#this is giving me strong Adela Ramos vibes

[flo-n-flon]

scribbly Yan in a slinky dress

[justindaguiso-blog]

FINALS

Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino is an annual event that is held during Buwan ng Wika. It is a week-long celebration of Philippine Cinema where new Filipino genre films are screened for 1 week in all regular cinemas nationwide. No foreign films will be screened during PPP except in specialty cinemas, it is in order for the whole country to celebrate and enjoy local-made films. This event is organized by the Film Development Council of the Philippines in partnership with the National Cinema Association of the Philippines. In this video, we will review and discuss 3 films that we witnessed shine during the week-long celebration. 

To start off, The LSS movie is a romantic, comedy, musical movie directed by Jade Castro. Starred by young loveteam actresses Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos. The movie was released on September 13, 2019 and was included on the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, also known as PPP. The movie also took home some awards for winning the Best Special Jury Prize, Audience Choice, Best Supporting Actress, Best Theme Song,and  Best Sound Award.

The main characters that are shown in the movie are Sarah starred Gabbi Garcia, and Zack starred by Khalil Ramos. The movie is all about pursuing and chasing your dreams, but there are always going to be trials and hardships through the journey. They met for the first time randomly in a bus on their way to their own destinations. They started to have a conversation because of a Ben&Ben song that they commonly listen to which is “Ride Home”. They shared their own stories and Zack told Sarah to name her first ever album their name on it, inspired by Ben&Ben.

Both of them have a very different life, struggle through different scenarios, but both of them have similar passion in music. Zack grew up living only with her mother, since his father left him at a very young age. He has a friend that he likes for 6 years already, yet he had no chance to confess his love for her. Meanwhile, Sarah who is aspiring to be a famous singer, couldn't because of financial problems. She had been struggling to find a stable job. Ever since she lost her first long job. So, she ended up having to sacrifice her dream for her brother's studies. As this shows that family does come first in our local tradition.  Then finding out, all the financial support she's been giving him was all went to renting a studio and making music. Leading no choice but to support her brother's dream instead.

Zack has been very unsure of his life, but his mother, Ruby is trying to help him out by finding a girlfriend. Since he��s old enough to have one, but never had a chance to. He took a leap of faith and asked her out, yet failed. Since his love of his life already have a significant other. This truly broke his heart and didn’t know how to cope up with it.

Both of them were hurt because of the situation of what happened to them. They reunited through the same artist that they commonly listen to, Ben&Ben. Where it truly shows that music brings people together, the power of music truly shows that no matter who you are where you live. We can all be one big family through music that connects us. They ended up being together for they are truly meant to be from the beginning. They now tackled their struggles together. Worked together to achieve their dreams. As I continue to watch the film, it truly shows that the target audience are people like us, the millennials, especially for those who are into love stories and music.

Speaking of music, this movie aims to also promote the artists, "Ben&Ben" who is a local band composed of two brothers, Paolo and Miguel. This band has been in the music industry for quite some time now, and they are absolutely killing it and putting a dent in the industry. They were able to gather a lot of loyal fans recently, from their skyrocketing growth. This factor made people attracted to see the movie, which is a great strategy to have their target audience which are the generation z.

             One triumph, that they stumbled upon while being on tour with Ben&Ben, Zack had the chance to visit his dying father with Sarah and his mother. But when they arrived, Ruby which is Zack’s mother was furious to see his father’s face. Knowing that he left both of them together with nothing, then have the audacity to meet up with them during his final days. Zack was very torn seeing his parents argue, but all he wants is to be together with his family with the remaining time they have together. But Ruby insists to leave.

After some time during on tour, Zack told Sarah that he will be leaving out of the country for a long amount of time. It will be very hard to keep a long-distance relationship strong, especially across the world. They still manage to be connected despite the time they couldn’t spend together. Sarah’s dream slowly coming into reality. This really shows that with hard work, patience, initiative and with a little bit of luck, your dreams will come true. The luck factor will just come with the risk that you’re willing to take, are you willing to do anything to reach your dreams? This shows that Sarah really wants to inspire her future potential fans that dreams do come true.

