SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

     Jun Robles Lana's Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes (ABS-CBN Film Productions, Inc., Star Cinema, Quantum Films, The Idea First Company, 2018) does a fine job of rendering its characters’ emotional journeys. Lianne (Judy Ann Santos) and Cindy (Angelica Panganiban) form an unlikely bond after the revelation that their husbands Gary (Joross Gamboa) and Felix (JC de Vera) are leaving them for each other. This arouses complex, mercurial feelings and Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes portrays those feelings with acuity and empathy. The conceit helps the movie to not feel redundant even as it trades in well-worn breakup tropes and odd-couple hijinks. In fact, the interplay between the relatively novel premise and the all-too-familiar material gives it some edge. Is being ditched because of sexual orientation all that different from being ditched because passions have dimmed or because your husband was sleeping with another woman? At first, it doesn’t seem different at all. Did the wives express any empathy for their exes’ identity struggles? But soon, it sinks in that this is a very specific shock hitting very specific people. Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes  joins a pop-culture boomlet of stories about people coming out as something other than what their loved ones thought they were. Often, the people affected by the coming-out receive as much or more attention than the person who’s actually coming out. The true goal of Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is laughs, gained sometimes at the expense of genuine feeling, but funny is funny. Santos and Panganiban are both gifted at physical comedy and are very giving actors, one never overshadowing the other, each giving the other room to be funny, in turn. The best love story of the film is that of Gary and Felix. Just as the main characters is a rarity, so is the portrayal of gay men who are not desexualized. They hold hands and show genuine affection for each other. While Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is in no way perfect, it is still a pleasure watching Santos and Panganiban vibe comedically together. If only there were more of it.

     Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes makes everything known by way of a crystal-clear hi-def presentation. The digitally shot picture reveals excellent textural details and superb overall clarity. There's not a flat or less than ideally reproduced texture in the film. All of the basics, skin, hair, clothes and a number of choice environments are in perfectly good working visual order. Colors are lively and punchy. Contrast is fairly even. The picture pushes perhaps ever so slightly warm but certainly favors a broader neutrality. Skin tones are healthy and black levels are perfectly deep. Noise is visible in lower light shots but never egregious in density or distraction. No additional source or encode flaws are apparent. The PCM soundtrack supports the movie's fairly boisterous sonic needs quite well. Clarity is excellent and the low end support is superb, giving weight and depth to what serves as the movie's sonic heartbeat, whether in the many instances when songs are overlaid atop the film or when they are an integral part of it, such as when Lianne and Cindy go to a gay bar. Dialogue otherwise drives the film and its presentation is without obvious flaw. Ang Dalawang Mrs Reyes is basically a sitcom dolled up with great actors, trying to pretend it belongs in the same room as Bwakaw (2012) and Die Beautiful (2016).

Sound Design: Lamberto Casas Jr., Albert Michael M. Idioma

Music: Emerzon Texon

Editor: Maynard Pattaui

Production Design: Marxie Faolen Fadul

Director of Photography: Tey Clamor

Screenplay: Elmer Gatchalian, Jun Robels Lana

Directed By: Jun Robles Lana

     A memorably bitter highlight in Adolf Alix, Jr.’s Padre de Familia (CCM Creatives, 2015) was the coruscating funeral scene. The tone of this disastrous wake is set by Noel (Coco Martin), whose resentment against his mother, Aida (Nora Aunor) as well as various other near and dear, get a thorough and unhinged airing. There’s just too much potential in Noel’s outbursts and the revelations they unleash. The last act is a series of gobsmacking handbrake turns which send practically the entire cast off packing. Martin’s utterly convincing portrayal of a self-sacrificing young man whose journey into the world is tenuous and difficult is one of those cinematic gifts, a multi-faceted gem that can be appreciated anew each time it is brought out for inspection.

