Established in 1990, the Young Critics Circle is composed of members of Philippine academe who, through the years, have become attentive observers of Philippine cinema. Coming from various disciplines, we bring into the analysis of film an interdisciplinary approach.
Two debut full-length features emerge as frontrunners in the Young Critics Circle Film Desk’s 33rd Annual Citation for achievement in filmmaking. 12 Weeks, Anna Isabelle Matutina’s complex drama about an NGO worker faced with an unwanted pregnancy; and Leonor Will Never Die, Martika Ramirez-Escobar’s cleverly eccentric send-up of Tagalog action flicks, both clinched five nominations including Best Film after the critics group held its deliberations last May 20.
Two other features are also nominated for Best Film: Ronald Espinosa Batallones’s Batsoy, a Cinemalaya entry about two young brothers in an Ilonggo village during the tail-end of Ferdinand Marcos’s regime; and Topografia, Gutierrez Mangansakan II’s contemplative film about two college friends who go on a road trip as the Bangsamoro government transitions into power.
The Young Critics Circle Film Desk held its 32nd Annual Circle Citations for Distinguished Achievement in Film for 2021 on 15 December (Thursday), 3:00 PM at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines-Diliman. This is the first on-site ceremony of the YCC since 2019, with the last two being held online. The event was supported by the University of the Philippines-Diliman Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts and the Jorge B. Vargas Museum & Filipiniana Research Center.
Dr. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete delivers her keynote lecture.
Dr. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete, professor at the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts of the University of the Philippines Diliman, is the keynote speaker. Dr. Bonifacio-Ramolete is also a senior puppeteer and the recently appointed Artistic Director of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, a children’s theater and puppet theater company founded by her mother, the late National Artist Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio.
Download the 32nd Annual Circle Citations catalog here. Read the citations for the nominated and winning films, as well as the incoming YCC Chair Andrea Anne Trinidad’s afterword below.
Kung para sa ibang manunuri ay maaari, kung hindi man maipagpipilit, bilang sanhi ng pagdududa sa kabuoang kahusayan ng Historya ni Ha (2021) bilang isang ganap na pelikula (at hindi lamang bilang konsepto ng isang pelikula) ang naging pagganap dito ng aktor na si John Lloyd Cruz bilang si Hernando Alamada, ang bidang bentriloko ng naturang epiko-pelikula, hinihiling mismo ng praktika ng kritisismo, kung pangangatawanan ang pinakabirtud nitong kritikalidad, na maigiit ang isang pagtanggi, kung para lamang mapabanaag ang isang panibagong pagtataya hinggil sa mismong materyalidad ng pelikula. Sapagkat higit pa sa katotohanang maitatangi nga ang Historya bilang ang pinakamalinaw na artikulasyon ni Lav Diaz sa kaniyang prinsipyo ng paglikha, nahihinuhang inihahain din nito ang isang mungkahing pagpapahalaga hinggil sa pinakagawain ng panonood.
At the beginning of Historya ni Ha, Lav Diaz’s relatively compact articulation of the artist’s stake in a troubled society, we hear a voice addressing his paramour. Hernando Alamada (John Lloyd Cruz), a bodabil performer on his last tour aboard a cruise ship called Mayflower, writes a letter to his girlfriend Rosetta: he wants to return to their hometown, Tagsibol, and marry her. Soon to obtain a teacher’s license, he also plans to retire from show business. In spite of these prospects, Hernando broods over the end of his career, an indecision that will soon be compounded by devastating news.
