Sagurong, 2011

Sagurong: 100 na Kontemporanyong Rawitdawit sa Manlain-lain na Tataramon Bikol, 2011

Beautiful Monsters

Save for one poignant scene in Richard Somes’s Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang, the rest of the movie leaves a number of unresolved settings, let’s call them clutter, that only puzzle the audience.

This scene involves Erich Gonzales’s Corazon fleeing the townsfolk and Derek Ramsey’s Daniel escaping the personal army of the landlord Matias (Mark Gil) in the post-World War II sakadas, most probably in the vast lands of Negros. (Immediately this mention of probability is only one among the many unresolved elements that cloud the essence of the movie. Aside from the landlord-tenant relationship which was prevalent elsewhere in the post-war Philippines, no other elements in the movie can make us infer it happened particularly there.)

In the village of Magdalena, Daniel, the loving farmer husband of the innocently beautiful Corazon, has just murdered the landlord Matias in his own mansion after the couple’s house was burned down by the goons. And the wounded Corazon, after being shot by Matias when she devoured his daughter Melissa in her bed, has also been found (and found out) by one of Daniel’s friends to be the one responsible for the killings of children in the village.

Both Daniel and Corazon are fleeing the enraged townsfolk who want to kill the village murderer. The scene rips your heart because both characters are rather fleeing their own created monsters. Daniel has murdered the landlord in retaliation for having burned their house; while Corazon has just been found out responsible for having devoured the children in the village. What rips your heart more is that the couple only wanted to have a child but the wife’s devotion to San Gerardo failed them—after Corazon delivered a stillborn. So the reality of a dead baby drove the main character Corazon (the could-have been mother) to curse God and throw her faith away to the dark.

The man-on-the-road element in this work of fiction is rendered well in this climactic scene, with the score swelling as the couple flees their pursuers heightening the drama and resolving it to the conclusion—as in the French term denouement (day-no-man)—when the couple vanish in the dark. So there.

Notes on Camp

In the 1960s, American writer Susan Sontag was brought to the world limelight after she pinpointed that camp is the “love of the unnatural, the artifice and exaggeration.” Well, we have seen camp movies proliferate in the horror flicks of the Filipino directors in the 80s—Shake, Rattle and Roll series and tons of other films in the same vein that entertained the generation of that decade. Through time, we have seen tendencies of Filipino movies to make use of camp, which refers to the effects that the film made to scare the audience by propping monsters and supernaturals so they look hideous or horrible only to make them appear outrageously odd or simply outrageous.

In Corazon, these include madwoman Melinda’s (Tetchie Agbayani) over-disheveled wig which rather exaggerates Diana Ross’s afro look. When I saw this, prizewinning fictionist critic Rosario Cruz-Lucero came to mind. In cases like this, Cruz-Lucero hints at the creative sense that an author needs not “overkill” the essence of what he is portraying by overdoing descriptions and attributes that have already been established.

The movie was trapped in the premise that a madwoman must really appear overly unkempt and dirty with her tattered outfit, teeth and all—or totally taong grasa so audience knows she is mad. And mad. And really mad. But there is just no need for Agbayani’s Melinda to appear this ridiculous so she could portray her Sisa character [she’s looking for her daughter who disappeared during the war]. I suppose Agbayani is fairly a good actress that her delivery of lines or a dramatic monologue alone could make us infer without a doubt she is a Sisa who was driven mad because she lost her child to the war.

Furthermore, we cannot see the relevance of Eric Gonzales’s Corazon putting on a baboy-damo mask to cloud her real intentions that she is the village monster preying on the innocent victims. What is Corazon’s reason for doing that? In the first place, where did she get the mask? Even the metallic effect of the face of the mask strikes us like it was stolen from the set of Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld which is too European to be accepted into the Filipino sensibility. Or talk of the masks used by  gladiators in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Employing all these is more than camp, but more appropriately a rushed second-year high school drama production.