     Mother of the family, Aida, is probably the most interesting character in the film, played to perfection by Aunor. She stubbornly resists any external show of the emotional turmoil she undoubtedly feels. Aida inexplicably gives priority to keeping up appearances and wants to give no one outside the family any inkling of their troubles. But her pretence extends within the family where she comes across as disconnected, her brittle surface barely conceals the depth of insecurity and grief that lies underneath. The strain between Aida and Noel is written with raw truth, it is achingly apparent. In one of the most finely wrought scenes of the film, Aida attempts to bridge the gap but she possesses neither the energy nor the skill to break through the emotional carapace with which her son has armoured himself. When Aida reaches the point where she is ready to confront the issues that have created a wall between her and her son, Noel pushes her away, by obliquely criticizing her relationship with Job (Joem Bascon). Padre de Familia artfully affirms a universal truth about the human condition. It epitomizes what a Filipino independent film can be when the director is willing to abandon the safety net.

Sound Design: Addiss Tabong

Music: Von de Guzman

Editing: Renewin Alano, Benjamin Tolentino

Production Design: Adolfo Alix, Jr., Bobet Lopez

Director of Photography: Albert Banzon, FCS

Written By: Jerry Gracio, Nikki Bunquin

Direction: Adolfo Alix, Jr.

     In Jerry Lopez Sineneng's Soltera (Star Cinema Productions, Inc., 1999), Eric (Diether Ocampo) is revealed to be highly admirable despite his lower-class manner and Sandra (Maricel Soriano) is shown to be a prisoner of the very same pretensions she once prized. Soltera is greatly helped by the presence of Ocampo, who was born to play life-denying young heroes and especially Soriano who has made a career coaxing characters out of their buttoned-down ways. She gives a spirited, fully formed performance that easily transcends the story's many preconceptions and cliches. The film's only surprises can be credited to these two resourceful actors, since every plot development can be seen coming from very far away. But before it falls into formula, Soltera raises interesting questions about those romances that fall outside of socially approved formulas. It is the easiest thing in the world to slide comfortably into an appropriate relationship with a partner who conforms with the tastes and prejudices of your social circle. Yet many people nevertheless find themselves in nonconformist relationships and my guess is that the depth of feeling in those relationships is often greater. If your partner does not match society's definition of the sort of person you should be in love with, then presumably he or she fills some deeper need. That's the dilemma faced by Sandra. She has never met a man who reaches her more deeply than Eric does. Is it love? She doesn't know. It's need. It's compulsion. Yet he exists so far outside her social circle she doesn't want to let him in. The strength of the movie is when it deals with the subject of a nonconforming relationship. The best moments involve verbal bolts of lightning, comic insights that blindside us. But the weakness of the film is when it falls into the same sappy romantic cliches as countless other love stories. And yet there's a lot that's good in Soltera, involving the heart as well as the mind.

     This new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution primarily from the 35mm original camera negative. Excluding a few very small density fluctuations the entire film looks very healthy and all-around stable. In fact, even a couple of well-known shaky transitions (from the DVD release) look surprisingly good here. Needless to say, the entire film has a wonderful organic appearance. There are no traces of compromising degraining and sharpening corrections. There are a few areas where some momentary softness emerges, but it is quite easy to tell that these are inherited limitations. There are no distracting debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, or other significant age-related imperfections. It is very easy to tell that the audio has been restored because balance is excellent and dynamic movement very natural. To be perfectly clear, there are areas of the film where the soundtrack effectively adds an extra dose of flavor, there are no sudden spikes or drops in dynamic activity. The dialog is crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. Where Soltera really scores, however, is less in the handling of this unlikely romance as the way in which it cleverly builds up a persuasive sense of Sandra's social embarrassment as she realizes more and more that she wants Eric.

