Submitted by the Philippines: The Missing

Eric is sort of like a Filipino Whitley Streiber, as a fellow creator, who was similarly traumatized by his experience as an alien abductee. Or was he? Maybe he was emotionally wounded by something else. Regardless, the past comes rushing back to him just when things start percolating with a co-worker in Carl Joseph E. Papa’s animated feature The Missing, which the Philippines selected as its official International Film Submission to the upcoming Academy Awards.

Eric has been carrying a torch for Carlo at the animation studio where they both work. They were about to finally have something like a date when his mother calls, asking him to check on his Uncle Rogelio, who has gone silent for an alarming period of time. On their way to a late dinner, they pop in on Rogelio, finding a fly-infested corpse in bed. While Carlo fetches help, Eric is suddenly re-abducted by the alien that previously snatched him away during his chaotic childhood.

Of course, Carlo is rather baffled by Eric’s disappearance. Unfortunately, he will apparently flake out on Carlo several more times, as the alien persistently hunts him, hoping to finish what he started years ago. However, viewers can discern perhaps something less extraterrestrial tormenting the young animator.

Papa’s message is a little heavy-handed, but it actually works better through the various styles of animation than it would in live-action. For instance, the mute Eric is literally depicted without a mouth and during flashbacks, Rogelio’s face is obscured by ominous scribbles. Most of the contemporary scenes are produced in a rotoscoped-style of animation, converted from live-action film cells. However, the flashbacks are rendered in a simplistic, almost South Park-like style. Yet, they certainly have a dark vibe.

Day Zero: Zombies in the Philippines

There are plenty of guns, which is good, but there are also lots of people, which is bad. Prison is a difficult place to be when the zombie apocalypse breaks out—perhaps even trickier than Rick Grimes’ hospital bed in The Walking Dead. At least the warden declares every man for himself—and Emon is a lot of man, but he also has trouble walking away from people in trouble. Of course, everyone is in trouble in Joey De Guzman’s Day Zero, which releases Tuesday on DVD.

Emon was supposed to be paroled, so he could patch things up with his wife Sheryl and daughter Jane, but than he had to save his scrounger buddy Timoy from a shanking. Fatefully, the prison is overrun with zombies shortly thereafter. Emon will fight his way out, to rescue Sheryl and Jane, who do indeed need rescuing, from their zombie-infested apartment building. He gets a little bit of help from Timoy, but mainly he must rely on his training from his stint with U.S. Special Forces.

Seriously, that is the gist of it all. Day Zero is very much a conventional zombie movie. For the first forty minutes or so, it is the standard run, shoot, and bite business. However, it culminates in a massive climactic battle, in which the well-armed Emon starts capping zombies like he is Chris Hemsworth in the Extraction movies. Emon’s last stand even rivals the awesome sharp-shooting display that closed Shinsuke Sato’s I am a Hero. If you have not seen that Japanese zombie movie, then you should absolutely check out Day Zero.

Former professional kickboxer Brandon Vera has immediate action cred and he does a nice job conveying Emon’s desperately protective fatherly instincts. It is easy to see him developing an appeal like that of the Rock and John Cena (it is not like either of them are great thesps, they just perfected their likable screen personas).

Fantasia ’22: Mighty Robo V (short)

Waste, corruption, and mismanagement all hallmarks of every government program known to man. Why would we expect anything different from a mecha-kaiju defense initiative? It turns out the Philippine Giant Monster Defense Institute (PGMDI) is just as dysfunctional as any other state-run enterprise. A documentary camera crew exposes the truth in Miko Livelo & Mihk Vergara’s short film, Mighty Robo V, which screened during the 2022 Fantasia Film Festival.

The cameramen will actually be following the crew of Mighty Robo V 2, because their predecessors just got killed by a kaiju. Unfortunately, Dr. Rody Rodriguez has been using the PGMDI’s budget to cover his online cock-fighting gambling losses, so he has solicited sponsors for each of the giant mecha-robot’s weapon systems. To rebuild public support, he has recruited a team of online influencers to be the new crew. Frankly, his corruption has driven his competent deputy, Laser Panganiban to drink—heavily.

Mighty Robo is a razor-sharp satire that persuasively applies James Buchanan’s Public Choice Theory to Ultraman-style bureaucrats. This film has bite, especially the unhinged diatribes of the country’s president, whose growling tone very much resembles that of Duterte (who was still in office at the time of the film’s production). Regardless, it makes one thing clear. Government employees will always put their own interests first, even when giant monsters are rising out of the Pacific Rim. By the way, the PGMDI can’t call them “kaiju” anymore, because that term is deemed an offensive slur.

Sundance ’22: Leonor Will Never Die

In the 1970s, Roger Corman started shooting films in the Philippines, because they already had an established exploitation movie industry that worked fast, cheap, and without excessively cumbersome safety regulations. Back in the day, Leonor Reyes wrote the scripts. She has been retired for years, but serious trashy movie fans still remember her. Of course, that won’t pay the bills, so she tries to pull out her typewriter again. Unfortunately, a freak accident submerges her in the world of her prospective script in Martika Ramirez Escobar’s Leonor Will Never Die, which premiered at this year’s Sundance.

Sadly, Reyes’ golden-boy son Ronwaldo died, but he still quietly haunts (or watches over) the family, while she is stuck living with the other one, Rudie. She and her husband Valentin split-up, but he remains a constant presence in the neighborhood. With their power on the verge of disconnection, Leonor dusts off an old unfinished screenplay, but she still struggles to finish it. Then she gets bonked on the noggin, in a suitably unlikely manner, and proceeds down the rabbit hole into her screenplay.