The movie also badly suffers from the complicated plot which requires more show time for them to be unraveled and resolved. Questions. Is Melinda the lost mother of Matias’s daughter Melissa? Or is Corazon the lost daughter of Melinda? We do not know. But it seemed as if the movie showed we knew they were. While it could have just dwelt on the legend of the aswang, or how the first human-eating human being came to be—initially called halimaw in the film—the movie touched on other sensibilities and opened territories where the other characters dwelt but which it did not pursue or explore at all.

Both Beautiful and Monstrous

At the time the halimaw devours the village children one by one, Corazon contorts her head like the way it is done in the Asian horror flicks that became the norm made popular by the Japanese original Ring in early 2000s. Sadly, the movie reeks of this hackneyed style which looked fresh only the first time it’s done in those days.

While the supporting characters of Mon Confiado’s and Epy Quizon’s are comfortable, Maria Isabel Lopez’s Aling Herminia is a revelation. Her portrayal of the relihiyosa in the less-than-two-minuter scene as the partera (quack midwife) is eerie and astonishingly original. The rest is unmemorable.

In some instances, also, both of the main characters deliver their intense scenes well. For one, Erich Gonzales’s childbirth is more convincing than other women who fake their ires and arrays in most films; while Ramsay’s macho tendencies and naturalness are without question.

The mestiza face of Erich Gonzales may be deemed realistic because she was said to be the love child of her mother and an American soldier during the war. But the placing of Derek Ramsay as the farmer Daniel, whose roots we barely know, is farcical. If at all, the movie does not make clear the background of Daniel. He is too sculpted to be just a humble farmer in the barrio—he hunts boars after he works out in the Fil-Am-Jap bodybuilding gym. Funny. Mon Confiado would be the more believable Daniel. Their metropolitan or cosmopolitan twang, could have been reworked to render their rustic characters more realistic. Talk of George VI doing the entire movie reworking his tongue in The King’s Speech. The lead actors are too beautiful to be monstrous because they look too polished for these rustic roles. Ultimately they appear ridiculous. Sadly camp.

“Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang”

Erich Gonzales, Derek Ramsay, Mark Gil, Epi Quizon, Maria Isabel Lopez, Tetchie Agbayani

Directed by Richard Somes

Skylight Films, 2012

Resisténsya

Aba ánang sirám kan buhay kan mga táwong igwá kaini. An resisténsya kan sarong táwo susog sa saiyang salud, sa mga bágay na namána niya sa pamilya, sa kultura, sa klima, sa saiyang kinakakán; segun man sa mga pangyayári sa saiyang palibot, sa saiyang komunidád o ibán pa. An sinasábi tang resisténsya dai nakatiwangwáng sana. Bakong gamá-gamá. Kun igwa kita nin resisténsya, dai ta saná mapapangyári an mga bágay, madadaog ta pa an minakontra sato. Kun an gamá-gamá ngaya iyo an tubig, an resisténsya iyo an kinompresor na tubig. Kaipuhan tang manu’dan kun pa’no gamiton an ináapod na resisténsya, o an báskog nga kusog. An mga nagpaparádaralágan nin hararáyo dai man tulos minakurutipas pagtanog pa saná kan silbáto. Mayong kitang dakul na magiginibo kun dai maluwáyluway, dai matyaga. Kun igwá man kita nin kusog alágad pabiribigla man lang, siring yan sa kikilát na biglang matáma sa dagá, nakakakilaghán, nakakadiskwido, alágad waáy pulós. An ginasiling na  resisténsya iyo an kuryenteng hababa saná an boltáhe, alágad haloy na panahon matao nin enerhiya, mahátag sang kusog, sige sanáng láad, dai napapalsok.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

iban, iba

báskog, maurag, pinakamarhay

nga, na

waáy pulós, mayong kamanungdanan

ginasiling, sinasabing

mahatag, matao

sang, nin

Susog sa “Energy” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 75.

