PINOYISTICS: Piolo Pascual

Friday, February 26, 2016

Lav Diaz' Silver Bear at the Berlinale

Funny, I found the best way to appreciate Pinoy showbiz is to use the outside world as the filter. Despite the highly-developed technicals, Pinoy culture is so unpredictable that more often than necessary, entertainment products would require an acquired taste, with the de riguer learning curve. Somehow, it's heartening to note many parts of the world appreciate Pinoy films & teleseryes, but it's obvious they mostly wisely chose and only buy those worth their time. It turned out their choice mostly won't waste mine either. That's why I'm mostly using their eyes in this blog as filter on what to feature.

Mostly it worked. But what happens when I start ignoring the accolades from the outside? I'm talking about the recent film of Lav Diaz which won the Silver Bear at the recently concluded Berlinale, "Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis". My friend called me up why I didn't even feature it, he tipped me on it. I have to be honest, I was still thinking what to do. I featured almost all the films of Lav here and I personally have 4 of his notoriouly long-duration films but I haven't even lasted an hour watching each time. Of course, I can always use the award as propaganda, those are the main uses of awards for a blog like ours anyway (though I often disagree with many awards, I can appreciate their value). Unfortunately, I may be a snob but I don't rely on snob appeal. I snob to get out of an aggravating situation.

But I finally roused myself from the paralysis. Ok, who knows? Let's try to watch it first, it might have something up its sleeve yet. Btw, I merely wrote the last sentence, I didn't utter it through gritted teeth. Believe me.

Silver Bear, Alfred Bauer Award, Berlinale 2016- "Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis", by Lav Diaz

Monday, February 1, 2016

The Revenge of the Beautiful Faces in 2015: More, More, More This 2016

All the Top 10 Pinoy movies last year surpassed the PHP 100 million mark, not to mention the top-grossing local film of all time (A Second Chance, PHP566 million) was registered the same year. It could easily be the finest box-office performance of the local showbiz industry after the long doldrums. One thing glaring was the beauty of the faces that lorded over the box-office.

This is a new audience. The economy has been growing for the past few years and surely there was more disposable income available. But PHP200 is PHP200, it is still big for a big part of the Philippine population. You really won't expect the lower classes to stay away much from their free teleserye or the PHP30 pirate DVD (unless they have their bonus & 13th month pay come MMFF). But there were more people who had more money to spare and I bet they won't waste their money chasing on films with artists whose faces they won't bother watching for 2 hours. They have self-respect too, y'know.

It was not a coincidence that Pinoy movies boomed when beautiful faces grabbed the baton. It's a prerequisite for the renaissance.

Last year I watched the most Pinoy movies in my life. Last year was also the first time I watched a local movie in a cinemahouse. I was lucky, I liked all my choices. I have to admit the only reason I wanted to watch Ex with Benefits was to see how Coleen Garcia would register on the big screen and she did looked great. It turned out I liked the movie as well (read my sort-of-review in this blog). The gloss and the MTV-like editing & scoring of director Gino Santos were perfect counterpoint to two hours of drama and I found it suited the mood of the movie. I was looking forward to his future works, so while skimming over the entertainment news today, I kinda got a kick from reading he has an upcoming project. With Coleen again at that. A bonus is Dawn Zulueta. I also liked her in The Love Affair, another hit last year, also featuring another beauty, Bea Alonzo.

NB. Good news, even the so-called lower classes who subsist on free teleseryes & PHP30 pirate DVD's welcome the revenge of the beautiful faces, the beautiful Lizquen, etc. flew high in 2015 with Forevermore, etc. Beauty is really back everywhere in Pinoy showbiz!