Suddenly, she befriends and mothers Ronwaldo, the vengeful hero of her film, transparently (but not identically) based on her late namesake son, as well as Majestika, his new stripper girlfriend, whom he saved from the corrupt mayor. Meanwhile, Rudie desperately tries to talk her out of her coma, as the other Ronwaldo looks on and occasionally offers some advice.

Leonor might sound like the Filipino exploitation equivalent of light and frothy fantasies like Ana Maria in Novela Land and Delirious with John Candy, but it is considerably darker and more meta. The cool thing about Escobar’s film is that it is true to sweaty, testosterone-driven genre it portrays. That means Reyes very definitely finds herself surrounded by violence and sleaze, which might limit the film’s appeal.

However, Escobar consistently finds ways to surprise the viewer in the third act, breaking down barriers between realities and self-referring like all get-out. There is also some brilliant work from cinematographer Carlos Mauricio and production designer Eero Francisco recreating the look, texture, and ambiance of vintage 1970s Filipino grindhouse.

Fantasia ’21: Hayop Ka!

According to Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, dogs and cats living together were a sign of the apocalypse. Nevertheless, that is the plan for feline Nimfa Dimaano. The only question is whether she will choose her burly working-class lover (he’s a real mutt) or a rich greyhound in Avid Liongoren’s animated feature, Hayop Ka! The Nimfa Dimaano Story, which screens as an on-demand selection of the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival.

These might be talking animals, but they definitely aren’t for kids. Liongoren’s send-up of Filipino telenovelas is quite sexually frank in its language (but the action on screen is mostly PG-13—mostly). True to its genre, Hayop Ka (meaning: “you animal!,” a frequent telenovela exclamation) involves class-straddling romantic relationships. Dimaano starts the film in a shacked-up with dirt-poor but ultra-macho Roger, whom her best friendemy not so secretly carries a torch for, but she is tiring of his crude manners and lack of ambition.

When playboy-industrialist Inigo Villanueva drops by the perfume counter where she works, it is sort of like Pretty Woman, but without the prostitution. Granted, Villanueva is a bit arrogant, but he is trying to break a union for the good of the economy, so he obviously isn’t all bad. Nevertheless, Dimaano is reluctant to fully jump into a relationship with him, because of her deep-rooted class consciousness.

Quezon’s Game: Righteous in the Philippines

Probably only former First Lady and Chair of the Philippine Red Cross Aurora Quezon is more revered in Filipino history than her husband, President Manuel Quezon, the man responsible for negotiating his nation’s independence. Her countrymen were horrified when she was assassinated by the Communist Hukbalahap terrorists (quick, let’s elect a president who shares their ideology)—and with good reason. She reportedly endured her husband infidelities in order to encourage his humane policies, including an unlikely scheme to provide transit and sanctuary for European Jewry fleeing National Socialist death camps. The President’s righteous campaign gets the big-screen treatment in director-cinematographer Matthew Rosen’s Quezon’s Game, which opens this Friday in New York.

In the late 1930s, Pres. Quezon was riding high in polls. Although he had already accepted a party of refugees from Shanghai, his greatest concern is lowering American tariffs. Ominously, an SS officer has been assigned to the German embassy, but Quezon and the Philippines remain squarely aligned with the U.S. In fact, his informal kitchen cabinet includes U.S. High Commissioner Paul McNutt and the American military attaché, an Army Colonel on the fast-track, by the name of Dwight David Eisenhower. Nevertheless, as word reaches the Philippines of the National Socialist oppression and murder of the Jews, Quezon is stirred to action (an impulse supported by the First Lady).

Inconveniently, since the Philippines was not yet independent, its immigration policies were still controlled by Washington DC, where Roosevelt was to wary of riling up the opposition of segregationist Congressmen and the State Department was rife with anti-Semites (probably the ambassador to the UK was the most notorious). Of course, getting exit visas and transit permits from Germany was no small order either. However, they had no trouble getting names of potential emigres, thanks to the small but organized local Jewish community.

Quezon’s Game suffers from many of the problems that commonly afflict high-minded historicals, starting with the portrayal of its protagonist, which is more akin to a Quezon passion play than a flesh-and-blood drama. However, it also has many of the hoped-for merits.

Both Raymond Bagatsing and Rachel Alejandro act like they are perched on pedestals as the Quezons (and understandably enough). On the other hand, David Bianco is terrific as Ike (shockingly so). He looks the part and has the proper military bearing. James Paoleli also convincingly humanizes McNutt (and Americans).

Fantasia ’19: Mystery of the Night

Think of it as A Midsummer Night’s Dream set in Spanish colonial Philippines, but the forest spirits are very, very angry. Karma is a you-know-what for a privileged aristocratic family and a wronged feral woman will be the instrument of their destruction in Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr’s Mystery of the Night, which had its world premiere at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Without question, the most striking scenes in Mystery are the opening and closing shadow silhouette sequences that share a similar aesthetic vibe with the Lion King Broadway production, except they are considerably darker—of course.

Not surprisingly, it is all the fault of a hypocritical Spanish priest, who finds it rather inconvenient when a woman he impregnated starts heckling him in front of his church before masses. Believing she is insane, the wealthy mayor Anselmo agrees to abandon her deep in the forest during his next hunting expedition. He keeps his promise, but he returns home a cursed man—literally.

