SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

Bad Bananas Sa Puting Tabing

Peque Gallaga's Bad Banans Sa Puting Tabing (Mirick Films International / La Compania de Bananas) should have been a film with a laugh a minute, but the laughs are so few and so spaced apart that most of the film falls flat. It's fun watching Jay Ilagan and Edgar Mortiz get into all kinds of slapstick scrapes, but slapstick only goes so far, it cannot fill up two hours of true fun. When it is entertaining, this film is really entertaining, but when its not, it is plain dragging. Bad Bananas Sa Puting Tabing merely takes the surface of humor and drags that humor out for two hours. There are however, some brilliant touches in the film. Jay Ilagan's portrayal of Herman is marvelous, only Ilagan can combine verbal wit and body movement in such an effective comic way. Edgar Mortiz is excellent in a role which demands that he act not only naturally, but also abnormally in the absurdist scenes. Laurice Guillen puts in a great cameo performance. The production design is excellent and the costumes in the first sequence are very well chosen, they set the mood for the entire picture. Bad Bananas Sa Puting Tabing shows Gallaga at his best, witty, light and irreverent. The screenplay may not be as good as Kakabakaba Ka Ba? (1980) but the viewer can see that Gallaga can crack a good joke when he wants to.

Unfortunately, the brilliant touches are only touches. Most of the film however, fails to hold the viewer because of repetition. One sequence showing Mortiz complaining of hunger is enough. To repeat the visual gags is too much, if they were intended to be running gags, then they should have been repeated again and again, not just once or twice. There are sequences which are hilarious, such as the scene involving Amy Austria. But the scenes that are supposed to be hilarious are not. In the scene where Christopher de Leon is on top of a mountain, for example, the film loses its audience by taking so long to develop what is really a predictable sequence of events. Gallaga should have gone all out to do a Monty Python type of film, no plot, ludicrous situations, visual gags, pure fun. There are only two elements of the film worth noting. One is a sequence involving De Leon and Johnny Delgado engage in a gunfight. The sequence succeeds because it is the only sequence in the entire film that is not comic. The second is Nora Aunor's acting in her short role. By refusing to take anything seriously or lugubriously, as the film seems to warrant, Aunor infuses the screen with lightheadedness. De Leon's performance seems to be confined to gaping and looking cute. Bad Bananas Sa Puting Tabing is a significant failure because it shows how a brilliant director can produce a terrible movie.

Directed By: Peque Gallaga
Screenplay: Jose Javier Reyes
Cinematographer: Ely Cruz
Music Composed By: Quito Colayco
Film Editor: Amang Sanchez
Production Design: Bing Caballero
Produced By: Mirick Films International And La Compania de Bananas
Release Date: December 25, 1983