Philippine Cinema
First rate. Technically sleek. Over and above all. These are phrases often times used to characterize an American film. These generally refer to a film's sound, photography, acting, story and production design. In short, these American flicks are number one in every film's aspects. On the other hand, Filipino movies are generally characterized as sloppy and are just perfect to kill time (both for the ones in the production side and the viewers). More often than not, viewers would say that imperfection seems to be the rule for Filipino movies rather an exception. If an American film's perfection and excellence is brought about by their culture of being what they can be, is this imperfection in Filipino films also reflected upon our Filipino culture? Superior quality is never a criterion for making our Filipino films. These films are often attacked as having thin plots, being weak on logic and motivation, being predictable and its structure being prone to digressions. Who are setting the standards, anyway? Why is the classical American cinema used as the basis for criticizing the Filipino films? Are the Filipino films still at the far end of the American films? Do we still need to go a long way to level up with the s
Filmmaker Olivia Lamasan has always strived for excellence, investing her best in every directorial project that comes her way. Her dramatic outings never go unnoticed, delighting the most cynical of the critics and moving the most affected of moviegoers. She feels that when she does a film, which she does only once a year, she owes it to her producer, her actors, the staff, and the crew to give the best. And if they all share the same vision of coming with something beautiful, then she owes it to them to give them that. According to the acclaimed director, every film she does is a fulfillment and is equally a fulfillment with her other films. She makes sure that every film is exerted with more than 200 percent effort. She actually kills herself for every film that she makes. "Sana Maulit Muli," and "Madrasta" concretely demonstrate her diligence at work. "Sana Maulit Muli", which she finished in 1995 was adjudged best picture at the Urian and listed as among the year's best by the rest of the award-giving bodies. Madrasta, her recent output, also figured in various local derbies and even made big news for scoring a grand slam for megastar Sharon Cuneta in the best actress category. She is very humble in spite of all the awards she has received. In "Madrasta", she felt like she didn't have the right to judge the people who are actually encountering such situation nor is the film but she claims that it really happens in real life. And with her passion of depicting reality in her films, she went through with it not only to entertain moviegoers but to enliven the situation in the hearts of the people. Marilou Diaz-Abaya belongs to a breed of Filipino filmmakers who had formal training. Soon after, she involved herself with the local film industry which credits her for the invaluable contribution she has made in bringing to reality the plight of the often marginalized but brave Filipino woman. She has created a niche for female film makers in a predominantly male-dominated field. Her fervent wish is to make Philippine-made movies internationally renowned in the millennium. When Abaya starts to talk about movies, she gets hyper. She uses a lot of gestures to make sure you understand her completely. She is very focused and she has also mastered the art of listening. Abaya reveals what drives her to continue honing her craft: "It's being able to share. It's being able to put life on the big screen, to work together with people, to continuously learn, to continue to dream, hope, improve and see beyond what the eyes can normally view." Her films have been exhibited at the festivals abroad and her works have garnered awards and citations from various local and international award-giving bodies. "Sa Pusod Ng Dagat" of Abaya remains to be the biggest budgeted film in the history of local cinema, garnered both national and international awards and have seen participation in several international film festivals including Berlin. "Muro-ami" continues the acclaimed director's winning streak. As mentioned earlier in her three films namely "May Nagmamahal sa Iyo", "Sa Pusod Ng Dagat" and "Muro-ami", one of her styles is making use of symbolisms and irony. She veers away from the usual scenes and themes and creates unpredictable films. In relation with this, she ties the scenes together with a degree of coherence. Scenes were sized up in relation to the over-all plot of the story. Absence of several digressions in her films allows the film to climb up to a higher level of quality. Another thing I noticed is the style she did in "May Nagmamahal sa Iyo" wherein the conflict happened right away in the beginning causing more attention and interest from the viewers. For the mentioned films, her choice of subject matter was more of the reality happening in our society, like poverty, struggle of a mother, the existing life in our provinces and child labor. With her films of good depiction of reality, she hopes to instil
Some common words found in the essay are:
Marilou Diaz-Abaya, Sharon Cuneta, , Enumerating Filipino, Dagat Muro-ami, Allan Paule, Olivia Lamasan, Lea Salonga, Award Madrasta, Jeffrey Jeturian, filipino films, sharon cuneta, filipino movies, marilou diaz-abaya, sa pusod ng, sa iyo, pusod ng, sana maulit, maulit muli, nagmamahal sa, ng dagat, pusod ng dagat, nagmamahal sa iyo, sana maulit muli, ko ang daigdig,
Approximate Word count = 2739
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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