Years later, his son Domingo continues the family tradition of journeying into the forest most of the other Spaniards fear to enter. This time, he encounters the woman’s feral daughter, who was raised by the mythical spirits and wild animals of the woods. Her pheromones exert such a powerful influence over him, he forgets himself with her. He also forgets his wife, making promises to her he definitely shouldn’t. When his betrayal becomes clear, the forest orphan’s rage will manifest itself in supernatural ways.

Mystery is either hypnotic or sluggishly paced, depending on how indulgent you are. Visually it is quite striking and the forest setting is so evocative you can practically smell the underbrush. However, the film practically trips over its heavy-handed anti-colonialist message. Borinaga Alix and screenwriters Rody Vera and Maynard Manansala (who adapted Vera’s stage play) completely throw subtlety out the window.

Still, there are some cool effects and make-up, particularly the spirit with eyes (that open and close) all over his arms and shoulders. There are also some really grotesque bits that will impress gore fans. Above all, Solenn Heussaff really deserves credit for going all in as the feral woman. It is truly a wildly animalistic and highly sexualized performance. Frankly, the sum of the film’s parts is probably greater than its whole.

Arguably, Mystery is too artsy for its own good. A faster tempo and a little less sermonizing would bring its message to more viewers. Only recommended for high-end cineastes, Mystery of the Night had its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

NYAFF ’19: Ma

Catholic countries idolize motherhood better than anyone. They are also just as perversely aware of its dark, sinister manifestations. The poverty is spirit-crushing, but it is nothing compared to the malevolent spirit inhabiting the woods in Kenneth Lim Dagatan’s Ma, which screens during the 2019 New York Asian Film Festival.

This is the other Ma that makes Octavia Spencer’s psycho killer look relatively benign. As the film opens, Samuel and his younger brother and sister are alarmed by their mother Lina’s blood-spitting ill-health. When she dies, he makes a Faustian bargain with an evil thing found in an uber-archetypal tree in a suspiciously ominous cave to bring her back, but the initial results are not what he had in mind. The entity soon has him escalating from the family cat.

Meanwhile, the mega-pregger Cecile has returned to her childhood village to give birth following the death of her husband (an implied suicide). Back in the day, she was inseparable from her chums Lina and her host, the devout Gelyn. However, something rather nightmarish happened to them in a nearby cave, somewhat estranging the trio for years. Of course, anyone who has seen their horror movies knows there is no better pagan sacrifice than a pregnant woman.

In fact, Ma could well be a perfectly representative Filipino horror movie, combining grim sequences of desperate naturalism with utter gross-out provocations. Ma could possibly have the longest vomiting scene since Team America: World Police, but it is played direly straight. Dagatan and co-screenwriter Dodo Dayao also wear their Catholic sensibilities on their sleeve. What transpires is particularly disturbing, because we know and the characters understand these are acts of evil knowingly committed by the formerly innocent.

Young Kyle Espiritu is pretty darned chilling as Samuel. His performance is essentially a portrait of damnation. Likewise, it is nearly as disturbing to watch the even younger Alessandra Malonzo and Enzo Osorio take similar descents into madness and murder, as his junior siblings. Frankly, the adults have a hard time comparing to the youngsters’ homicidal horror chops.

Ma is a well-made film, but it is definitely a downer that never offers up any genre catharsis. Cinematographer Cesce Lee gives it a rich, golden aura, evoking a vibe of ancient, folkloric evil. However, it does not build to a crescendo comparable to Joko Anwar’s remake of Satan’s Slaves, a film that connoisseurs of Asian horror might find themselves remembering during Ma. Recommended for Filipino horror fans, Ma screens tomorrow (7/7), as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Smaller and Smaller Circles: Jesuits Investigate

Father Augusto Saenz has the crime fighting talent of Father Brown and the social conscience of Father Greeley, but alas, neither is particularly good for his career as a Jesuit. Fortunately, he works for a higher power. Saenz and his colleague, Father Jerome Lucero, are more than willing to consult with the police, but they are not so good at navigating the politics that go with civil service in Raya Martin’s Smaller and Smaller Circles, which opens today in Los Angeles.

Father Saenz is one of the few priests who has his own crime lab, but his righteous compulsion to speak out against predatory priests will jeopardize its continued funding. Frankly, it was Saenz who deduced there was a serial killer loose in the first place, so it makes sense for him to join the investigation. However, the corrupt prosecutor is not thrilled having him on board.

It is clear an unknown perp has been murdering young boys from Payatas, one of Metro Manila’s most distressed neighborhoods, at odd intervals. The strange timing of the killings might hold an important clue. Unfortunately, Father Saenz is the only one smart enough to figure it out, but he will be pulled of the case due to politics.

We had a genuinely hostile reaction to Martin's disturbingly cruel How to Disappear Completely, but fortunately he redeems himself with the much more accessible and humanistic Circles. Its general plotline is not wildly original, but it still functions quite effectively as a procedural. However, the real strength of the film is its characterization. Father Saenz in particular is quite a compelling figure, especially with respects to his mentoring relationships with Father Lucero and a foreign journalist. The two priests also relate to their Catholic faith and the Church's policies in ways that are critical and complicated, without indulging in cheap shots or sock-puppetry.