The movie is not that unique at all to be honest, it's very similar to all typical love story where everything is going just fine, until the main characters fell rock bottom, but despite the challenges they still fought and will have a happy ending. It is very common when Jade Castro directs a movie, since he is famous for those kinds of movies. Where he is able to balance out the comedy and romance factor without making it too cheesy to watch. But one thing that put this movie above the others for me is, it is a musical movie. Therefore, after watching the movie I really got hooked to Ben&Ben's music, resulting for me actually being a fan of their work. The producers did a great job choosing the best artist to go along with the movie, if the soundtrack or singer is different. It would be a different vibe watching the movie. As someone who loves listening to music, it’s amazing to experience this kind of movie, where I can sing along to the songs as well as to react to the movie as well. It’s a win win scenario for me because I totally enjoyed sitting inside the cinema while being able to focus on what’s happening to the story.

The color presets they used in the movie are really good. Especially when Zack and Sarah first met at the bus. The color and the tones look really good for the scene, creativity wise, the film did an excellent job. The camera angles of their conversation are amazing, while watching I keep on asking myself. “How were they able to capture an angle from the outside of the window of a bus?” This shows that our country has been using a bit more advance equipment unlike before. One thing that's off for me is the acting of Paolo and Miguel, which are the Ben&Ben twins. Yes, despite them being singers not actors, the way they act out during a serious scene makes me giggles because of how forced his reaction is on screen, despite of it happening at least they still tried, so kudos to the twins.

The songs that are used in very specific scenes are effective, the producers made sure that they could incorporate the correct songs per scene. If it’s a sad scene, they’d use a sad song, and if it’s a happy scene, they’d use more of a lively upbeat music. Though the movie doesn’t have that much of a surprise factor, the delivery of the expected production from them was totally bull’s eye.

             As an artist myself, I can truly relate to Sarah’s struggles of trying to make a living out of the passion that I truly have. Since one problem here in our country is that the artists don’t have the support of the locals. Which is indeed sad, but true. It made me put myself in her shoes on what would I do, give up my dream and pursue other things that will guarantee that I can make a living out of it. It’s painful to see as Sarah continues to struggle emotionally throughout the movie, trying to have a point in her career where she can finally say “I made it!”.

Overall, the movie is amazing, I truly recommend this movie for all ages, you will definitely have a smile on your face after watching the movie. The execution of the movie is all around a masterpiece. Because, it truly is not easy to have two big main plots, and they have to manage to find a way to make those two major characters merge into one leading storyline. Hopefully we get to see more local musical films like this one. For more local artist could have the chance to be in the big screen, because I believe these artists are very underappreciated. And I truly believe that this will change the game of musical film.

  On to our next film  ‘Cuddle Weather’ by director Rod Marmol presents an insight in the life of 2 sex workers who happen to form an unusual relationship as ‘cuddle partners’. Beyond all the bright neon lights, colorful wardrobe and demanding clients with peculiar kinks. The life of Adela Johnson (played by Sue Ramirez) has been filled with nothing but loneliness. No matter how thrilling the nightlife in Poblacion may be, Adela always had a dream of leaving her line of work and old life behind, to be given the chance to start a fresh chapter with a new identity; a new name. After all, that was the goal why she became a sex worker for almost 9 years; to earn easy cash and save up for her future. In one of her client sessions, she met Ram (played by RK Bagatsing) who had a client next door, a sex worker who had little to no experience about how the industry works. He kept pestering Adela to teach him her ways on how to be a better sex worker. Adela gave in and booked him for an hour just to cuddle. Since she was mostly alone in her condo, a good-warm cuddle was all she needed. Their relationship evolved from cuddle buddies-roomates-until they eventually cared for each other. With a good mix of a past love coming back to her life, along with her never-ending family drama; They both agreed to stop accepting clients and eventually leave that old life behind once they saved up enough money.

