natuhog nga nila.

Piliin, pillin ang naiiba.

Tuhog. The title reminds me of the flicks like Itlog, Talong, etc. You'll be disappointed though since the story revolves around three characters whose lives are intertwined and served before the audience in a barbecue style, not the doggie style. The characters were brought together by a bus accident. The three: Tonio, Fiesta and Caloy have their fates laid when the doctors call the shots: whose lives have to be spared and have to be sacrificed. One has to die, the other two have to live. Although this kind of predicament is common to some movie, Tuhog, however, keeps the audience at gun point as it tackles common Filipino, if not universal , concern. The senile Tonio presents us the problems of a senior citizen deciding to finally follow his passion; Fiesta displays the tragedy of a dark past masked by a seemingly strong character; and Caloy portrays the shallow mire that the recent youth gets entangled into nowadays. Throughout the movie, we have a glimpse of their respective lives dabbed by the joys and sorrows of their own comedies and tragedies. 

Eugene Domingo greatly portrayed her role plus the fact that she had been constantly paired with young and attractive men, it made the audience cry, "Na naman." Well, kayo na lang ang mag-Uge. Kahit nakatali ang buhok niya, I can see it grew few centimeters long nang halikan siya ni Jake. The movie showed Eugene's versatility; may it be drama or comedy, she could really pull the movie through. I couldn't help but laugh at her scenes even how tear-jerking the scene was. Kimmy and Dora's faces tickled the seriousness away from me and I ended up smirking. 

The scene that pinched me most was when Tonio, facing his newly-cleaned bakery, was gifted by his wife with a toque and a manual for baking. His wife had been there for him even the situation defined buffoonery. Truly, love knows no boundary, even if the boundary plays along foolishness. 

The movie successfully impaled what the mainstream cinema fails to showcase. Kung baga nga, natuhog talaga niya.

pacific rimmed.

Pacific Rim opens with a scene of less explanation and ends with less explanation.

Slow-mo....mo...mo...

There's nothing more rewarding than a silly movie highlighted with great sounds, colorful display of effects and plenty, yes plenty, of actions. The movie starts with dutiful actions and takes its end to a final explosion. Your puny minds won't even bother an ounce of effort in thinking about anything since the plot is as flat as the robots are big. Pacific Rim is heavy like the robots and ridiculously entertaining as the monsters are annoying. I was twisting my neck back and forth watching the actions and the robots. Though heavy, it will lift your butts from your seats as you "drift" together with the gargantuan characters; robots, monsters and humans alike. Although the robots are as not agile as the Transformers', it will somewhat leave your mouth agape since you can literally see the jaegers' designs detail by detail not to mention the actions that entail. A lot of actions without a pressure to one's eyes. A total visual feast without the slightest mind exercise. 

What I really enjoy in the movie were the scenes where the geeks tried to outdo each other and laboriously ended  up gathering the glory. At least as I see it. Imagine "drifting" with an outside force like the kaijus; that was amazing and all the while simply geeky. Earth's emancipation came from the geeks although the controls were held by the jaegermeisters. Irony seems to be playing coy with reality here. Geeks beat the ripped bodies. Asia seems to be the seat of the world's emancipation (Maybe due to the fact that monsters rose from the Pacific). And seeing the portal opened a lot of times (the scene when the Gipsy Danger was teleported to the other side) still gives me the creeps. Like being sucked by morbid appendages. What was that? A flower opening or a ghastly tunnel going inside a chicken intestine? *shiver*

The movie rocks. It is a Guillermo del Toro, so to say. Although not as brilliant as his Pan's Labyrinth, who gives a care? It was not intended for a red carpet anyway.

TTFN!

how to surivive a zombie apocalypse, at least.

I and a friend watched World War Z at a nearest cinema oblivious to what the movie was all about. We knew it was all about zombies. I was making a mental note that I was watching a zombie movie and a movie like this requires a zombie mind. Flaccid. Passive. All the facets of boredom.

All the facets of boredom sans Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt stars it, so, might as well gamble some of my time. It was a friend's birthday and she was planning to watch a movie all by herself. Mind you, watching alone is excruciatingly boring and lonely with the fact that you laugh all by yourself, be sad by yourself and worst, cry by yourself without any one to turn to for those gripping scenes. It is a total embodiment of boredom. You are boredom personified. So, I presented myself as an escort. 

