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This quasi-sequel to The Perfumed Nightmare is not so widely known as Tahimik’s debut and yet is animated by a similar playfulness and resourcefulness and equally as inventive. Though shot immediately after “Nightmare”, “Yoyo” was only completed after Turumba, and, as such is usually considered as Tahimik’s third feature.Read More »
Upon his departure from his home in Baguio, the road trip of the director’s youngest son, Kabunyan, begins. He stops at certain places along the way, engaging in conversation with various companions – often artists – in between drives.Read More »
J. Hoberman, The Village Voice:
Set in a tiny Philippine village, the inimitable Kidlat Tahimik’s film focuses on a family that makes papier-mache animals to sell during the traditional Turumba festivities. One year, a German department store buyer purchases all their stock. When she returns with an order for 500 more (this time with the word “Oktoberfest” painted on them), the family’s seasonal occupation becomes year-round alienated labor. Increased production, however creates inflated needs. Soon, virtually the whole village has gone to work on a jungle assembly line, turning out papier-mache mascots for the Munich Olympics. Long before the town band learns to play “Deutschland Uber Alles”, the fabric of village life has been torn asunder. Read More »
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Lakbayan (Journey) is an omnibus film that consists of Brillante Mendoza’s Desfocado (Defocused), Lav Diaz’s Hugaw (Dirt) and National Artis for Film Kidlat Tahimik’s Lakaran Ni Kabunyan (Kabunyan’s Journey).
It tells three tales of the Filipino journey. An unemployed cameraman joins a protest march of farmers asking the government to help them reclaim their ancestral land stolen by the powerful in Desfocado. In Hugaw, it is also the powerful that controls an island where a young miner contests the problems and the status quo. A mosaic artist is empowered as he arrives at his destination while traveling from island to island in Lakaran Ni Kabunyan.Read More »
`An entry in the Encyclopedia of Philippine Art published by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, offers a clue as to the genesis of this monumental movie. Two movies are mentioned: the first, I am Furious (Yellow), “a collage of events leading up to the 1986 EDSA [People’s Power Revolution] uprising ”, and its sequel I am Curious (Pink). Both titles are references to the movies I Am Curious (Yellow) and I Am Curious (Blue) by Swedish director Vilgot Sjömans which provoked controversy due to their sex scenes in the late 1960s. In Tahimik’s piece, “yellow” refers to the color that was to become the standard color for protests against the Marcos regime. Both these movies were later integrated as episodes in Why is Yellow at the Middle of the Rainbow? which, in turn, was to give rise to a new genre called ‘Never-ending docu’ at international festivals.Read More »
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Upon first glance, Perfumed Nightmare looks amateurish and raw. It is, too, I suppose, but this works to the film’s advantage. This is the semiautobiographical story of a young Filipino man (played by writer/director Kidlat Tahimik) who worships everything about America. He is especially caught up in the space program: he wants to visit Cape Canaveral, and he is the president and founder of his small (300 people) village’s Werner Von Braun fan club. This might just be the only fan club in the world that worships the Bavarian expatriate who is regarded as the father of rocketry. He and his club members have ice cream sales to fund their activities, which include sponsoring the Miss Philippenes pageant.Read More »