Veteran actor Nonie Buencamino is terrific as Saenz. He is intensely driven and a bit like Cumberbatch’s Sherlock in terms of his awkward social graces, but Buencamino also fully conveys his forgiveness and charity. Sid Lucero nicely plays against type as the studious (and celibate) Father Lucero, while Raffy Tejada is flamboyantly slimy as Atty. Arcinas.

Martin maintains a tight, tense noir vibe, heightened by J.A. Tadena’s eerie cinematography. His pacing is deliberate, but never slack or sluggish. All in all, it is a distinctively brooding thriller. Recommended for fans of dark and morally complex serial killer films, Smaller and Smaller Circles (admittedly not a great title) opens today (3/1) in Los Angeles, at the Laemmle Glendale.

Goyo: The Boy General

Before they were hoping for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return, the Philippines tried to throw out his father, Gen. Arthur MacArthur, along with the rest of the American military. That was the job of Gen. Gregorio “Goyo” del Pilar and his fellow officers, but they were not up to the task. However, they were able to (allegedly) dispatch one of their own, General Antonio Luna. That makes Del Pilar a rather unlikely protagonist for the follow-up to Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna, but he cut a dashing figure. Arguably, his flaws were costly to his own cause, but his youth adds an element of romantic tragedy to Tarog’s Goyo: The Boy General (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Del Pilar was twenty-four at the time of his final battle. Apparently, the revolutionary president Emilio Aguinaldo had a habit of appointing young generals—and del Pilar was one of the youngest. He was certainly well received at social functions, but he lacked the training and seasoning to be an effective field commander, at least judging by the results. Being complicit to some degree in the conspiracy against Luna did not help endear del Pilar to the late general’s men either. However, he made steady progress wooing Remedios Nable Jose.

That is basically the cynical portrait Tarog paints, perhaps stung by criticism that Heneral Luna helped pave the way for Duterte’s election by venerating a strong, willful leader. This time around, we get del Pilar the womanizer, whose poor judgement leads to military disaster. It is only during the Tirad Pass engagement that del Pilar is finally redeemed, even though the loose series of battles still ended with an American victory. Throughout both films, Aguinaldo (perhaps intended as the Duterte surrogate this time around) has been the real villain, but if you think he has been problematic so far, just wait until the Japanese occupation during WWII.

So, yes, the Americans had a better grounding in military tactics and strategy, as well as superior resources and a relatively high level of morale among their troops. Right, aside from all that, the Revolutionary Army had all the advantages. Frankly, Tarog hardly bothers to score any anti-American points this time around. Instead, he eviscerates the factionalism and paranoia Aguinaldo fostered. However, he stages some appropriately chaotic scenes of warfighting during the Tirad Pass sequences.

Frankly, Paulo Avelino does little humanize or otherwise rehabilitate del Pilar and little chemistry develops during the chilly scenes he shares with Gwen Zamora’s Nable Jose. On the other hand, Mon Confiado is perversely compelling, in a Mephistophelean way, as Aguinaldo. Veteran character actor Ronnie Lazaro also helps liven up the proceedings as Lt. Garcia, a Luna loyalist, who rallies del Pilar’s troops at Tirad.

If it were not for the shared cast and director, it would be difficult to believe Goyo and Luna are part of the same duology (projected to be part of a greater series of Filipino historical epics). Still, as a tandem, they definitely illustrate the complicated thorniness of the Philippines’ history with the United States as well as its own difficulties establishing and maintaining republican forms of government. It is fascinating as a cultural document that also happens to have some good battle scenes, but it doesn’t really pull viewers in as an absorbing historical drama. Perhaps interesting to some on that limited basis, Goyo: The Boy General opens this Friday (9/21) in New York, at the AMC Kips Bay.

NYAFF ’18: BuyBust

Feeling conflicted about the War on Drugs? Erik Matti is about to raise even more concerns regarding the way it is prosecuted in the Philippines. It is surely no accident his latest film is one of several recent Filipino releases that calls into question the methods used to enforce justice in the Duterte era, but there is no time for politics in this action showcase. It is a kill-or-be-killed struggle to survive in Matti’s BuyBust (trailer here), which had its world premiere at the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

Nobody is more skeptical of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) top brass than Agent Nina Manigen. She is already the sole survivor of a disastrous operation that wiped out the rest of her previous squad. Even though she is considered a jinx, Bernie Lacson recruits her for his new squad. Unfortunately, their first field op bears a striking similarity to the notorious bust-gone-wrong Manigen barely survived. The idea is to grab the uber-protected drug kingpin Bennie Chen in mid-transaction, using Teban, a reluctantly cooperating narco middle man as bait. The operation needs to be fast and clean, because the entire walled off slum is under the control of the drug lord.

Alas, Lacson’s operation is betrayed by Judas, the same mole in the PDEA responsible for the massacre of Manigen’s first team. Trapped in the slum, Manigen and a handful of colleagues will have to fight pretty much everyone as they search for an escape.

Basically, BuyBust is like The Raid: Redemption, but set in a shanty village instead of a tenement. However, Matti’s film, considered his first straight-up action movie, is far grittier and fiercer. Frankly, the body count here is astronomical and many of the deaths are spectacularly brutal. Arguably, Manigen and her valiant colleague Rico Yatco qualify as heroes, but there is not a lot of heroism in the film. They do some grisly things to survive, but they do not have much choice.