After few minutes of trying to convince myself to doze off, the movie started to kick my interest. Like a meal skipping the appetizer and the main entree, I was served with the dessert immediately. Explosions. Commotion. A destroyed side mirror. A distressed (yet still cool) Brad Pitt. A worried mother. And the panic continued. It was like watching a movie mid-part. Suddenly the zombies presented themselves. The zombies here were like scavengers lustful for fresh flesh. Imagine a zombie bred with a ninja and that was how the movie was like. You never knew when the zombie jumped off to chomp a neck or an arm. The infection run like the Flash. And in a span of day, it was a pandemic. Humanity smelled near-extinction. The world gripped for life. The movie depicted a zombie outbreak with brilliance. It was not the usual zombie-eat-brain movie, rather it would let you think. "what if". It ate my brain with a question, "What if today is the Zombie Apocalypse? Will I survive?"

Watching the movie, I realized that if Zombie Apocalypse has to arrive, then you have to be ready at all cost. Physically, mentally and emotionally. Here's my survival tips (based on the movie):

1. Wear your most lightweight shoes. The zombies don't give a crap whatever the brand is, as long as you can sprint head to head with them, or shall we say, foot to foot. Train your lungs, also.

2. Stock, at least, a duct tape. They are indispensable instrument to create zombie-mutilating instruments. I was amazed how Brad Pitt used it to attach an arm-shield to his arm  using a  porn magazine and to make a bayonet. If the world were to end, duct tapes will be your messiah.

3. If zombies were to be maniacally sensitive to sound, then don't bring your phone with you. Or any sound-producing materials. Cue Celine Dion music. Aaaarrgghh.

4. Be mentally ready that you could be the next target of any zombie. Be mentally ready to accept that your loved one could be the next. Be mentally ready to fire that gun just in case he berserks in front of you. Be mentally ready to die, too, just in case you berserk first in front of them.

5. Stay in group. There's less probability that you could be the next host/meal/victim.

6. In an event that a zombie bit you or infected you, cut that body part immediately. Being handicapped is way better than being undead. What if the zombie bites you in the ear or head? Hmmm...God bless your soul. 

7. What if you accidentally meet a zombie? Summon a pea shooter? This is not a game. Run. Let your lungs summon all the air it could get. 

8. Bring supplies that could last until this mayhem ends. Water, food, and ammos. And courage.

Well, we had a blast watching the movie. It was a zombie movie after all, but with a dash of brilliance. No dull moments. TTFN!

PS. Happy Birthday Ms Juna...late post.

hang in there: eiga sai 2012.

What would you do when the misfortunes of life seem to connive with fate to twist your destiny into a distasteful one? Eiga Sai 2012 echoed the answer ,"Hang in there." From the first movie that I watched until the last one, there's a message that was clear in each character, the need to persist, to survive, to "hang in there".As I watched the stories of mountaineers, pilots, doctors, flight attendants, boxers, samurais, ninjas and even criminals, I realized one thing: Life is real. Everyone suffers. And everyone fights to survive. Eiga Sai 2012 reverberated the need to survive amidst the tragedies of life.

Peak: The Rescuers

The Eiga Sai opened with laughter and tears in the Peak: The Rescuers. It showcased the beauty of Japan's cold mountains that highlighted the blue skies. I always see mountains and snow. I said to myself, "Japan, even on ice, is still breathtakingly wonderful."

The story revolved around the characters of Shiina and Shinpo, both mountaineers of different perspectives. Shiina was a neophyte while Shinpo was a mountain compass, an enthusiast. The story circled around Shiina's struggles in the art of mountaineering under the tutelage of her own fear, doubt and courage. Without struggle, she would not discover the will to survive. Shinpo, on the other hand, became her scarf against the coldness of life. He became her redemption.

I love the film. I spent more than two hours trying to subdue the seemingly unappeasable cyclone of emotions inside me. The audience could attest to that. I tried to hold a tear.

Happy Flight

I always admire pilots whenever I see one. I remembered the first time I rode a plane. I spent most of the time listening to my own prayers while the clouds played peek-a-boo with me. But the Captain's voice soothed those worries away. Since then, I was always fascinated by pilots. Was it really that hard to fly and to land a plane safely? Questions. Questions. Questions.

Happy Flight laid the answers on a silver platter. It was never easy. Trying to fly a thing that big and that heavy was not a layman's work. That's why, soon-to-be-Captain Suzuki was both a hero and a survivor in this movie. I was deeply moved by his words, "I want to land a plane wherein the passengers could barely feel that it landed already." Security and comfort. 

The struggle started when a small part of the plane got destroyed and, thus, cascaded into a series of plane exhibitionism, airport drama and unwanted humor. I always like how the Japanese made their movies: there's always humor.A problematic plane is serious. But Japanese humor is more serious. I always pocket out a laugh from time to time.

The movie ended just like its title: Everyone got a happy flight. And so was the audience.

Ninja Kids

Two words for this movie: Eeww and Funny.

Based on a manga, the movie captured the audience through its colorful costumes, handsome casts (the girls' screams were still fresh in my ear canal) and slapstick humor. Stepping on a dog's poo, nose with gooey mucus, weird faces like Madame Auring's and a big head. Just plainly weird.