My Brother’s Keeper

Pirang banggi ko nang napapangiturugan

si Manoy. Kadto, ginaupod niya pa ko

sa lawod, nagpapangke kami magpoon

alas tres nin hapon asta nang magdiklom.

Sa ponongan, nagdadakop kaming kasili,

mga halas sa tubig, ta ngani daang

dai maubos an lukon na maaani. Pagkaretira

ko sarong hapon, dai ko na siya naabtan

sa harong. Hambal ni Iloy, nagpakadto kuno

siya sa sarong misyon. Dai man lamang sako

nagpasabong na mapanaw siya gilayon.

Hambal ni Amay, dai na dapat siya halaton

kay indi na siya mabwelta sa amon. An tugon

sa ginikanan, hulaton kuno an panahon

na kaming tanan nga pamilya paapodon

kan masunod na pamayo kan nasyon.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

ginaupod, iniiba

ponongan, fish pond

lukon, sugpo, o darakulang pasayan

hambal, sabi

Iloy, Nanay

nagpakadto, nagduman

kuno, daa

mapanaw, mahali

Amay, Tatay

kay, ta

indi, dai

sa amon, samuya

ginikanan, magurang

hulaton, halaton

tanan, gabos

Pagtaóng-gálang

Sang naglígad, amo ini an satuyang panukol o palatandaan kan sarong tawong maáyo an pagpadakula. Dai naghaloy, nawara na sana sato an pagtaóng-gálang. Sa katunayan, kadaklan na beses, naoogma pa kita kun mayo ni, na garo logod ini pakaraot o pakitang-tao sana. Dai.

Igwang tiempo kadtong an pag-“tabi-apo” sa mga lugar na sagrado, an pagtaóng-gálang sa mga banal na tawo, an pagdungog sa yaon halangkaw sa puwesto, sa igwang kaálam, sa gurang, sa maboot, sa mabini, sa matali, sa magayon an ugali, nagparahay bako sana sa nasambit nang ta(ma)wo o grupo, kundi mismo sa tawong nagtaóng-gálang. Sa pagtataóng-gálang, an duwa nagakalípay, napapamarhay.

Saro ning pagbisto sa mga nakakalangkaw, nakakamarhay, hapós kag udok sa boot na ginahatag kan tawong pareho man ninda kagalang-galang, pareho man ninda kamarhay.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

sang naglígad, kan nakaagi, kadto

amo, iyo

maáyo, marhay, magayon

kaálam, kaaraman, kabatiran

tamawo, tawong lipod

nagakalípay, naoogma

hapós, pasil, madali

kag, sagkod

ginahatag, tinatao

Susog sa “Respect” yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 74.

Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang

Rating:	★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Horror

Erich Gonzales, Derek Ramsay, Mark Gil, Epi Quizon, Maria Isabel Lopez, Tetchie Agbayani
Directed by Richard Somes
Skylight Films, 2012

Save for one poignant scene in Richard Somes’s Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang, the rest of the movie leaves a number of unresolved scenes, let’s call them clutter, that rather only puzzle the audience.

This scene involves Erich Gonzales’s Corazon fleeing the townsfolk and Derek Ramsey’s Daniel escaping the personal army of the landlord Matias (Mark Gil) in the post-World War II sakadas, most probably in the vast lands of Negros. (Immediately this mention of probability is only one among the many unresolved elements that cloud the essence of the movie. Aside from the landlord-tenant relationship which was prevalent elsewhere in the post-war Philippines, no other elements in the movie can make us infer it happened particularly there.)

In the village of Magdalena, Daniel, the loving farmer husband of the innocently beautiful Corazon, has just murdered the landlord Matias in his own mansion after the couple’s house was burned down by the goons. And the wounded Corazon, after being shot by Matias when she devoured his daughter Melissa in her bed, has also been found (and found out) by one of Daniel’s friends to be the one responsible for the killings of children in the village.

