Movie Review: Batanes

Rating: Nice visuals, fell flat on it's face in execution. Not good enough.

When it comes to the Filipino movie industry, the bebe and I are at a certainly high level of tolerance these days. If the concept shows promise, if there is potential, if the preview looks good, we give it the benefit of the doubt. We find it a good thing that some (and I say "some" in the truest sense of the word) movies, directors, and producers are fighting the urge to stay stagnant and are actually moving the industry forward. And so for these people who are pushing, we patronize the movies which we think would do the industry proud.

And so from the initial scenes we saw from the preview of Batanes, an offering by Ignite Media and GMA Films for the annual December Metro Manila Film Festival, we thought "Heeeey... mukhang maayos." And so when we got the chance, we trekked to our favorite mall of the moment (SM Mall of Asia) and saw it.

It disappointed. I just want to say that right off the bat, just so you know.

It tells of a city girl, Pam -- played by the ever-wonderful Iza Calzado, falling in love with a young man (Joem Bascon) from the province of -- you guessed it. From the initial scenes, we can assume that they fell in love -- what with the girl making the trip to the faraway-paradise-slash-stormseeker land that is the province of Batanes. It might have been for a vacation, or a meet-and-greet with the parents. But with the way the film rolled it out, we were brought from vacation to meet-the-parents to proposal to wedding to marriage, so you never really get a firm idea of what initially was the situation with the lovers in the first place. But I gripe too much. Get ready for more.

So yeah, they got married. And then the Piolo lookalike guy, who understandably makes a living as a fisherman drowns (this spoiler has absolutely no effect on your enjoyment of the movie whatsoever), and so we're left with a beautiful (can you say "goooorjus?") biyuda in an island whose electricity only lasts until 12 midnight. Here comes Meteor Garden guy Ken Zhu, a shipwrecked (? - possibly, we never really know) Taiwanese, and from there, the love story rolls.

First few minutes of a movie is vital -- it shows you the character of the movie itself, the feel of it, the conversations, and generally how the movie is gonna be played out. I was sleepy the first 10 minutes of it. Well, I'm always sleepy on Sundays because of my sked, but the movie didn't give me enough motivation to want to stay awake, unlike Beowulf (which we saw in iMax a couple of Sundays back). There was general lack of "interesting" movement in the plot -- it doesn't suck the viewer into the story itself. It keeps the viewer at a distance, no involvement whatsoever.

There were a few tiny risks that the film producers took in the creation of the film, and I think that's when the tiny things caught up with whole film, which made it suck (for lack of better terms).

The director, Adolf Alix Jr., is known for his independent films. The bebe (or the film student in her, lol) has actually seen some of his works and spoke good things about him. I would have thought he would have made a positive impact on the film. As it is, his fingerprint remains small and largely unremarkable. The casting of Joem Bascon in the initial role of Rico is a bad choice, not to spite the actor himself. The character drawn up was actually interesting -- a man of the sea, superstitious, strong, light-hearted, and to top all of that - epileptic. He acting and portrayal falls short of all of these, I'm sorry to say. His initial role actually prepares the whole movie, as a number of scenes would look back to his words and statements. When he fails to bring out a strong portrayal of the man, the whole movie kinda stumbles -- for the reason that it builds him up to be the man -- Mr. Bascon may look like Piolo, but "the man" he is not.

The film tries to be poetic about the sea, or actually, the Rico character does. I understand that. Moks and I have long talked about the sea and how it grabs your heart and makes a poet out of you, so yeah, I dig that. I don't know if it was the execution/direction (that's Mr. Alix) -- the scenes and the parts of the script where the sea was portrayed as a fickle-angry-funny-friendly entity were absolutely tacky -- or the acting (again, Mr. Bascon) that made those lines a failure. There are ways to be poetic and deadpan and thoughtful about the sea, but all the film showed was how NOT to do it. I cringed everytime they waxed poetic. Add to the fact that I felt the wonderful Ms. Calzado was always carrying the burden for Mr. Bascon's inability to bring his lines to life -- she was obviously more comfortable in getting her thoughts across. *sigh* Sayang.

I read in another blog review here:

"GMA Films should have demanded more, criticized it in detail so that we could have watched a movie worth Batanes’ beautiful scenery, and worth GMA films standards..."

I absolutely agree. There were mediocre stuff in the editing, the conversation is staggered rather than flowing, some scenes were not even visually explainable. Really, there was a lot more that could have been done to make this film ready. I don't know if they were pressed for time and couldn't re-do some shots and scenes, or if the budgeting was tight, or that the execution was just plain bad. With GMA Films, I am really doubtful that this was a budget issue -- more like someone chickened out on a risk to spend more money to improve the film. As it is, the content was all potential, never realized.

