Conditioned by a wealth of less imaginative and empathetic movies, one awaits the histrionics as a tension breaker. But the actors and director Cholo Laurel understand grief as a great, often outwardly inexpressible ache that resembles an unending subliminal slideshow of what will never be. The moments that would naturally invite heartbroken fireworks. Nasaan Ka Man (ABS-CBN Film Productions, Inc., Star Cinema, 2005) is about love and grief as rifting confirmations which logically informs life with an unmooring sense of fragility and what the justly celebrated editing, a feat of prismatic expressionism, is conveying. The symbols that Laurel and his editor juggle are often surprisingly hokey given the film's formal sophistication. The harbingers of doom are the stuff of old wives' tales, but they're layered and scrambled in a puzzle-box manner that renews them of their urgency. The editing (not only of image, but intricately of sound) is pointedly showy to the extent that even casual viewers will notice its contradictorily fluid yet jagged dexterity. It's meant to be violating, because we're supposed to feel as if we're slightly apart from the story. Nasaan Ka Man is an intangibly melancholic film that feels as if the bottom is always about to drop out of it. Not only brilliantly edited, it's also one of the great illustrations of the relationship between editing and performance. The former provides a slightly rotted, debauched, intellectualized framework that the latter invests with heartbreakingly understated moments of tender, searching humanity.
There are no visible traces of electronic sharpening that affected detail and depth in this newly restored high definition transfer. Various density fluctuations remain in areas of the film where light is captured in specific ways. Minor contrast variations are present, but they are also part of the original cinematography. Colors are stable and natural, and I would specifically like to mention that here, they are slightly better saturated as well. The general flatness present on the DVD release is also a byproduct of compromising digital corrections. Overall image stability is excellent, and there are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, or stains. The encoding is very good, but I did notice some extremely light shimmer trying to sneak in during a short sequence early into the film. The stereo track is excellent. I did some direct comparisons with the Dolby 2-channel audio from the DVD and clarity and depth are identical. There is good range of nuanced dynamics that allow the score to shine in all the right places. The dialog is stable and easy to follow. All in all, this is a strong organic presentation of Nasaan Ka Man as the improvements in quality are quite dramatic. Laurel is careful in the way he approaches the material. There is an underlying current of suspense and even though the story's trajectory makes sense in hindsight, it is unpredictable.
Directed By: Cholo H. Laurel
Screenplay: Ricky Lee, Rafael Hidalgo
Cinematographer: Charlie Peralta
Production Designer: Jon Cuyson
Film Editor: Marya Ignacio
Musical Director: Jessie Lasaten
Sound Engineer: Addiss Tabong
