced on its official website that Kenneth Lim Dagatan’s debut film, “MA” will vie for the Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film…

Image: poster for MA,…