A few good things, so that you don't think of me a critic who only sees bad things:

• I feel they hit it right on the head with Iza Calzado's casting. I am biased, I admit. But she delivers a well-thought of, quiet and sincere performance.


• The film also gets good strong performances from new faces Glaiza de Castro and Sid Ramirez, and veterans Bembol Roco and Daria Ramirez.


• The visuals were absolutely stunning. I feel the need to go to Batanes at least once in my lifetime.

• The bebe and I were struck by the two dominant songs in the film - both made by Noel Cabangon, the last one sung by Jolina Magdangal. We're looking for those right now for the iPods.

As we continue our support of Filipino films that will raise the bar for the industry, I was disappointed by this one. I am very particular about script writing and delivery -- I fail to see the point of coonversations in movies that never really do take place in real life. The last Filipino film I saw satisfied me more than this, even though it was a lovey-dovey flick. Films like One More Chance (see the mokster's review here)give a very real rendition of Filipino conversation, and they get my vote on that. Make the conversation something that the viewers can relate to, for crying out loud. I am encouraged by the number of new films doing this, but again, disappointed that Batanes didn't meet this standard. Hopefully, GMA Films will try harder next time if they want to be true to leading the industry out of the mud and into flight.


More pics:

For pics from the Batanes Press Conference, click HERE. (I do this for Iza, ok? So understand.)







*Some pics from: www.igma.tv
*Some pics from: www.pep.ph

a hungry boy's lunch

So if you were a hungry boy, with a bit of financial freedom on a Saturday afternoon, where in SM Mall of Asia would you have lunch and what would you eat?

I'll tell you exactly where: Kalye Juan

In fact,I'll do you one better than that. I'll tell you what to eat. (And no, the resto's not paying me for this.)

The food the resto offers is not exactly new. The menu reads as regular as classified ads on a Sunday paper. What they have been able to do is find some neat twists and tricks to the regular Filipino heartburn fare, and make everybody happy with it.

My recommendation for your lunch, as me and the bebe just had it yesterday:

1. Kare-Kareng Tiyan ng Bangus- I can't even begin to explain what "kare-kare" is to my foreign readers, but it's an experience, really. Normally, you would have pork with the kare-kare, and some... errr, more "exotic" parts of the pig in the mix. They hit the jackpot by using bangus belly. You have your extra creamy sauce, string beans, pechay stalks, eggplant, plus 3 pieces of wonderful boneless bangus belly. Yum.


2. Bagoong Lechon Kawali- Again, I know bagoong is not the most popular fare among people from other countries visiting here, but I personally love it. Let's not talk about what it is though, only what it adds to the recipe. Lechon kawali is regular heart-attack food, a slab of marinated pork deep fried in oil until it is crunchy and crispy. Then they had the idea of putting sweet-salty bagoong as a topping. Not a bad idea, but this links in wonderfully with the kare-kare, as bagoong is the traditional siding for it. As an aside, their choice for the bagoong -- whether it be branded or self-produced -- was perfect. It's no secret that you can get a jar of pre-cooked, pre-seasoned bagoong at any decent supermarket. If this was bought, then kudos on choosing the perfect one to go with the recipe (they used the same type as siding to the bangus kare-kare as well). If this was one that the kitchen staff produced, I take my hat off to them -- it was exquisite.


3. Fried Tainga- we added this as something of an appetizer, but ended up mixing in well with the whole course. It's basically crispy fried pig's ear. Doesn't sound too inviting, does it? But if you want a lighter alternative (less cholesterol) to the traditional Crispy Pata (deep fried pig's leg), this is it. It's even served with the traditional sweet crispy pata dip we all have come to love. Goes well with anything, very good as starting munchers.

Sometimes, you just get that craving for Filipino soul food -- home-made flavors, recipes you have come to love. Kalye Juan gives you that, plus the small surprises that end up putting a contented smile on your face after your meal (the bebe and I were actually grimacing, mejo mabigat talaga sa tiyan eh).

The place -- the original branch is in T. Morato -- is actually very famous for their sisig. Again, for my foreign friends, don't ask what it is. Put it in your mouth and enjoy. They do sell beer and alcohol in the evening, so this is a favorite watering hole (well, the Morato branch, that is) for yuppies in the evening. If you don't want to join the audibly noisier crown in the evening, you should have lunch, which is just as enjoyable as dinner.

The menu is worth the gander -- lots of cool things in there. There's the aforementioned sisig. Then there's the dinamita, breaded chili peppers filled with cheese with mayo dip, which you get 5 to 6 pieces for Php85. The cost is a little bit mid range, maybe a bit lower than Max's, somewhere in the area of Kenny Roger's. Our meal, with refillable iced teas (plus the 1 extra rice - hehe), cost a little over Php500 (less VAT). So if that amount does not bother you, go ahead and make it a point to try out the place in the near future.

*images from bryantonpost.blogspot.com