THE Cinema One Originals Film Festival ended yesterday on a high note, and the QCinema International Film Festival opened with one of the best Japanese films in recent years, Shoplifters, written, edited and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who also megged memorable Japanese masterpieces, such as Like Father, Like Son; Still Walking and Nobody Knows.
Shoplifters is one of the most successful Japanese films this year, and has enjoyed a lot of following, especially after it bagged the Palme d’Or at the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival. There were quite a handful of welcome surprises at the recently concluded 2018 Cinema One Originals Film Festival. We loved the simplicity and sincerity of Carl Papa’s musical animated film Paglisan, about the decaying relationship of a couple in their senior years, made more challenging by irreversible mental conditions. The film used the speaking and singing voices of actors Eula Valdes, Ian Veneracion, JunJun Quintana and Khalil Ramos.
We liked Joseph Abello’s Double Twisting Double Back, and both lead actors Joem Bascon and Tony Labrusca were in their best elements.
We were swept off our feet by Rod Singh’s Mamu, and a Mother, Too! where the principal actors performed amazingly. Iyah Mina’s debut performance on the big screen impressed us. Her take on the titular role of Mamu was real, natural, and we felt every emotion that she unleashed in defining and redefining love in its many complex forms and stages. EJ Jallorina as the teen Bona was also such a charmer, effortlessly leveling up to the powerful performance of Mina.
Arron Villaflor does well as the lover of Mamu, his screen presence is strong. We reckon he should be given more roles that will showcase his range. Villaflor also did well in Jerrold Tarog’s Goyo, released a few months back.
Ricky Davao also redefined competence in Whammy Alcazaren’s controversial movie Never Tear Us Apart (originally titled Fisting), although we feel that this film can be quite polarizing.
By the time you read this, the awards have already been handed out. Just like in all the award-giving endeavors, the fate of the films was decided by a five-man jury, and for CinemaOne originals, they picked critic-academician Patrick Campos, filmmakers Mac Alejandre and Rory Quintos, international festival programmer John Badalu and actor Piolo Pascual. Pascual was reported to be a last-minute inclusion in the roster of jury members after another actor, Dingdong Dantes, backed out, when his mother studio refused to allow their television contract actor to perform such duty for the competing network’s festival.
This week, QCinema International Film Festival, which runs until the end of the month, will have Filipino films in its main competition: Dwein Baltazar’s Oda sa Wala, Teng Mangansakan’s Masla A Papanok, Dan Villegas’s Hintayan ng Langit, Gimmy Harn’s Dog Days and Samantha Lee’s Billie & Emma. Aside from Japan’s Shoplifters, cinema aficionados will be able to watch Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses from Paraguay, Poland’s Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning from South Korea, Hsin Yao Huang’s The Great Buddha from Taiwan and Anucha Boonyawatana’s Malila, The Farewell Flower from Thailand.
Indeed, it’s a back-to-back win for independent cinema with two festivals showcasing the best new films from the Philippines and the rest of the world.