Filipino

SHE’S A WOMAN WHO DOES NOT REST.Read More »

Set during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines between 1942 and 1944. Rosario (Nora Aunor), a young schoolteacher, is engaged to be married to Crispin (Bembol Roco). Crispin leaves Rosario to fight the Japanese as a guerilla, and in his absence a Japanese-Filipino officer named Masugi (Christopher de Leon) rapes her. Masugi later returns to Rosario apologizing for his act, bearing gifts of canned food and rice which Rosario at first refuses. Matters are complicated when Rosario’s father Mang Andoy (Mario Escudero) is arrested by the Japanese and Rosario reveals to Masugi that she is pregnant. Rosario must make a choice: accept Masugi’s proposal to make her his wife (saving her father and ensuring a safe and stable life for her child), or reject him and with him the baby they have conceived together.Read More »

In a poor village by the Manila Bay breakwater, brothers Buboy and Basilio come to the city to escape from the violence at home. They meet a prostitute named Pakita and become close with her when Basilio treats her wounds. All they want is to lead normal lives, but the town’s leader Dave has knavish interruptions that await them.Read More »

When an alien comes back to take him, a mouthless young man’s life twists and turns as his memories untangle.Read More »

Synopsis wrote:
Newly-widowed Marilou inherits from her husband the town’s only barbershop–a business that has been passed down by generations of men in his family. With no other means of support, she musters the courage to run the barbershop. But–as to be expected–she fails to attract any customers. But a touching act of kindness she extended to Rosa, a prostitute who works in the town brothel, leads to an unexpected opportunity. Rosa, who now considers Marilou a friend, urges her prostitute friends to pressure their male clientele into patronizing Marilou’s barbershop. The men have no choice but to grudgingly oblige out of fear that Rosa will expose their infidelity to their wives.Read More »

Quote:
In a time when the concept of divorce does not exist, much less imagined possible, we find Marilou (Vilma Santos), a planetarium guide who decides to pursue an affair with Emil (Christopher De Leon), a college teacher separated from his wife. They seem perfect for each other and soon decide to move in together.

Their once happy affair turns sour as Marilou slowly discovers the real Emil – a chauvinistic, domineering, and emotionally abusive man who dictates everything to her: from how she should act and manage her life to the most inconsequential details of running their house. They soon find themselves in an on-again, off-again relationship, with Marilou going as far as laying a let’s-meet-only-three-times-a- week rule to protect herself.Read More »

Macho Dancer is a 1988 Philippine film, directed Lino Brocka, which explores the harsh realities of a young, poor, rural gay man, who after being dumped by his American boyfriend, is forced to make a living for himself in Manila’s seamy red-light district. Based on a true story, the film frank depiction of homosexuality, prostitution, drag queens and crooked cops, porno movie-making and sexual slavery, and drugs and violence caused the Filipino government censors to order extensive edits of the film, forcing an uncensored edition to be smuggled out of the Philippines and shown to a limited number of international film festivals. This print is now part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York [Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gay and Lesbian Film and Video. 1994. Raymond Murray]Read More »

Quote:
Bona, released in 1980, is perhaps his best–regarded work. The title character is a young, starstruck schoolgirl (played by Nora Aunor) who falls in love with an ageing actor (Phillip Salvador) and becomes his servant. She waits on him loyally in his decrepit shack, receiving nothing for her labors but the privilege of being his slave. When the actor decides he has had enough of her and attempts to toss her aside, Bona retaliates in a wholly unexpected, utterly justified fit of violent rage. As with many of his other independently made films, Bona reveals Brocka’s uncanny ability to join the personal and the political, to locate the overarching social statement in an intimate, deeply individualized gesture. Read More »

Vangie Cruz (Ina Feleo) is a rebellious woman whose family life and career as a video editor are disrupted when her only brother, a newly ordained priest, Fr. Johnny (Marvin Agustin), is diagnosed of Acute Myeloid Leukemia. As a sibling, Vangie is called upon to be a donor for Fr. Johnny’s bone marrow transplant. At first, Vangie is very reluctant. She has a clinical phobia for medical procedures, the reasons for which are rooted in an attempted, but botched, abortion which she suffered through many years earlier and has since been troubled about. Her life is saved by Dr. Joey Lucas (Jomari Yllana) with whom she has a love child, and whom she eventually marries. Vangie’s dysfunctional family gravitates around Fr. Johnny, and in their struggle to cope with his illness, find themselves drawn to Ina, begging for her intercession. Their prayers are answered, not so much by way of a miraculous cure for Fr. Johnny, but by the grace of conversion, of love, of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.Read More »