the anatomy of a filipino movie

Not so recently, my officemate asked me if I wanted to watch CAREGIVER… I declined. Not because, it’s a local movie or because most of our movies are renditions of the foreign ones but I felt like I might be able to relate..and there’s nothing worse in this world than bawling your lungs out and looking bug-eyed after watching a movie you can strongly emphatize with. It’s like seeing yourself in the character’s role.. It’s like actually reliving each moment. It’s like being there.

And it can be pretty ugly. I seldom cry in movies. I mean I think it’s ok to cry but I try hard not too.. Because when I do.. it makes that awful, distracting, annoying noise of gasping for air.. It’s like you’re running out of breath. Well, bottomline is it’s fugly!!! I myself, am irritated when it happens.

No, I am not a caregiver.. not professionally at least.

I am a Sharonian though.

You don’t need to be an expert or a movie critique to come to a conclusion that some if not most  of our movies:

1. Lack depth - Do I really need to expound?

2. totally predictable - even a 5 year old can guess the ending. horror movies ain’t that thrilling anymore. you can just sit through the whole thing trying to guess when the killer will appear.. there’s too much foreshadowing.

3. cliche - see item no. 2 - we always use the same punchlines, the same storyline. We are stuck on stereotypes. Clearly, we are tired of watching re-runs. Thus, leads us to no. 4

4. lack originality - we always have renditions of foreign films. We idolize them so much, we lack identity.

5. commercialized(?) - too much politics going on the movie industry. I can’t even distinguish politicians from actors.

We can be so much more. We just don’t maximize our potentials. We have acclaimed actors, brilliant scripwriters, and top caliber directors but we’ve sold them all out.  

Let’s not waste our time trying to make it in Hollywood. I’m sure the feeling is mutual.