Fans will probably be stunned by Anne Curtis’s steely, hardnosed action-turn as Manigen, but she truly reinvents herself here. It is hard to imagine just about any other glamorous leading lady who could duke it out so convincingly amid all this muck and detritus, including Atomic Blonde’s Charlize Theron (maybe Kim Ok-vin from The Villainess).

Yet, as Yatco, Brandon Vera is right there with her, every step of the way. In fact, they develop some terrific fighting chemistry together (but in a film like this, terms like “relationship” are meaningless). Victor Neri’s Lacson is also a seriously bad cat, while Alex Calleja steals a few scenes as the rather reasonable (and comparatively decent) Teban.

There were some action elements to Matti’s On the Job, but BuyBust is just complete and total mayhem. Yet, we care about Manigen and her colleagues, because Matti invests a full half hour to establish their characters and the dysfunctional system they serve. Still, viewers better be prepared for the relentless havoc he lets loose. As an action beatdown, it totally calls and raises We Will Not Die Tonight. Highly recommended for hardcore action fans, BuyBust premiered at this year’s NYAFF, before screening this Wednesday (7/18) at Fantasia, and opening theatrically in the U.S. on August 10^th.

NYAFF ’18: Respeto

At maybe fifteen years-old, aspiring rapper Hendrix is just a kid, but he is already displaying rapper like tendencies. He has no problem with stealing from just about anyone, even though he always seems to get caught. It is a hostile environment to grow up in, especially for a semi-orphan-like Hendrix, but an elderly bookstore will help broaden his perspective in Alberto “Treb” Monteras’s Respeto (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

Hendrix and his pals, the tomboyish Betchai and the Porthos-like Payaso set out to burgle Doc’s store, but they wound up trashing the place instead. In lieu of charges, the three punky kids agree to fix up his store with their own sweat equity. At first, the old man is aloof, but he slowly starts to take a protective interest in the kids, particularly Hendrix.

It turns out Doc was once a well-known poet and critic of the Marcos regime, but he has not written any new verse in years. In fact, he is increasingly alarmed by the parallels between Duterte now and Marcos then, but when he finally speaks out, it will be to give the duplicitous Hendrix a taste of his own medicine at a battle rap showcase (it is tough to watch, but it is far and away the film’s best scene).

Respeto is undeniably gritty, but every heavy-handed punch is telegraphed way in advance. This isn’t so much of a narrative as it is a laundry list of urban pathologies. We have seen this all before and we have seen it better in films like Neomanila and Hamog. Kids are nihilistic, because they are responding to their grim, predatory environment. We so get that, but then what?

Abra might be a popular rapper in the Philippines, but he just doesn’t have the screen presence necessary to carry the film as Hendrix. Instead, it is the old cat, Dido De La Paz, who takes ownership of Respeto as the memory-haunted Doc—and thank goodness he does, or the film would have really been flat.

Clearly, Monteras hoped the film’s immersion into Manila’s hip hop scene would mask its predictable plot and didactic excesses. It works up to a point, but it s tough to shake the feeling that we have been here before, because we have. Simply not distinctive enough to recommend, Respeto screens Saturday evening (7/14) at the SVA Theatre, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF ’18: Neomanila

The “squad” part of death squad would imply a sizable number of goons, but the demand for extrajudicial killings (EJK) in the Philippines is so high, it has spawned a cottage industry of small, self-starting assassination teams. In fact, business is so brisk for Irma and her partner, they take on a pseudo-apprentice in Mikhail Red’s Neomanila (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

Toto was trying to raise bail for his brother Kiko, but rival gang-members and their crooked cop allies got to him first. Alone in the world, he is taken in by Irma, who runs a two-man hit squad out of her rat-infested exterminator store (yes, ironies abound). Her partner is Raul, who is also a somewhat ambiguous lover, but there is no question the mysterious “Sarge” is the boss.

In between hits, Irma and Toto quickly develop a surrogate mother and son relationship. The young street kid is also eager to contribute to the business, which Raul tolerates and maybe even respects. Nevertheless, life remains perilous in Metro Manila, especially for those operating on the extreme margins.

Probably the cleverest and most inventive film addressing the EJK phenomenon remains Dean Colin Marcial’s super-charged short film Manila Death Squad, but Neomanila definitely makes an impression—and its point. It is a lot like the pre-Duterte death squad film Clash, but with greater thriller elements. One thing is for sure, it makes the city look absolutely terrifying.

Soap Opera star Eula Valdez is terrific as Irma. She makes her ruthlessly Darwinistic behavior absolutely believable, even when we are totally shocked by her actions. Likewise, the already quite accomplished Timothy Castillo looks and acts like a real-life street tough as the shockingly young, but ever so jaded Toto. Frankly, nobody looks like they are acting in Neomanila, which is quite impressive (and more than a bit disturbing), especially since there are a number of well-established thesps in supporting roles.

No doubt about it, this is dark and bracing cinema. It is also impressive filmmaking, which is never depressing to watch. Highly recommended, Neomanila screens Thursday evening (7/5) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

NYAFF ’18: We Will Not Die Tonight

Action cinema doesn’t get much grittier or zeitgeisty than this. At one point, the leader of an organ trafficking ring suggests the current government in Manila would be fine with them preying on poor slum-dwellers—and it is hard to argue with him. However, Kray is pretty darned appalled. The under-appreciated stunt performer and her punky friends will fight for their lives and the life of an innocent in Richard Somes’ street-to-the-max We Will Not Die Tonight (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

Even though she is usually taken advantage of on-set, Kray still makes more money performing stunt work than catering. She needs it for her ailing father, who was also a stuntman during the run-and-gun Roger Corman glory years (but it took a toll on his body). That is why she and the rest of her former juvenile delinquent gang are willing to come together for a reunion gig arranged by their flaky leader Ramil.