Both Daniel and Corazon are fleeing the enraged townsfolk who want to kill the village murderer. The scene rips your heart because both characters are rather fleeing their own created monsters. Daniel has murdered the landlord in retaliation for having burned down their house; while Corazon has just been found out responsible for having devoured the children in the village.

What rips your heart more is that the couple only wanted to have a child but the wife’s devotion to San Gerardo failed them—after Corazon delivered a stillborn. So the reality of a dead baby drove the main character Corazon (the could-have been mother) to curse God and throw her faith away to the dark.

The man-on-the-road element in this work of fiction is rendered well in this climactic scene, with the score swelling as the couple flees their pursuers heightening the drama and resolving it to the conclusion—as in the French term denouement (day-no-man)—when the couple vanish in the dark. So there.

In the 1960s, American writer Susan Sontag was brought to the world limelight after she pinpointed that camp is the “love of the unnatural, the artifice and exaggeration.”

Well, we have seen camp movies proliferate in the horror flicks of the Filipino directors in the 80s—Shake, Rattle and Roll series and tons of other films in the same vein that entertained the generation of that decade.

Through time, we have seen tendencies of Filipino movies to make use of camp, which refers to the effects that the film made to scare the audience by propping monsters and supernaturals so they look hideous or horrible only to make them appear outrageously odd or simply outrageous.

In Corazon, these include madwoman Melinda’s (Tetchie Agbayani) over-disheveled wig which rather exaggerates Diana Ross’s afro look. When I saw this, prizewinning fictionist critic Rosario Cruz-Lucero came to mind. In cases like this, Cruz-Lucero hints at the creative sense that an author needs not “overkill” the essence of what he is portraying by overdoing descriptions and attributes that have already been established.

The movie was trapped in the premise that a madwoman must really appear overly unkempt and dirty with her tattered outfit, teeth and all—or totally taong grasa so audience knows she is mad. And mad. And really mad. But there is just no need for Agbayani’s Melinda to appear this ridiculous so she could portray her Sisa character [she’s looking for her daughter who disappeared during the war]. I suppose Agbayani is fairly a good actress that her delivery of lines or a dramatic monologue alone could make us infer without a doubt she is a Sisa who was driven mad because she lost her child to the war.

Furthermore, we cannot see the relevance of Eric Gonzales’s Corazon putting on a baboy-damo mask to cloud her real intentions that she is village monster preying on the innocent victims. What is Corazon’s reason for doing that? In the first place, where did she get the mask? Too implausible. Even the metallic effect of the face of the mask strikes us like it was stolen from the set of Kate Beckinsale’s Underworld which is too European to be accepted into the Filipino sensibility. Employing all these is more than camp, but more appropriately a rushed second-year high school drama production.

The movie also suffers from the complicated plot which requires more show time for them to be unraveled and resolved. Questions. Is Melinda the lost mother of Matias’s daughter Melissa? Or is Corazon the lost daughter of Melinda? We do not know. But it seemed as if the movie showed we knew they were.

While it could have just dwelt on the legend of the aswang, or how the first human-eating human being came to be—initially called halimaw in the film—the movie touched on other sensibilities and opened territories where the other characters dwelt but which it did not pursue or explore at all.

At the time the halimaw devours the village children one by one, Corazon contorts her head like the way it is done in the Asian horror flicks that became the norm made popular by the Japanese original Ring in early 2000s. Sadly, the movie reeks of this hackneyed style which looked fresh only the first time it’s done in those days.

While the supporting characters of Mon Confiado’s and Epy Quizon’s are comfortable, Maria Isabel Lopez’s Aling Herminia is a revelation. Her portrayal of the relihiyosa in the less-than-two-minuter scene as the partera (quack midwife) is eerie and astonishingly original. The rest is unmemorable.

In some instances, also, both of the main characters deliver their intense scenes well. For one, Erich Gonzales’s childbirth is more convincing than other women who fake their
ires and arrays in most films; while Ramsay’s macho tendencies and naturalness are without question.