Overall, Rod Marmol humanized the idea of sex workers in the eyes of the viewers. It changed the stereotypical thinking of people when it comes to the said industry. It showed a different side of their life that not alot of people know,since most of them had been isolated or left by their loved ones due to the nature of their job. It tackled more about the effect on Sue’s character whenever she meets up with different clients almost every night, only for her to feel emptier and alone in the end, that no amount of money can ever fill the void. It made it seem that Adela is slowly losing herself to her job. From the beginning of the film, the first thing you’ll notice is her bright-colorful wigs and her sparkly and skimpy outfits; all of which serves as a way to mask her true self from her chosen profession. Throughout the scenes where Adela is seen as she journey’s on through self-discovery, her clothes are slowly leaning towards a plain jane and simple style. The soft pinks and bashful outfits somehow shows that she is slowly removing the mask and unveiling her true self. It is quite unfortunate that characters such as Adela and Ram are forced to enter this type of profession because of their lack of better opportunities. It reflects the society and environment that surrounds them which is quite sad because as fictional as these characters are ,there are real people going through the same situation and struggle. It shows how desperate times call for desperate measures and for Ram’s case, he was scammed by an agency that promised a Seaman job offer. He was later scammed by the said agency who only took his money, which later led him to earn some cash as a sex worker; He still continues to send money to his family in the province to create an illusion that he’s still working abroad. From what I notice that aside from prostitution, Rod Mormol tried to show different types of mishaps in life, from broken families; which is where Adela came from. To the bread-winner of the family be scammed by agencies with false career hopes and promises. It’s a mix of poor choices and unfortunate situations, something that some viewers may resonate and relate to. 

The way that Rod Marmol was able to combine humor, drama and romance is impressive, since this film has a serious message behind identifying yourself as a human being and prostitution in our country. He was able to tackle those serious issues with humor, finding ways to deliver the message without getting too scarily real. It will always come down to the creativity of the director, for Marmol’s case, he knows who are the target audiences are and how to properly execute the movie.

Cuddle Weather is also produced for Regal Entertainment and Project 8 cor. Being a comedy, Cuddle Weather takes a light approach in its depiction of the so-called world’s oldest profession. I do applaud Sue Ramirez’ take on bringing Adela Johnson to life, knowing how risky and mature the role seems to be. From the sultry and provocative clothes, to Her effortless delivery of lines that involve R-rated terms like “pokpok,” “libog,” “bugaw” and “tigasan” also makes her a lot more convincing as the character she’s playing. But it is Sue’s charming chemistry with RK as Ram that provides a lot of the film’s kilig moments especially during the cuddle scenes when they’re still trying to get to know more about each other. Her role as Adela sure is more mature than her role in ‘Ang Babaeng allergic sa Wifi.  As Ram, RK is also worthy of consideration for acting honors as he embodies the typical probinsyano who, because of initial setbacks, had to resort to drastic measures to keep his own dreams alive. It was Ram who believes that he and Adela have a legitimate shot at a happy-ever-after together, despite their less than ideal circumstances. ‘Cuddle Weather’ placed third in the list of highest grossing films during this celebration. 

  I admit that I was enticed by their movie poster and teaser, it riled up so much curiosity to see what this movie was all about. From the questionable position both Sue and RK were in, to the neon signs and sultry vibe. In all fairness, it did not disappoint. It delivered so much edge, drama, laughs, kilig-moments, innuendos and thrill to the viewers. Though personally, aside from the narrative of this film, the actors who played their roles, the flashy wardrobe, loud and busy setting, Cuddle Weather tackled more of one’s self-identity and worth, but beyond that it feels as if it placed all its cards on the table. No surprises behind the curtain nor moments that will push the audience to think more and question what this movie was about. To be clear, ‘Cuddle Weather’ is a sexy dark-romantic comedy. It was not meant to be a porn flick. It is not what you may readily think it may be. There is a lot of heart to this movie more than the flesh. 

 Next up, Lola Igna is a comedy drama film that is written and directed by Eduardo Roy Jr., starring Angie Ferrero, Yves Flores, Maria Isabel Lopez, and Meryll Soriano. Eduardo Roy Jr. has already directed some great films as such as “Bahay Bata”, “Quick Change”, “Pamilya Ordinaryo”,“Fuccbois”, and “Last Fool Show”. This film is also an entry for PPP, the story revolves around Lola Igna with her granddaughter and great-great grandson.

             The story is about an old woman, in fact a very old woman who lives in the middle of rice fields, who is the main character. Lola Igna is already a 118-year old grandma who is ready and wanting to die. But the people don’t want her to, for them to hold the world record for being the oldest living person alive. One factor as well is because of the million of dollars that will be given and the fame that the neighborhood will get out of her. This shows how sad the society truly is, using someone’s circumstances for personal gain only. Also, the thirst for fame is also being displayed, shows how people love the attention so much, despite the suffering of an old woman.

Lola Igna’s personality is not to be admired nor wanted to be encountered. She’s alway nag people around her. It’s reasonable for her to be, since she’s really unhappy at the situation of her life. The director wants the movie’s story to revolve around Lola Igna, and it delivers, the audience has been interested on what will happen next, because of how fascinating her life is.