Of course, everyone is slack-jawed shocked to learn Ramil’s old neighborhood pal Bangkil wants them to kidnap kids off the street, so their organs can be harvested. Even slimy Ramil wants no part of that, but Bangkil doesn’t take no for an answer. So, Kray and her mates grab little Isabel, a missing girl currently in the news and hide in an abandoned industrial building, where a spectacularly bloody game of cat-and-mouse will play out.

Holy cats, Somes really isn’t dorking around here. You will probably feel like getting a tetanus shot after watching it. Frankly, Atomic Blonde looks downright genteel in comparison, like afternoon tea and crumpets.

If you want yourself a feminist action figure than Kray will knock your socks off. Previously known for squeaky clean rom-coms, Erich Gonzales completely explodes her old image with her remarkably intense and unrelentingly physical performance as Kray. Yet, she is not a super-woman. In fact, she shows tremendous sensitivity and vulnerability. Max Eigenmann drastically plays against type in a similar fashion as the every-punk-for-themselves Cheche.

Alex Medina aptly portrays Ramil as too slick for his own good, but he is also totally convincing as the walking wounded getting the heck sliced out of himself. Thou Reyes and Nico Dans nicely round out the gang as the strongly delineated Jonesky and Rene Boy. In contrast, most of the organ trafficking villains could have had their sinister idiosyncrasies emphasized and exaggerated more.

Regardless, the pedal-to-the-metal action and overpowering vision of urban anarchy will completely hypnotize most viewers. Think of We Will Not Die as the Filipino analog to Judgement Night, if the early 1990s thriller had more martial arts and less copping out. Even though it was only shot in eight days, We Will Not Die represents some truly virtuoso indie filmmaking on Somes’ part. Twenty years ago, it would have sparked a bidding war among indie distributors, but it is doubtful the surviving players can handle a film with this kind of naturalistic honesty and pure genre menace. Highly recommended for grown-up action fans, We Will Not Die Tonight screens Friday night (6/29) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

ND/NF ’18: Nervous Translation

Let’s look back to the hazy mid-1980s in the Philippines. It maybe makes some of us nostalgic, either for the idealism of the People Power Revolution or the stable business climate his administration provided. Either or both seem preferable to the current Duterte chaos, but such matters are far beyond 8-year-old Yael’s scope. Her world is largely confined to her home, her school, and a few random images gleaned from television. Nevertheless, the young latch-key kid will try to make sense of her life as best she can in Shireen Seno’s Nervous Translation (trailer here), which screens during this year’s New Directors/New Films.

Little girls need their fathers, but Yael’s dad has been working in Saudi for several years straight. For some reason, it seems like only his twin brother Tino ever visits home, leaving Yael yearning for her fatherly love and her mother Val craving the attentions of a husband. As a result, the relationship between mother and daughter has grown strained. Frankly, it looks like it is all Val’s fault, but we are only seeing the story from Yael’s vantage point. Generally, that gives the film a very “child-like” perspective, but there are also brief interludes, based on some of the more outlandish images Yael sees on TV, which approximate surreal daydreams.

Jana Agoncillo is extraordinarily expressive, but also remarkably disciplined as Yael. It is a scrupulously natural and restrained performance, but it also hits the viewer directly on an emotional level. Yet, in a way, it often feels like Seno is cheating. Agoncillo and the circumstances surrounding her character are so compelling, it is almost impossible to resist investing in her. Yet, it is highly debatable just how much value Seno adds.

Obviously for the sake of irony, Val works in shoe-cobbling sweatshop, but Milo Suegeco already mined the Imelda-shoe vein quite fully in Mariquina. Angge Santos portrays Val quite forgivingly, making her distance and impatience feel acutely human, but it is still hard to fathom how easily she abrogates her parental duties.

Agonocillo’s innocence is truly heartbreaking, but the film never invites us inside or kicks it up to the next level. Instead, we just contemplate how hard Yael has had it, as the film unfolds in a slow yet uneven manner. Still, the delicacy of Seno’s directorial hand and the evocative work of her battery of cinematographers is certainly impressive. We just wish there was more to love. Inspiring highly mixed reactions (so you might just save yourself the heartache), Nervous Translation screens tomorrow (4/7) at MoMA and Sunday (4/8) at the Walter Reade, as part of ND/NF 2018.

Slamdance ’18: Manila Death Squad (short)

Rodrigo Duterte, the karaoke crooner, might not approve of the Flying Ipis’s punk rock “My Way” (although he should, because it is pretty awesome), but a lot of what goes on in this sleazy after-hours joint he would be perfectly fine with—allegedly. A Filipino-American journalist hopes to get the scope on vigilante killings from the horse’s mouth, but she might end up part of her own story in Dean Colin Marcial’s short film, Manila Death Squad (trailer here), which screens as part of the Anarchy shorts block at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.

The last person the death squad wants to talk to is a journalist, but she invites herself to join their party anyway. She knows who they are and she wants an exclusive from them. Their hardnosed leader tries to use drinking games to dissuade her, but she can think on her feet and hold her liquor. Ultimately, she wants an interview with their boss—and wouldn’t you like to know who that is. Maybe we will find out if MDS gets expanded into a feature.