Sound Engineer: Ramon Reyes, STAMP

Musical Director: Jessie Lasaten

Film Editor: Marya Ignacio, FEGMP

Production Designer: Gil A. Morales, PDGP

Cinematography: Joe S. Batac, FSC

Screenplay: jun Lana, Jerry Lopez Sineneng

Directed By: Jerry Lopez Sineneng

     Regardless of artistic intentions and ingenuity, young directors were subject to the norms of the industry, the demands of producers, the caprices of stars, the wrath of critics, the law of the box office. In retrospect, the seventies come off as a glorious moment of innovative filmmaking, but they all faced varieties of deep trouble, many of which come to the fore in Ishmael Bernal's Pagdating sa Dulo (Frankesa Films, Inc., 1971). So it is with Bernal’s characters, to whose bearing he has always paid close attention. The very bearing and manner of speech that his characters exhibit, a kind of reserved expressiveness, a steadiness that is non-theatrical but in no way natural is itself a reflection of a personal style that flows directly into his films. Bernal's screenplay contains many moments to be savored by those who have enjoyed his long battle with the establishment. The film’s startling point is that none of these aesthetic sensations matter in the face of emotional devastation, in those desperate times where no cultural bauble will distract you from the uncomfortable sight of your deepest interior realms. Ching (Miss Rita Gomez) wields her knowledge around Pinggoy (Vic Vargas) as a way of leveling the playing ground, she’s a classic insecure female wounded by a man she suspects might be out of her league, but even worse, she’s tortured by the suspicions that Pinggoy stirs in Ching about herself. The pretense that Pagdating sa Dulo is about the struggle to maintain artistic integrity in a debased film community suddenly collapses and the notion is revealed to be indulgent and self-justifying. Pagdating sa Dulo seethes with ill feelings toward its audience, the industry, its characters and not least of all itself.

     Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution and restored by L'Immagine Ritrovata in Italy from a 16mm internegative. There are some extremely light vertical lines that occasionally pop up. Tiny flecks can be spotted as well. Detail and image depth, however, are very pleasing. Generally speaking, contrast levels also remain stable throughout the entire film. The blacks and whites are well balanced and there is a good range of healthy grays. There are no traces of problematic degraining corrections. Also, sharpening adjustments have not been performed. There are no serious compression issues, but I did notice some extremely light strobing during the first half of the film. Still, overall image stability is very good and the film has a very pleasing organic look. Audio clarity and depth are good, but occasionally there is very light background hiss that makes its presence felt. It is not distracting, but more sensitive viewers will obviously notice when the hiss becomes more prominent. The overall dynamic intensity is quite limited, but this should not be surprising considering the fact it was produced in 1971. Bernal’s work here is unquestionably that of a cinematic master, letting the story seep in on every level, creating a film about itself as well as about the sacrifices that any creative force makes willing or otherwise, to their art.

Director of Cinematography: Delfin Carretas

Sound Supervision: Luis S. Reyes STAMP

Editor: Teofilo de Leon

Director of Music: Francisco Buencamino

Screenplay & Direction: Ishmael Bernal

     In Elwood Perez's Sugar Daddy (Regal Films, Inc., 1977), irony, altruism, instantaneous blindness, overt sexuality and modernist interior design are all ladled onto the narrative frame without so much as the whisper of a suspicion that the whole enterprise ought to collapse even without the added weight of Perez's skepticism. Of course, Perez’s melodramas are far too rigorous and tightly wound even when his subject matter occasionally approaches emotional recklessness of a comparable magnitude. Perez’s specialty was chronicling with a merciless analytical bent (good humor? bad faith?) the mechanics of a soap opera. It becomes a cliché to celebrate Perez for his ruthless take on social mores and to overcompensate for deconstructing not only those behavioral habits but also how pop culture reflects and feeds them.

     Perez accentuates all the aspects that shouldn’t work, incidental coincidences, irrational decisions, sermons of nebulous denomination. His commitment to the ridiculous is what finesses that irony, but it’s not a safe irony. Sugar Daddy is a much more mysterious beast, one that doesn’t work without a belief in Perez’s form. A central aesthetic of Perez’s work is that the stories he has to tell are always (and knowingly) complicated by the ways he tells them. In particular, they emerge through the dichotomy he’s able to create between their visual design and the characters’ understanding of their circumstances. Sugar Daddy perfectly illustrates this. While its surface might suggest a ferociously straight face, they also point to other ways of understanding the drama unspooling before our eyes. And they achieve a moving balance between an empathy for the plight of the characters. Ricky Belmonte’s powerful contribution is often undervalued, as is Alma Moreno’s performance and the ironic distance which allows us to see them all in a different light.

Sound Supervision: Luis Reyes

Production Design: Pedro Perez, Ray Maliuanag

Film Editor: Ben Barcelon

Cinematography: Narciso Magcalas F.S.C.

Musical Direction: Demet Velasquez

Screenplay: Toto Belano

Directed By: Elwood Perez