As with Mula sa Kung Ano ang Noon and Panahonng Halimaw, Lav Diaz retrofits the past to the present to create an origin story of sorts for the country’s slide, once again, into authoritarianism. The result is surprisingly lucid even in its absurdity. This time Diaz has chosen a critical period: it is 1957 and Ramon Magsaysay’s plane has gone missing. On the ship, Hernando meets Jack Agawin (Erwin Romulo). When Hernando refuses Agawin’s request for an interview, the journalist slyly refers to Hernando’s arrest over his ties with the Hukbalahap and asks whether the movement has disillusioned him. “Disillusioned ako sa immaturity ng mga tao (I am disillusioned with the people’s immaturity),” replies Hernando. Later they meet with Congressman Torres (Jun Sabayton), who, suspecting that Magsaysay is dead, begrudgingly eulogizes the president’s legacy. The late president, the congressman muses, ran over Philippine politics by capitalizing on charisma. The “ignorant” masses will now keep seeking a comparably magnetic leader. The congressman, belatedly admiring the efficacy of a tactic, sings one of Magsaysay’s catchy jingles, “Mambo, mambo, Magsaysay…Our democracy will die kung wala si Magsaysay.” Such mythmaking will surely happen again, the false prophets yet to come.
Still from On the Job: The Missing Eight (2021) trailer.
The violence from the Philippines’ War on Drugs reached a scale that inexorably shaped Philippine cinema. Until recently, the Filipino action film, or even the political thriller, had virtually disappeared. Both had been supplanted by, among other genres, a flurry of romance movies. But the last six years or so has seen a revival of such films: Neomanila, Double Barrel, Buy Bust, Smaller and Smaller Circles, Babae at Baril, just to name a few.
On the Job: The Missing Eight (2021) from director Erik Matti belongs to this broader phenomenon. The sequel to On the Job (2013), The Missing Eight charts the transformation of the journalist, Sisoy Salas (John Arcilla), from a subservient, propolitician hack to a full-fledged reporter bent on exposing the crime of his patron, Mayor Pedring Eusebio (Dante Rivero). The crime in question is the murder and disappearance of the eponymous “Missing Eight,” which includes Sisoy’s fellow reporter, Arnel Pangan (Christopher de Leon) and his eight-year-old son.
Sa Busan, sasadyain ni Shogen si Brillante Mendoza bitbit ang talambuhay na nais maisapelikula. Tungkol ito sa isa niyang kababayan, si Tsuchiyama Naozumi, na nagtungo sa Pilipinas upang maging propesyonal na boksingero nang hindi siya pinagkalooban ng lisensiya sa sariling bansa dahil sa kapansanan. Dito babatay ang pelikulang Gensan Punch (2021). Para sa namihasa sa mga natatagpuang kuwento, tila naiiba ang direksiyon ng produksiyon sa kolaborasyon. Subalit hindi lamang dito aandar ang kuwento sapagkat bago pa ang trato ng aparato ng pelikula sa mga talambuhay, sumasabay na ito sa mga nauna nang pagsasanay ng pagbabad sa tagpuan. Mapahahalagahan sa mga inilalatag na relasyon ng mga salik ng pelikula ang estetika, na hindi estatiko, kaya’t ang posibilidad na makapagpabago. Sa madaling sabi, hindi lamang mauuwi ang proyekto sa paglalakbay ng manlalarong may kapansanan kundi ramay din ang iba pang buhay na makikipagtalaban sa kani-kanilang pakikipag-ugnayan.
Still from Lav Diaz’s Historya ni Ha (2021), winner of Best Film for 2021.
For its 32nd Annual Citations for Distinguished Achievement in Film, the Young Critics Circle Film Desk is honored to have Dr. Ma. Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete of the Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts, University of the Philippines – Diliman as the keynote speaker.
Amihan Bonifacio-Ramolete has been exposed to the world of the theatre at a very young age. She is senior puppeteer and recently appointed Artistic Director of Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas (a children’s theater and puppet theater company founded by her mother, the late National Artist Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio). She has participated in numerous international and national conferences and puppet festivals and published articles in the Asian Theatre Journal and Humanities Diliman. Amihan served as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters from June 2015 to May 2021. She has been the recipient of prestigious awards namely the University of the Philippines Alumni Association Distinguished Alumna in Culture and the Arts (2014), Gawad Chanselor Natatanging Guro (2014 & 1999), and The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Award for Theatre Arts (2013). Through talks and workshops, Amihan continues to promote the importance of creative expression and learning and healing through puppets.