             It truly breaks my heart to see her being all lonely and sad, because imagine all of your loved ones are gone and you being left alone because you’re still here in this world and they left earlier than you did. My grandparents have a very special place in my heart for I do believe they deserve nothing but love and attention. With their remaining time on this planet, we need to show them our appreciation for they’ve been through a lot. And for sure they’ll appreciate every nice gesture we show to our elderly.

             One factor that’s really messed up is that her own grandchildren even encourages her to join the contest for the oldest grandmother because of the given prize money, that they’ll benefit off of her, they’re using her age for their benefits. But one thing that really is messed up that because of the contest. She became a tourist spot for people. The director wants the audience to have empathy to Lola Igna, and for the audience to realize it’s not right to approach a “celebrity” to bother them, just to ask for a picture. Because people tend to forget they also are living their own life.

             A lot of people are going to her bahay kubo just to witness her. It’s very disgusting to see that she’s being treated not like a human being but an object that is to be seen, her whole being is being disregarded just because of the fame she’s able to have for her age. As more people to show up, people around are making money of her, selling merchandise to tourists that are in the area without Lola Igna’s consent. She’s being the town’s entertainment place as she became the most visited person already. Even after doing your work, everyone’s going to be at your home which is supposed to be not invaded, because it’s your private space. But people still show up because she’s famous. This can be comparable in the life of a celebrity, because they don’t have any privacy as well. It’s very disturbing to see fans rushing in their way just to ask for a picture, but also forgetting they have a life to live as well. We need to learn how to give space and not be too close with them. This is how Lola Igna feels as well, probably even worse because all she wants is to have is peace, but that is not going to happen.

             She doesn’t have a lot of family left around her, her relatives are only her granddaughter and her son, Nida and Bok respectively. But one day a young man shows up to her place and claims to be her great great grandson. She was even called “Lola”, and this man is named Tim. He is the son of Ana who is Igna’s great granddaughter, and sister of Nida. Lola Igna’s perspective of life changed a bit after meeting Tim, she finally felt the peace and happier to say the least. Lola Igna asks him to make a coffin for her, which is very sad. This truly shows how tired and ready she is to die. She felt the whole world is in her shoulders and she wants to give up in life. But when Tim came to her life, he’s been a ray of sunshine for her that gives her the more will to live and energy that she needs. Though they just met each other, the connection of love that they have for each other can be truly seen, and it made me so happy that Lola Igna is happy. During the scenes of them being together, it made me cry a lot, making me want to go home and give a hug to my grandparents.

              She’s done nothing but good to the community. Being a midwife for a very long time, delivering babies to life. She mentioned something about bringing life to this world, yet she couldn't live her own life .She's been living for so long but she doesn’t fear death as she says if you die it’ll be just the beginning of freedom.  A journey which a soul may be able to be free. She always talks to her dead husband, and acts that he’s still around. This breaks my heart seeing, for she really misses him a lot and wants to be reunited with him in the afterlife. The film really puts you in the point of view of being a senior citizen, how hard it is and much appreciation and care they need.

 Spoiler alert, she almost died at one point of the film, but she didn’t die. She learns to appreciate life more as the movie progresses. It brought me to tears, and made me appreciate elderly more. This movie is for those who had forgotten their grandparents, that they do exist and matter. Their life may be unfamiliar with us, but they’ve been through a lot and we need to learn to be patient with them. The film shows appreciation for elderly, for director Eduardo Roy Jr. wrote this film for his great grandmother that he never got to meet, but still loves her unconditionally.

             There’s a lot of lessons that are taught and wanted to be tackled not only the life of Lola Igna. There’s also the side of politics, beliefs, and how social media is in the current generation. Learn to appreciate life, be thankful for everyday that you get to breathe, do not take it for granted. Live everyday with nothing but happiness, and motivation.  Life’s more than just life and death, it’s how we live our life and continue to appreciate the beauty of it.

Overall, these 3 films presented themes about pursuing one’s dreams, finding one’s own identity, and to appreciate one’s family. Something that we FIlipinos often take for granted, as the event’s goal is to remember our roots of how traditional Filipino families and values are supposed to be. The future of Philippine cinema looks bright and it definitely needs more support from our fellow countrymen. As well as to appreciate the works of local artists who tries to bring back Filipino films in the map.