SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

Nueva Vizcaya

The drawing power of Pablo Santiago's Nueva Vizcaya (Roda Films) is derived from its action sequences. There is blood all over the screen when the Tarikan tribesmen led by Lupig (Vic Vargas) meet their unsuspecting victims. There is little sex but plenty of violence. Former Miss R.P. Eva Reyes stands revealed as someone who cannot be considered a great Filipina actress. She should not even be considered a good one. For one thing she never gets into the character of the village maiden she plays. Diwata (Reyes) has strange, lowland manners. While standing in the mountain with Lieutenant De Mesa (Zaldy Zhornack), she assumes a coquettish look more proper to a city sophisticate. A good actress would have shown traces of wildness that the character is supposed to have. Her scenes with either Lupig or Captain Reyes (Eddie Garcia) lack tension primarily because she cannot stay on the same level as her co-stars. Her acting, in short, is a disaster. Not that Reyes is the only thing wrong with Nueva Vizcaya. The direction is also problematic. Santiago shifts the camera without shifting angle. The cinematography, while stunning at times also fails to provide enough lighting for the indoor scenes. The forest scenes are well-lighted but that is hardly the cinematographer's achievement, since the sun clearly comes through the trees. The acting is nondescript. Vic Vargas delivers his usual competent performance. Van de Leon's role as Bagwis tends to exaggerate his rebellious character. Zaldy Zhornack hardly generates any excitement with his monotonous performance. Scarlett Revilla merely walks through her role and even Eddie Garcia whose characterization is uncharacteristically simplistic. 

The technical failure of the film is all the more regrettable because the highly intelligent and provocative screenplay calls for the counterpoint between the Christian lowlanders and the ethnic pride of the Tarikans. The writer started the film with a brilliant device. He focused on the wavering beliefs of Lieutenant De Mesa. After coming in contact with Lupig, the Lieutenant starts thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, the native warrior is right. Thus, when the time comes to fight Lupig, De Mesa is faced with a personal and ideological crisis. The trouble is that the device is not allowed its full dramatic impact. The viewer is puzzled by the soldier's identity crisis. The film should have painted Lupig more sympathetically and more profoundly. Instead of carefully tightening the scene in order to build up tension, however, the director gets carried away by tradition which in effect, replaces genuine struggle. The screenplay is betrayed by the director's lack of understanding of the basic conflict involved in the story. Even the tribal rituals are completely boring. Nueva Vizcaya could have been a triumph of screenplay over direction and acting, but a film is still a director's medium rather than a writer's. Despite the well-structured script, the film falls flat on its face. It says what has to be said about tradition. Nevertheless, Nueva Vizcaya is significant because it dares to be different from the usual Filipino film.

Directed By: Pablo Santiago
Screenplay: Armando de Guzman
Cinematography: Jose Batac, Jr. And Fermin Pagsisihan
Music: Tito Arevalo
Film Editor: Ben Barcelon
Production Design: Totoy Torrente
Produced By: Roda Films
Release Date: June 17, 1973


The 8th Manila Film Festival

Huwag Mong Itanong Kung Bakit

Working within the constraints of the melodrama format, Eddie Garcia's Huwag Mong Itanong Kung Bakit (Viva Films) exposes the complex processes by which people are lured into. Whatever merit the film has lies primarily on the fleshed-out, although not yet fully realized characterization of the four main characters. Dinia (Dina Bonnevie), discovers her sister's pregnancy after she was assaulted by her master Bobby (Ricky Davao). Irked, Dinia demands the man's mother Doña Elvira, spitefully and deliciously played by Armida Siguion-Reyna that he offer marriage to aggrieved Aning (Cherie Gil) because it will cause real damage to her son's political career. On their honeymoon night, Bobby immediately displays his sadistic attitude towards Aning. His brother Lhar (Edu Manzano) feels for Dinia and offers her love and marriage. Though dramatically more subdued, her revelation yields the film's disconcerting impact. As in tales of this streak, there is the moment of sibling rivalry. The elder Dinia is circumspect, but the younger Aning is impulsive and less discerning. Both of them were violated by the same man but it is Dinia who musters up enough nerve to confront their attacker. This single act steers the film toward sharp turns that end up in death and sacrifice. Instead of abusing the theme of rape represented by virginal women, it bothers to understand what it is that women want and why they want it under the circumstances both within and beyond the control of their limited reckoning. 


Huwag Mong Itanong Kung Bakit puts to satisfactory use the signifying systems of film by designing its narrative according to the exigencies of brisk, lean storytelling. This is achieved in the effective sequencing of scenes and shots that tame the sometimes warped traditions of formula through steady technical control. Garcia's employment of production elements from Manny Morfe's art direction to George Canseco's surprisingly restrained musical score is both purposive and sensitive and his efficient execution furnishes the film with a thoroughly polished design. In this, he is ably complemented by Romeo Vitug's evocative visualization. The cast generally turn in creditable performances, as most of them usually do. Dina Bonnevie has never been so effective. Her antagonists provide the flint by which she lights her fire. Cherie Gil is a wonderful actress who communicates pathos with relative ease and great truthfulness. Debbie Miller as Darlene, Lhar's loving but now distraught girlfriend, puts things in her own hands when the chips are down. Anita Linda prevails as Nena, the driven mother. Huwag Mong Itanong Kung Bakit lends itself well to the explication of the violence that makes the lives of women unbearable at home and in society. While in the final analysis, such violence might desensitize them with too much realism and vulgar suspense, it is also possible that it would generate the proper sense of anger and righteous indignation among mute victims and fence-sitting witnesses.

Directed By: Eddie Garcia
Story By: Gilda Olvidado Serialized In Espesyal Komiks
Screenplay By: Gina Marissa Tagasa, Emmanuel H.Borlaza And Elmar Ingles
Photographed By: Romeo Vitug
Music By: George Canseco
Edited By: Jesse Navarro
Production Design: Manny Morfe
Produced By: Viva Films
Release Date: January 4, 1988