Film Notes: June 2012

Banaue (Gerardo de Leon, 1975) - 5/5 Para saan yung vignette? ahehe. Erotic pre-historic film, medyo rare yung ganun.

Banawe (Ate Guy): wag ka munang umalis. ano itong nararamdaman ko? ngayong tinitingala kita, ang kaninang nag-aalab na galit ay parang nawawala, at...
Sadek (Boyet): baligtad naman ako. ngayong dinadaganan kita'y lalo lamang naglalagablab ang galit.
Banawe: ng? ng ano, Sadek?
Sadek: hindi mo ba nararamdaman?
Banawe: (titingin sa baba) ...ang ano, Sadek?
Sadek: ayun na nga...
Banawe: anong gagawin natin ngayon?

Sa Pusod ng Dagat (Marilou Diaz-Abaya, 1998) - 3/5. Maganda yung pagkakayari, kaso pangit lang talaga yung pagkakasulat ng maraming lines. Nakakatuwa yung nanganak ng ahas.

Mad Detective (Johnnie To|Ka-fai Wai, 2007) 5/5. Lau Ching-wan FTW!

Letters from a Dead Man (Konstantin Lopushansky, 1986) 5/5. pinaka-pessimistic na dystopian film na napanuod ko. walang patawad hanggang ending.

In A Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950) 5/5.

Public Affairs (Robert Bresson, 1934) 4/5. half-hour short from Bresson. wala pa ko napanuod na ibang pelikula mula sa kanya. Pero mukhang malayo daw to sa mga naging mga gawa niya. War-comedy na sa tingin ko mas ok kesa Dr. Strangelove kung sakaling napanuod ko sa mas magandang quality.

A Tree in Tanjung Malim (Chui-mui Tan, 2004) 5/5. 2nd dose of heartbreak cinema.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars (Byron Haskin, 1964) 4/5. sci-fi with scientific accuracy. ahehe

El Vibora (Ishmael Bernal, 1972) 5/5. Bernal's contribution to the spaghetti-western genre. pero, never expect the Bernal of Pagdating Sa Dulo, Himala, City After Dark, etc. Masyadong makalat yung pagkakagawa dito ni Bernal. parang nakatira ng kung anong malakas na drugs habang ginagawa to. haha. gusto ko yung ginawa nila na pagpapasabog ng simbahan, walang binatbat yung mga nagsusunog lang ng simbahan sa Norway. love the ending.

Aguila (Eddie Romero, 1980) 5/5. parang isa ito sa unting pelikulang maganda ang naging output habang gumagamit ng powerhouse cast and crew. waging wagi yung pelikula sa pagkakabuo pa lang.

Ang Prinsesa, ang Prinsipe at si Marlborita (Carl Joseph Papa, 2012) 5/5.

The Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi, 1978) 5/5. Scope of this one's till the Second Book. Just realized that it was purely rotoscoped, manual rotoscoping, mind you, not like the digital ones Linklater has been doing. Gotta love Bakshi's decision on how to portray everything. It's an epic mixed with 70's psychedelia. I liked this more than Jackson's films. Gotta see Return of the kings soon.

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) (Stephen Quay|Timothy Quay, 2011) 5/5. Quays' third museum docu focused on the Medical collection of the Mutter Museum. Quite creepy. I cringed on most scenes, especially, on the scenes where they've shown collection of swallowed things. What a way to promote a museum. If only our anatomy books were as cool as the ones shown here....

Ashes (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2012) 4/5. oks din pala ang lomokino. ahehe  

Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess (Hayao Miyazaki, 2010) 5/5

Keyhole (Guy Maddin, 2011) 5/5

Tatsumi (Eric Khoo, 2011) 5/5

Footnote (Joseph Cedar, 2011) 4/5


Siglo ng Pagluluwal (Lav Diaz, 2011) (rewatch) 5/5.

The Other Half (Liang Ying, 2006) 5/5. some kind of magic. di ko pa rin maabot kung papaano ang simpleng love story ay naging ganon sa end, though meron namang hints all through out the middle, pero, still, genius.

Ritual (Hideaki Anno, 2000) 5/5. Hideaki Anno's 8 1/2 and centuries of birthing. Though adapted from a novel, halata yung stress dito ni Anno, na dinulot ng Evangelion. Parang ito yung naging therapy niya siguro.


Love Letter (Shunji Iwai, 1995) 5/5 wow. best love story I've seen recently. no tricks, no gimmicks. pure love.

The Day He Arrives (Sangsoo Hong, 2011) 5/5 - nakakamiss din yung landian moments sa Hong film. as always, panalo yung chiks dito. ahaha

Rocco, Ang Batang Bato (J. Erastheo Navoa, 1982) 3/5. nakakatuwa tong mash-up ng Clash of the Titans saka ng Nativity Story, idagdag pa ang tunggalian ng relihiyon at syensya. wasak.

Sora no Otoshimono: Tokei-jikake no Angeloid (Tetsuya Yanagisawa, 2011) (rough translation ng title: Heaven’s Lost Property the Movie: The Angeloid of Clockwork) 3/5. half retelling ng buong series sa POV ng additional character, half original story. di gaano epek sa akin yung madramang ending, parang di Sora series. fun naman din kahit papano.

One Day in September (Kevin MacDonald, 1999) 3/5. hays. K.

Forest of Death (Danny Pang, 2007) 4/5. medyo lame yung umpisa pero gumanda ng gumanda yung idea. lalo nung pa-ending na. 5/5 para kay Rain Li. XD

Altar (Rico Maria Ilarde, 2007) 5/5. it's not hard to love Ilarde's works. you just have to set aside your high hollywood standards and embrace a whole new experience. Sa kabuuan naman, Ilarde's still a genre filmmaker. Pero he takes horror on a different level, filling in different elements of other genre with humanity in it's core. Very rare akong makakita ng horror filmmaker na gumagawa non. His horror are not for shocks. Not for scares. but for a long lasting haunting effect. Still, quite rare. In these days that mainstream horror is either cheap shockers or gore porn, it's so good to see that there's still somebody out there who treats the genre as smart and as human as he can be.