The Annual Circle Citations, which has been held online in the past two years, returns to UP Vargas Museum, on 15 December 2022, 3 pm.
Si Mae Paner bilang mamamahayag. Still mula sa trailer ng Tao Po (2021).
Binabalangkas ng pelikulang Tao Po (2021)ang apat na magkakahiwalay na kuwentong naitatagni ng pagkakasangkot ng bawat isang tampok na indibidwal sa marahas na giyera kontra ilegal na droga na naging pangunahing mukha ng anim na taong pamamalakad ng administrasyong Duterte. Nakakahon sa loob ng isang bakanteng teatro na tumayong lunan para sa kabuoang produksiyon, natatangi ang naging pagbibigay-buhay ng nag-iisa nitong aktor na si Mae Paner sa apat na tauhan: (1) isang mamamahayag na naatasang magbigay ng panayam sa mga mag-aaral ng asignaturang photojournalism na siyang nagdiin sa mga ito ng mapanghamong sitwasyong naghihintay sa kanila sa larangan, (2) isang zumba instructormula sa isang barangayna nabudol ng pangakong makataong rehabilitasyon nang sabay na pinatay ang kaniyang asawa at anak, (3) isang pulis na narerentahan din bilang hitmanna unang nasilaw sa imahen ng kaginhawahang maidudulot ng pagkakasimot ng lahat ng kinikilalang ‘salot ng lipunan’ na kalaunan ay binagabag ng katotohanang pinamamayanihan ang impormal na operasyon ng maiimpluwensiyang tao na ginagamit ang koneksiyon bilang pananggalang, at (4) isang bata na nasaksihan ang unti-unting pagkakalagas ng kinabibilangang komunidad na sa huli ay tuluyan ring inulila ng pangunahing kampanya ng rehimen na mala-ispektakulong tinrabaho ang ipinangako nito mabilisang pagbabago.
Reyboy swims. Still from Last Days at Sea (2021) trailer.
Karihatag is a place between mountain and sea, and if one climbs high enough up a mountainside, one can see across the rippling waves below and clean through the light to where the sea meets the sky. Perhaps people in Karihatag, at some point in their lives, look up at the sky and out to the sea—not to discern whether a storm is coming and whether tomorrow early morning will be a good time to set out with their nets in their fishing boats—but in wonder.
Atienza first came to Karihatag in 2014 to photograph the community for an NGO, who wanted to find out how the people set up a marine sanctuary and how they survive during typhoon season. She first met Reyboy then, who showed her around Karihatag. Very curious about her work, he struck her as a precocious child. Reyboy pulled her back to Karihatag, and Atienza returned in 2018 to make a documentary focused on the boy, as he was about to leave his hometown to study high school in a bigger town.
Still from Kun Maupay Man It Panahon (2021) trailer.
As a phrase on its own, Kun Maupay Man It Panahon, translated to English as “whether the weather is fine,” opens up a moment of indecision, conditionality, and perhaps precarity premised on both time and weather. In the case of Carlo Francisco Manatad’s debut film, it commences with Miguel (Daniel Padilla) waking up to a mountain of rubble and ruin with its vestigial walls barely standing to suggest that it was once a home. Around him were tossed furniture, a huge business signage, dying fishes out of the water, other survivors walking by, and corpses in various stages of decomposition. All of these are conjured in one frame to offer a sight of death yet almost always embedded in an interplay of anguish and dark humor as if to propose a sense of vitality and a march of time. However, as Miguel surveys the place of unending wreckage, he is met with an announcement that another typhoon is about to come. It is, undoubtedly, the power of Kun Maupay Man It Panahon: to render a genus of apocalyptic time within cinema where storms haplessly come and go leaving little to no space for the rituals of mourning and rehabilitation to proceed. It is an apocalypse made more terrifying with the idea that no one ever fully distinguishes whether the sunlight signals survival or an anticipation of another storm.
Young Critics Circle Film Desk 