Rantaro, a ninja kid, was sent to a school to learn the ways of a ninja. Together with his bunch of sleazy, cunning and faithful friends, he managed to overcome obstacles and conquered his own life's tragedies.

My humor is somewhat shallow, so I always find myself laughing at the film.

Colorful

Colorful was the animation of this year's Eiga Sai. It was a film about a soul that was given a chance to live again but in another person's body. He would forfeit this chance unless he found the reason why he was sent back.

He lived in the life of Makoto Kobayashi whose family issues he deeply resented. He discovered the complicated life that was left behind by Makoto.The first half of the film was a shade of gray: dark, gloomy and dragging. I nearly strangled the person next to me. Kidding. Hehe.

The other half of the movie went into shades of pastel as "Makoto" discovered the joy behind meeting friends, or shall we say a friend. His life became colorful when he discovered what he lost due to his indifference to the world. I was a bit curious about the reason behind his suicide. Through the guidance of another soul, he was prompted to realize what was his mistake.

The whole film dragged me for almost two hours to find out what his mistake was. His mistake was that he killed someone. He killed Makoto. The soul that returned to Makoto was his own soul afterall. Complicated? Watch the movie 'coz I don't want to spend the whole day here reiterating the film.

Tomorrow's Joe

I thought the idea of boxing as an escape route to sudden wealth was a Pinoy mindset. I was wrong. Even Japanese had this, or at least in the movie.

The film would bring us to the slums of boxing dreams where Joe was discovered by, perhaps, a former good boxer. All I could say that Joe definitely lived a hard life having violence as his staple food. He loved brawling. His life changed when he met Rikiishi, a pro boxer, in a fight inside the prison. This opened him to his purpose in life and started his "boxing career". Joe won all his match for one sole purpose: to fight Rikiishi someday on a ring. I don't know why they became smitten with each other's punches.

Among the films, I ranked this as my best. Though not a fan of boxing, I liked the whole flow of the story. It's just that I don't get it why they injected the story of the girl's poverty to the plot. Found it not interesting. So what if she came from the slums? Her issues were not resolved, even at the later part.

Villain

Being the featured film of this year's Eiga sai, I expected a lot from this film. I was a bit late so I missed the first few parts. Just like the other films, I noticed the first part before the title was shown could mean a link in the chain. It can make or break the story.

I felt empty and dumbfounded after watching the movie. Though I understood the logic behind the character of Yuichi, I was still stupefied by the depth of the story. I was drowned with my own ignorance. Each character faced their own villains in life. Either they encountered outside forces or they came face to face with their own selves.

Among the films, this belongs to my To-Watch-Again List. Though the film did not disappoint me, my perception and understanding of it puts me in the frontier of frustration. 

Eiga Sai 2012 dismisses the idea of an easy-going life. The basic struggles in life punches their realities through our guts. We either throw a haphazard punch or block it with our own countercross. We either subjugate ourselves to a KO or we emerge a winner, someone who "hangs in there".

I definitely love my Eiga Sai experience this year, though I still miss the company of Elna Furio. I miss seeing her cry and laugh at the same time while watching. I watched 7 films out of 10. Hope to watch it with you next year. Hahaha. 

the boy with the dragon tattoo.

funny :)

It is like sex without being sexual. 

The cinema has put it as R18 owing to the sexually-oriented parts which actually substantiate the story of the movie. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo deals with sex, trauma, and a lot of violence, with a touch of racism. I haven't read the book, though I'm wanting to own the trilogy, but I read some blogs talking about it. There are a lot of books that handle such theme yet the story here was uniquely crafted when Lisbeth Salander, a goth-pierced-here-and-there-with-a-dark-haunting-childhood, was suddenly put into context. Out of curiosity, she hacked deeper into the life of Mikael Blomkvist and was suddenly riding with him in his investigation. As a know-it-all hacker, she managed to uncover more than what Blomkvist managed to unearth, thus, making Blomkvist a symphatetic journalist. But Salander brought him his salvation. Murderer found. Libel case closed. Capitalist dead. Girl with a wig. Done. 

It makes me want to read the book. And to have a dragon tattoo at my back. Fierce as Salander's. I had mine by the way which lasted weeks on my back. I didn't realize that my skin was as sensitive as my ego. The black "home-made" henna was replaced by red swelling. It's like the black ink was stripped off and VOILA! A red dragon!

the boy with the dragon tattoo (black version)

 

If you're curious about the red dragon tattoo, hmmm...Never mind. I'm on the process of healing. Hehehe. Anyhow, I hope I can have a copy of the trilogy. Weee! My birthday's coming.