There seems to be able room in this ripped-from-the-headlines world for a full feature treatment, but you have to wonder if Marcial can keep up the dizzyingly nervy breakneck energy for such an extended period. Even the subtitles in MDS are hip and stylishly noir, but the threat of violence is palpable and ever-present.

Somehow, Marcial also recruited a cast worthy of mainstream studio features, reuniting Annicka Dolonius and Sid Lucero from The Apocalypse Child, as the reporter and the death squad leader. Dolonius is totally on the money, playing the journalist tough, smart, and vulnerable. However, Lucero’s sinister fierceness is a bit of a pleasantly frightening surprise. They are both terrific playing off each other, plus the Flying Ipis totally rock the house.

Marcial also helmed the spooky Midnight Service webisode docs, so he clearly has a talent for making potent shorts. Manila Death Squad packs a mean punch, but its characters and circumstances would easily sustain a more extended film. Regardless, it represents some wildly impressive filmmaking. Very highly recommended, Manila Death Squad screens again tomorrow (1/22), as part of the Anarchy shorts package at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival.

TIFF ’17: Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month (short)

Life in Metro Manila is social Darwinism at its worst. For Ms. Dela Cruz, her sudden unemployment is the least of it. Small eruptions of violence threaten to flare up around her on her last night pumping gas at a foreclosed service station. By the way, this is a comedy. Needless to say, the humor comes in fifty shades of pitch black in Carlo Francisco Manatad’s short film, Jodilerks Dela Cruz, Employee of the Month (trailer here), which screens during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

That would be her face we see dominating the Employee of the Month chart. That was then. Tonight, Dela Cruz is trying to sell RC bottles filled with gas, while her co-worker scratches off all the lottery tickets. Unlike her, he probably never really cared, but she will try to make up for lost time in one night. Unfortunately, some of their Clerky antics will not be taken in the spirit of Kevin Smith.

In terms of tone, we are talking really gosh-darn dark here, but it also funny, in a ruthless kind of way. Yet, we have to say, Manatad manages to capture that wistful end-of-an-era, last-day-of-school vibe. As a result, we can identify with Dela Cruz and her slacker shift-mate on an acutely personal level, even though we have (hopefully) never had a final day on the job like this.

Angeli Bayani (a well-established thesp, known for prestige pictures like Ilo Ilo) is a marvel of understatement as the quietly simmering Dela Cruz. Her bracing work is a perfect example why there should be more awards for acting in short films. Ross Pesigan also plays off her well as the more outspoken Randal to her Dante (another Clerks reference).

Although Employee is not explicitly political, it certainly serves as a withering indictment of Philippine social malaise in general. Regardless, it looks great. Manatad keeps it gritty and grounded, but he and cinematographer Teck Siang Lim still drench it in noir style. Very highly recommended, Jodilerks Dela Cruz screens again at TIFF this Saturday (9/16), as part of Short Cuts Programme 06.

New Filipino Cinema ’17: Hamog (Haze)

Whatever you do, do not stereotype these homeless children, the so-called “batang hamog” or “children of haze,” living by their wits on the streets of Manila. For instance, Rashid cannot say he has no family to live with. He has too much family, thanks to his uber-traditional Muslim father, who keeps marrying “stepmothers” that clearly do not like having him around. Instead, he builds a surrogate support system with three other homeless youths, but an ill-fated robbery will break them apart in Ralston Jover’s Hamog (Haze) (trailer here), which screens during the annual New Filipino Cinema series at the Yerba Buena Arts Center.

Fifteen-year-old Jinky was cast out of her home by a drug-addled, mentally unbalanced mother, finding acceptance in the arms of the inhalant-huffing Tisoy. Eight-year-old Moy is the group’s mascot and the resourceful Rashid is the glue who holds them together. Their plans for this day are not so different from any other, but they pick the wrong cabbie to try to rob. Rashid and Tisoy make off with his cash, but the tightly-wound Danny catches Jinky and poor Moy is fatally struck by a delivery van during their escape.

At this point, the narrative splits in two, as we first watch the loyal Rashid try to raise the necessary funds to give Moy a proper funeral and a permanent resting place rather than the Philippine equivalent of Potter’s field. During his campaign, Rashid makes an unsatisfying homecoming, briefly meeting the new stepmother his father intends to marry during a ceremony he is politely asked not to attend.

Meanwhile, Jinky and Danny must contend with each other. Much to his frustration, the cops want nothing to do with a minor and the children’s services bureaucracy is a Kafkaesque joke. Since Jinky desperately wants to avoid the abusive and unsanitary conditions of the juvenile foster home, Danny brings her home to his tenement apartment to serve as a live-in maid. While this arrangement smacks of forced servitude, Jinky seems to willing accept it, but Danny’s wildly dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend Paula and their third roommate Bernard is probably not sustainable.

Most of Hamog shares a thematic and aesthetic kinship with Brillante Mendoza’s street-level, issue-oriented films, such as Slingshot, written by Jover. However, it takes a weird third act detour into gritty noir terrain worthy of James Cain or Jim Thompson. Yet, Jover presents it so matter-of-factly, it never jars the viewer.

