A young man tries to make some money so he can marry his girlfriend. He takes a job for $2,000 and then soon realizes that this job involves killing a woman.
Two elderly women bear the consequences of a crime involving their respective grandsons. One is the victim, the other is the suspect. Both weak and poor, they laboriously solicit money in ... See full summary »
A drama that follows the travails of the Pineda family in the Filipino city of Angeles. Bigamy, unwanted pregnancy, possible incest and bothersome skin irritations are all part of their ... See full summary »
Ma' Rosa has four children. She owns a small convenience store in a poor neighborhood of Manila where everybody likes her. To make ends meet, Rosa and her husband, Nestor, resell small ... See full summary »
After the Supertyphoon Haiyan, which changed the city of Tacloban in the Philippines into its horrendous state, the lives of Bebeth, Larry and Erwin intertwine. The survivors are left to ... See full summary »
From Filipino bad-boy director Brillante Mendoza comes Slingshot, an exhilarating portrayal of teenage thugs and petty thieves, all out to get what they can in the teeming slums of Asia's notorious city of sin, Manila.
The story is set in Guagua, Pampanga a decade after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo which ravaged the province with lahar. It follows the lives of Rodolfo "Mang Rudy" Manansala, a woodcarver, ... See full summary »
Director:
Brillante Mendoza
Stars:
Johnny Delgado,
Cherry Pie Picache,
Angel Aquino
David, an independent photographer, and Katia, an unemployed woman, leave Los Angeles, en route to the southern California desert, where they search a natural set to use as a backdrop for a... See full summary »
Iliac works in a massage parlor where the gay clients are given more than a shoulder kneading and back rub. When Iliac's father dies he must reconcile his job as a sex worker with the rest of his family.
Follows the hostage crisis of the Dos Palmas kidnappings in the southern Philippines, the life of the hostages whose survivors were freed after an awful year in captivity.
Director:
Brillante Mendoza
Stars:
Isabelle Huppert,
Katherine Mulville,
Marc Zanetta
A young man tries to make some money so he can marry his girlfriend. He takes a job for $2,000 and then soon realizes that this job involves killing a woman.
Before Maria Isabel Lopez took the role of Madonna, she had to ask permission from her two children and husband. Like Rosanna Roces who had rejected the movie, Maria Isabel was initially hesitant to accept the role since it required nudity. Her husband and children agreed with certain condition, thus she accepted the role. See more »
This movie was shown almost simultaneously at two film festivals in my country, and advertised as a horror flick. I must say that I saw it more as a thriller/drama, but I admit that I was, at times, nervous, jumpy, and even disgusted (I'm a bit perplexed by my reaction, considering that I didn't find anything too disturbing about "Antichrist", for example). I almost wish it could pass off as a horror film, because it sends a powerful message: when it all boils down, there's nothing scarier than the reality we live in, and the terrible things humans can do to each other.
It's story is told in a very realistic manner. The plot slowly progresses from everyday Manila life, where we see the brightly colored face of the city, with young and old in the streets, going about their business, to the ominous night and the twisted reality it brings. The director uses the darkness as the ultimate mood-setter, and the dragged-out sequences gradually warn us of things to come. As the first reviewer of "Kinatay" noted, the sound plays a major role in the film.
Without giving away anything, I can say that there are no big plot twists (if any), and the outcome of the movie is sobering in it's brutal realism. This might be a negative point for some, because they will probably not get what they expected; not only because of the absence of a "happy end", but also because of the lack of diverse content trough out a major portion of the movie. My own pet peeve is that, even though Coco Martin has played his role as good as he could have, the "shocked rookie in way over his head" character is a bit of a cliché, and in retrospect, it feels a bit overused, but again, not as much as in many other movies.
Ultimately, this is a good piece of cinematography. It makes it's goal clear, and it's presentation is flawless, for the most part. It definitely does not deserve all the bad reviews it's been getting. A man who gives "Avatar" a rave review (I'm looking at you, Ebert), should think twice before calling something "the worst movie at Cannes".
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This movie was shown almost simultaneously at two film festivals in my country, and advertised as a horror flick. I must say that I saw it more as a thriller/drama, but I admit that I was, at times, nervous, jumpy, and even disgusted (I'm a bit perplexed by my reaction, considering that I didn't find anything too disturbing about "Antichrist", for example). I almost wish it could pass off as a horror film, because it sends a powerful message: when it all boils down, there's nothing scarier than the reality we live in, and the terrible things humans can do to each other.
It's story is told in a very realistic manner. The plot slowly progresses from everyday Manila life, where we see the brightly colored face of the city, with young and old in the streets, going about their business, to the ominous night and the twisted reality it brings. The director uses the darkness as the ultimate mood-setter, and the dragged-out sequences gradually warn us of things to come. As the first reviewer of "Kinatay" noted, the sound plays a major role in the film.
Without giving away anything, I can say that there are no big plot twists (if any), and the outcome of the movie is sobering in it's brutal realism. This might be a negative point for some, because they will probably not get what they expected; not only because of the absence of a "happy end", but also because of the lack of diverse content trough out a major portion of the movie. My own pet peeve is that, even though Coco Martin has played his role as good as he could have, the "shocked rookie in way over his head" character is a bit of a cliché, and in retrospect, it feels a bit overused, but again, not as much as in many other movies.
Ultimately, this is a good piece of cinematography. It makes it's goal clear, and it's presentation is flawless, for the most part. It definitely does not deserve all the bad reviews it's been getting. A man who gives "Avatar" a rave review (I'm looking at you, Ebert), should think twice before calling something "the worst movie at Cannes".