The mestiza face of Erich Gonzales may be deemed realistic because she was said to be the love child of her mother and an American soldier during the war.

But the placing of Derek Ramsay as the farmer Daniel, whose roots we barely know, is farcical. If at all, the movie does not make clear the background of Daniel. He is too sculpted to be just a humble farmer in the barrio—he hunts boars after he works out in the Fil-Am-Jap bodybuilding gym. Funny. Mon Confiado would be the more believable Daniel.

Further, the lead actors' metropolitan or cosmopolitan twang, could have been reworked to render their rustic characters more realistic. Talk of George VI doing the entire movie reworking his tongue in The King’s Speech. They are too beautiful to be monstrous because they look too polished for these rustic roles. Ultimately they appear ridiculous. Sadly camp.

Pagtaóng-gálang

Sang naglígad, amo ini an satuyang panukol o palatandaan kan sarong taong maáyo an pagpadakula. Dai naghaloy, nawara na sana sato an pagtaóng-gálang. Sa katunayan, kadaklan na beses, naoogma pa kita kun mayo ‘ni, na garo logod ini pakaraot o pakitang-tao sana. Dai.

Igwang tiempo kadtong an pag-“tabi-apo” sa mga lugar na sagrado, an pagtaóng-gálang sa mga banal na tawo, an pagdungog sa yaon sa halangkaw na puwesto, sa igwang kaálam, sa gurang, sa marahay, sa mabini, sa matali, sa magayon an ugali, nagtao man nin onra bako sana sa nasambit nang tawo o grupo, kundi mismo sa tawong nagtaóng-gálang. Sa pagtataóng-gálang, an duwa nagakalípay, napapamarhay.

Saro ning pagbisto sa mga nakakalangkaw, nakakamarhay, hapós kag udok sa boot na tinatao kan tawong pareho man ninda kagalang-galang, pareho man ninda kamarhay.

 

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

sang naglígad, kan nakaagi, kadto

amo, iyo

maáyo, marhay, magayon

kaálam, kaaraman, kabatiran

nagakalípay, naoogma

hapós, pasil, madali

kag, sagkod

Susog sa “Respect” yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 74.

Resisténsya

Aba ánang sirám kan buhay kan mga táwong igwá kaini. An resistensya kan sarong táwo susog sa saiyang salud, sa mga bágay na namána niya sa pamilya, sa kultura, sa klima, sa saiyang kinakakán; segun man sa mga pangyayári sa saiyang palibot, sa saiyang komunidád o ibán pa.

An sinasábi tang resisténsya dai nakatiwangwáng sana. Bakong gamá-gamá. Kun igwa kita nin resisténsya, dai ta saná mapapangyári an mga bágay, madadaog ta pa an minakontra sato. Kun an gamá-gamá ngaya iyo an tubig, an resisténsya iyo an kinompresor na tubig. Kaipuhan tang manu’dan kun pa’no gamiton an ináapod na resisténsya, o an báskog nga kusog.

An mga nagpaparádaralágan nin hararáyo dai man tulos minakurutipas pagtanog pa saná kan silbáto. Mayong kitang dakul na magiginibo kun dai maluwáyluway, dai matyaga. Kun igwá man kita nin kusog alágad pabiribigla man lang, siring yan sa kikilát na biglang matáma sa dagá, nakakakilaghán, nakakadiskwido, alágad waáy pulós.

An ginasiling na resistensya iyo an kuryenteng hababa saná an boltáhe, alágad haloy na panahon matao nin enerhiya, mahátag sang kusog, sige sanáng láad, dai napapalsok.

Sinurublian sa Hiligaynon

iban, iba

báskog, maurag, pinakamarhay

nga, na

waáy pulós, mayong kamanungdanan

ginasiling, sinasabing

mahatag, matao

sang, nin

Susog sa “Energy” na yaon sa Worldly Virtues: A Catalogue of Reflections ni Johannes Gaertner. New York: Viking Press, 1990, 75.