Cine in Manila

Noel Vera

Cinemanila 2005--finally, held in what should be its proper venue,
the city of Manila--is showing a choice selection of international
films, plus a handful of not-to-be-missed Filipino ones. Some notes
on some of their picks:

Lee Je-yong "Joseon namnyeo sangyeoljisa" (Untold Scandal, 2003), is
the umpteenth adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' " Les Liaisons
Dangereuses," and as such it's a welcome addition to the club: the
women here are creamier and more delicate than in any previous
version, and the sex has erotic wit (I've never seen a behind
unwrapped from its bindings so sensually, like a Christmas gift).
Every adaptation has its own take on things, and while Stephen
Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988) played like a breathless
thriller, Lee's version is more of an acerbic drawing-room comedy
that deepens into a love story, then spirals into tragedy. Lee Mi-
suk as Madam Jo is the loveliest, most sensual Marquis de Merteuil
I've ever seen (but then I'm not a fan of Glenn Close's looks--only
her talent) while Bae Yong-jun as her cousin Jo-won makes for an
amiably valiant Valmont--all the more startling when he turns out to
be a heartless seducer. Added to this version is the historic fact
that Catholicism at this time was illegal, which makes Madam Suk's
(Jeon do-yeon) devotion to that faith all the more saintly. Worth
seeing as a companion piece to the Frears version.

Other Korean films include Park Chan Wook's " Gongdong gyeongbi
guyeok JSA" (Joint Security Area, 2000), a hit drama about the
tensions felt by soldiers guarding the border between North and
South Korea, and how a friendship develops that transcends that
border--melodramatic, but decently acted and ingeniously put
together--and Kim Ki Duk's now notorious "Seom" (The Isle, 2000),
about an impossibly beautiful lake resort, an enigmatic woman, and a
handful of fishhooks. Watch the latter for Duk's unique visual
concepts for the film, and for the perverse way he works out man-
woman relations (misogynistic and sadistic, yes, but also rather
compelling). Of the various purveyors of shock cinema--Von Triers,
Miike, Noe--Duk seems to have the best grasp of storytelling values
(he knows what to leave out and what to keep), and a delicately
cruel imagination that leaves the rest of them gasping in the dust.

Roger Corman will be a special guest, and Cinemanila will be showing
a handful of his films on projected video. Corman is best known, I
suppose for his adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe ("The Masque of Red
Death," "The Pit and the Pendulum"), and for "Little Shop of
Horrors" (1960)--the creature feature he shot, according to legend,
in a mere two days (actually there were some pickups, the equivalent
of another couple of days to finish). Corman is a master at turning
daunting obstacles into innate virtues, and "Horrors" thanks to its
nonexistent budget and impossible shooting schedule has a fleet-
footed breeziness that's almost like a tonic against its horrific
subject matter (a gigantic flowering plant that drinks human blood).
My favorite Corman, however, remains "X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes"
(1963). Ray Milland makes a Faustian bargain with himself, giving
his eyes over to the ability to see behind the surface of things.
It's a terrifying portrait of a man whose powers of penetrative
vision increases the same time his hold on reality decreases; by
film's end people shout a biblical command at him, to which he
responds with sudden ferocity--in effect, suffering the classic
penalty for hubris.

Rico Ilarde ("Babaing Putik" (Woman of Mud, 2001)) has gone back to
his independent filmmaking roots (his "Z-Man" (1988) was a minor
comic-book wonder) by making the digitally shot "Sa Ilalim ng
Cogon," about a young man named Sam (Yul Servo) who, fleeing a
payroll heist gone horribly wrong, comes upon a lonely mansion
standing in a sea of grass. He hides out in that mansion, and is
witness to an accumulation of odd details: a collection of creepy
photographs; a mysterious beauty (Julia Clarete) who bathes naked in
the mansion's leaf-choked pool; a trail of blood that leads to the
grass surrounding the old house…

Ilarde, a visually supple and conceptually imaginative practitioner
of the horror genre, gets around the limited look of digital video
and miniscule budget by shooting shadows and textures, by suggesting
mood and atmosphere through silence, subtly menacing mis-en-scene,
and the odd handheld shot (not too many; his restraint compared to
other young-Turk filmmakers drunk on the freedom of digital cameras,
is rather refreshing). Ilarde is probably weakest when it comes to
script (by producer Mammu Chua and Ilarde), and characterization;
Yul Servo's hapless Sam, however, is a compelling performance that
moves away from the "probinsyano" (country hick) persona he
developed in "Batang West Side" (West Side Avenue, 2001) and "Laman"
(Flesh, 2002). The Cinemanila screening, incidentally, will
be "Cogon's" Philippine and world premiere (note: the screening did
not push through).

Then there's Raymond Red. Fashion dictates that we pay attention to
the newest independent filmmaker, loudly promoting himself up and
down the block, but that is only passing fancy; Red's shadow looms
over the Filipino independent landscape, and has done so since 1982,
when at the age of seventeen he wrote, shot and directed "Ang
Magpakailanman" (The Eternity)--arguably the greatest Filipino short
ever made, and the only one to have its own entry in the Cultural
Center of the Philippines' Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Among the
works to be shown are "Kamada," the TV feature he made in 1997, an
enigmatic film about a young man in an old apartment building who
grows fascinated with the woman living next door; and "A Study for
the Skies," a wonderful little comic essay about a man struggling to
get his flying machine off the ground. His masterpiece, "Ang
Magpakailanman"--about a student searching for a book supposedly
able to grant eternal life--reveals a prodigious imagination. Red
calls it his tribute to "Blade Runner," but I think it's wilder,
freer, better than that hoary science-fiction "classic," a Filipino
artist's stretching of the limits and possibilities of cinema. Of
course his last short film "Anino" (Shadow, 2000), which went on to
win the Cannes Palme d'Or--a feat neither Brocka nor Bernal (nor for
that matter Mike de Leon, Mario O'Hara, Celso Ad. Castillo) has ever
accomplished--had its premiere screening at Cinemanila.

(First printed in Businessworld, 10/7/05)

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