REVIEW | My Cinema One Originals 2011 Experience

Out of the 10 Cinema One Originals digital independent films shown at the Shangri-la Cineplex last November 9th to 15th, I was only able to see two films: Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat and My Paranormal Romance.

When watching local indie films in the cinema, you take a huge risk with your time and money, and so I was glad I got in for free in both films. But sometimes, even if you get to watch a movie for free, you'd still feel violated if your time was horribly spent watching it.

Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat

Officially making it to my list of 'Worst Movies in the History of Both Amateur and Professional Filmmaking', Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat is an artsy-fartsy self-conscious repertoire of eroticism and the supernatural in a provincial setting. Well, they say it's a coming-of-age story, but to begin with, there is no story.

Ines, a copper-haired pretty city girl in short skirts and dresses, arrives in her provincial hometown for the ritualistic burial of her grandfather. While there, she takes the opportunity to ask around about the seemingly mysterious and tragic death of her mother, at the same time enjoy her vacation in the province with her aunt (played by an actress who embarrassingly stumbles with her lines and is terribly self-conscious of the camera) and with her two cousins; Odessa, with whom she is close to, and Ezra, who is hostile to her and enjoys masturbating using a pointed fruit-- whenever she's not watching a stranger having sex with a banana tree.

The film jumps from one bad scene to another, the story line scattered and inconsistent and unable to make up its mind where it will lead. The "conversational" dialogue was horribly written (there was one scene when Ines and Odessa were engaged in a shallow and playful argument: "Ayoko maging amoy lola, kadiri!", "Gaganda naman ang kutis mo kahit amoy lola ka!" which went on in a loop for 10 minutes). The characters were poorly written and poorly acted (only the lead actress can seriously act) and all we see are repetitive shots devoid of meaning and emotion (cutting fruit, cleaning, senseless talking, walking), interrupted by a screensaver-like shot of the sky at sunset.

What this film aims is to transport us into the typical life in the province (where folks have sex with organic stuff, as the movie implies), and introduce us to rituals in the province and the supernatural, and will try to impress you with its shots of genitalia. But this movie is simply sexually repressed, empty, and desperate.

Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat is distasteful, pretentious, incapable of connecting with the viewer, and worse...painfully amateurish.

0 out of 5 stars

My Paranormal Romance

Refreshingly Bisaya with playful English subtitles, My Paranormal Romance is a Cebuano romantic comedy about a young, bright college girl named Merry (Phoebe Kaye Fernandez) who was burned so many times by love, escapes to a remote place with strong academic goals-- but then encounters everything that goes against her rational beliefs. And she also meets a new love interest that will threaten her broken heart once again.

Merry, as she resides in her new boarding house, suddenly finds herself with a third eye, which connects her to the supernatural and paranormal realm, meeting interesting characters that challenges her sanity. She then seeks the help of a guy to get rid of her unwanted powers-- but the guy keeps a secret more painful than her paranormal predicament.

My Paranormal Romance is absorbing, visually pleasant, bright and colorful from the cast down to the dialogue. It's a movie that does not take itself seriously nor does it aim to please or impress. All it wants is to entertain. And it succeeded. The screenplay, with a mainstream feel, is engaging albeit too long, and the humor funny and playful; I naturally don't laugh easily but the packed cinema was oftentimes filled with howls of prolonged gut-laughter. The characters are richly developed and played by talented actors, making it a movie with the perfect cast of impressive performers.

I am not sure whether it's because I grew up in Manila and I don't have a province but My Paranormal Romance felt foreign to me. The humor is universal and funny and I have Visayan friends, but the feel of the movie is something new and different to me-- the effect perhaps of watching fellow Filipinos who are culturally different, on top of the film's unique and unconventional story and style, as well as its seemingly European influences, with a strong sense of occultism and mysticism.

My Paranormal Romance is entertaining, a very professional production, smart and engaging, and a highly interesting comedy that will surely transport you into its crazy, paranormal world. If you laugh easily, then you will be rewarded more than you can imagine.

4 out of 5

Watch the: CINEMA ONE ORIGINALS OMNI TRAILER

If you missed the Cinema One Originals film festival at Shangri-la Plaza Cineplex last November 9th to 15th, you can still catch the screenings at UP Film Center from November 29 to December 3, 2011.

November 29, 2011 (Tuesday)
5PM Sa Kanto ng Ulap at Lupa
730PM Anatomiya ng Korupsyon

November 30, 2011 (Wednesday)
5PM Mga Anino sa Tanghaling Tapat
730PM Di Ingon 'Nato

December 1, 2011 (Thursday)
5PM My Paranormal Romance
730PM Big Boy

December 2, 2011 (Friday)
5PM Sa Ilalim ng Tulay
730PM Ka Oryang (Winner of BEST FILM)

December 3, 2011 (Saturday)
5PM Cartas de La Soledad
730PM Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay

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