It also helps that the extraordinary young actress Teri Malvar, the Screen International Rising Star Asia Award winner at last year’s NYAFF, is the one selling it. She manages to be simultaneously heartbreaking and chilling as the abused and abandoned Jinky. As the delinquent and the cabbie, she and OJ Mariano (remarkably, the runner up on a Pop Idol-style competition now branching out into acting) develop a strange and evolving relationship that will keep viewers on their toes.

Throughout it all, Jover makes it clear respectable ethical standards do not apply in this world. It is like watching predators in the wild—only the strong survive. It will leave many viewers deeply unsettled (in fact, that is part of what it is going for), but the power of its performances elevates it well above typical slum denizen melodramas. Recommended for admirers of films by the likes of Mendoza and Midi Z, Hamog (Haze) screens tomorrow (8/20) and next Sunday (8/27), as part of New Filipino Cinema 2017 at the YBCA.

New Filipino Cinema ’17: Lily

This shape-shifting witch has become a popular Cebuano urban legend, but it should not surprise anyone to there is a man to blame for all her horrors. He did her wrong, but she would not be ignored. Her story will be told in a fractured, narrative-scrambling manner in Keith Deligero’s Lily (trailer here), which screens during the annual New Filipino Cinema series at the Yerba Buena Arts Center.

While hunting with a dubious friend, Mario Ungo nearly bagged a mythical sigbin, but one false step nearly did him in instead. Fortunately (or so it seems at the time), the titular Lily finds him. Hiding him in her room in a remote convent, where she seems to be a prospective novice, she nurses him back to health. Given all the time they spend together, it is not so surprising when Lily becomes pregnant with his son. Soon, they become a common law family unit, but Ungo is clearly uncomfortable and restless. Eventually, he leaves to find work in Manila, where he repeats the pattern with Jane, a stripper. Resenting his deceit and abandonment, Lily will come looking for him—and she is far more dangerous than he ever realized.

Or something like that. Deligero puts the film through a stylistic blender of jump cuts, flashbacks and flashforwards, lurid subliminal imagery, and poverty porn. To get an idea of the vibe, imagine if Khavn had remade Cat People as a hardcore music video. It definitely shares a kinship with aesthetically severe, experimental horror films, such as Khavn’s work and Dodo Dayao’s Violator, particularly with respects to the graphic visuals found in the former.

TV idol and rom-com movie star Shaina Magdayao certainly deserves credit for taking a chance on such an out-of-left-field departure. She is undeniably intense as the vengeful supernatural being, but she also connects with her tragic core. Rocky Salumbides is thoroughly despicable as Ungo, but in a believable way that helps the film get to where it needs to go. Natlileigh Sitoy also covers a lot of ground as the sultry but vulnerable Jane. Frankly, it is pretty impressive the cast registers at all, given the film’s jittery style and mondo extreme elements.

The regional mythos that inspired Lily is compelling stuff, but Deligero compulsively takes us out of the film by rubbing our noses in his experimental and bodily excesses. A small circle will be knocked out by his boldness, but for most viewers, less would have been more. Indeed, the sum of its more striking moments is greater than its whole. Recommended for those with adventurous tastes, Lily screens this Sunday (8/20) and Friday, September 1^st, as part of New Filipino Cinema 2017 at the YBCA.

New Filipino Cinema ’17: Bliss

Reportedly, film production in the Philippines is much more regulated now than during the glory days of Roger Corman’s jungle prison movies. However, Jane Ciego might have her doubts. She was badly injured on the set of her latest picture—a horror movie about a famous actress abused by her caretakers after she is badly injured on the set of her latest movie. You might have a general idea of the meta-ness afoot, but there are still plenty of twisted turns to Jerrold Tarog’s Bliss (trailer here), which screens during the annual New Filipino Cinema series at the Yerba Buena Arts Center.

Ciego has been a star since she was a child, but this film was supposed to be her breakout as a serious actress. Ditto for Abigail, the character she was playing. She has been successful enough to produce her ambitious art house horror film and continue to be a meal ticket for her ineffectual husband Carlo and her greedy stage mother, Jillian. Again, the same is true for her character, except her husband in the film-within-the-film is maybe slightly less contemptible. Regardless, this is hardly the sort of film you would want to “lose” yourself in, if that is indeed what happened to Ciego, or Abigail.

Things get even more sinister when Tarog gives us reason to suspect Ciego’s openly hostile private nurse Lilibeth is actually Rose, who is wanted by the police for sexually molesting young patients. As Ciego and Abigail’s realities conflict and intrude upon each other, Tarog keeps doubling back and folding the narrative over, to spring darkly clever revelations.

Iza Cazaldo has a Kate Beckinsale vibe working that is absolutely perfect for Ciego/Abigail. She establishes a strong persona as Ciego, which makes it so compelling to then watch her tear it apart at the seams. Evidently, there was a lot of buzz about her topless scene in the film, but it is nothing like what her fans probably assumed. Adrienne Vergara is also creepy as heck as Lilibeth/Rose and Shamaine Buencamino is spectacularly bad news as Mama Jillian. However, Audie Gemora often upstages everyone as her wildly flamboyant director, Lexter Palao.

Serving as his own editor, Tarog rather brilliantly cuts together all the reality problematizing and timeframe shifts. Mackie Galvez’s mysteriously murky cinematography further causes us to lose sight of ostensive in-film reality. It all adds up to a head-trip you can never take for granted. Highly recommended for fans of horror movies and Lynchian cinema, Bliss screens this Saturday (8/19) and next Thursday (8/24) as part of New Filipino Cinema 2017 at the YBCA.