SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

     For the most part, Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa (New Sunrise Films, 2022) wobbles along while struggling to find a balance between the more heartfelt story of Ara Lumawig (Rita Daniela) and other characters central to the film and the determination of screenwriter Eric Ramos to paint a convincing story of the issues plaguing small town educational system and corruption. Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa takes on a serious topic, but fret not; the film is an absorbing, marvelously-acted piece of work that entertains without ever feeling like a school assignment. Director Joel C. Lamangan sees his characters as flawed people, but most of them are also inherently good.There is no question which side the viewer is supposed to be rooting for, though it helps that the protagonists are so easy to pull for as underdogs trying with all their might to make a difference in their children's and students' lives before it's too late. Ara's frustration leads her to befriend Ka Ambo (Lou Veloso) and together with Father Caloy (Jim Pebanco), they rescue a failing school and re-design it to foster effective learning. Obviously, Ara's educational reform is opposed by corrupt public official, Indang (Dorothy Gilmore). While it's a reasonable argument that Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa comes down pretty hard on its issues, Lamangan at least makes a decent effort to provide some balance for the film. It's clear that the real culprit here is the resistance to and fear of change, although it would be impossible to deny that Lamangan paints Lou Veloso's Ka Ambo as a man whose ideals remain uncorrupted over the years but, it's also acknowledged, mostly through the character of Pebanco's Father Caloy. Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa focuses on solving problems rather than assigning blame. The failings of the education system in the Philippines, for which there is plenty of blame to go around, are self-evident.

     Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa exploits an outrage that is experienced on a daily basis. But its clarion call is hampered by simplifications and distortions. The film’s heart is certainly in the right place not so, always, its head. But social-issue movies can have real societal impact. That’s why Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa deserves to be taken seriously and criticized seriously on its own terms. Lamangan has beautifully cast the film with actors and actresses who take average material and turn it into an involving and entertaining film. Pebanco for the most part is remarkable as the town priest. He gives a heartfelt performance that makes you wish you'd have someone like him to help you get through life. The film is stolen, however, by Daniela's magnificent turn as Ara, a public school teacher struggling with issues in the classroom. Her body becomes a cinematic vessel of apathy, frustration, sadness, grief and determination. As young Betchay, Felixia Dizon is simply wonderful with a performance that exudes both the innocence of childhood and the tattered edges of a child. Albie Casiño, who plays Teddy is able to see both sides of the argument being presented in the film. Jak Roberto is fine as Lt. Randy Meneses, but the romantic subplot that forms between himself and Ara is a non-starter that could have been excised with few changes made to the rest of the narrative even though it places them in an almost entirely predictable story outline. Lamangan proved that he's gifted at directing young people and he's also able to make complex subject matter accessible for a wider audience. Every aspect of a picture works in tandem to create a complete whole. Lamamgan does simplify the issues here, but he doesn't dumb them down. Madawag ang Landas Patungong Pag-Asa leaves a lasting impact because Lamangan beautifully weaves compelling characters into an intelligent and thought-provoking film that will tap into both your heart and mind.

 

Screenplay: Eric Ramos

Director of Photography: T.M. Malones

Editing: Gilbert Obispo

Production Design: Jay Custodio

Music: Von de Guzman

Sound: Christopher Mendoza

Direction: Joel C. Lamangan

     The parent-child relationship has been quintessential cinematic fodder for decades. Filmmakers have kept digging into it, but rarely have they engaged with the messy, unwieldy duality and thrusting complexity hidden and entrenched within it. To do that requires honesty that isn’t afraid to acknowledge the tight spots lodged underneath the façade of affection and emotional ties. When and how does a mother-daughter relationship hurtle into becoming something that threatens to cut off almost every other relationship? What are the niggling insecurities and the throbbing loneliness that mask that suffocating bid for possessiveness?  In Isla Babuyan (Solid Gold Entertainment Production, 2025), director Jose Abdel B. Langit demonstrates an audacity by being willing to plunge into such questions. When the film opens in Paraiso, we are hurled into Rose (Lotlot de Leon) as she gets ready for the arrival of her estranged daughter, Anastasia (Geraldine Jennings) from London. She immediately comes to recognize her mother's insistence on hovering over every aspect of her life. Anatasia’s sense of autonomy is intrinsically linked to her mother’s goodwill and the connection she has forged. The dynamics between the two are ruptured by Jordan (Jameson Blake). As he pursues an interest in Anastasia, Rose finds herself confronted with the unsettling possibility of losing control over her daughter. Langit captures the mother’s fear of witnessing her daughter being wrenched away. She struggles to come to terms with Anastasia’s perceptible curiosity in another person and doesn’t hide her resentment of Jordan. Rose crumples when her daughter seems to be looking elsewhere and not her way. Anastasia enjoys the short sailing expeditions with Jordan, but when Javier (Paolo Gumabao) comes into the picture, he is thrown into unease. 

     The scenes where the three are present together roils with undercurrents as Langit subtly etches the myriad shades in the relationships colliding with each other, chafing for more visibility and attention. Javier sparks disagreements and jealousy between Anastasia and Jordan, and one can easily spot the toxicity lurking in every aspect of their relationship. Resentment, passive-aggressiveness, a lack of respect for boundaries – they’re all there, but in a very relatable way. There’s friction and tension that shoot through the cracks in every exchange underneath the gauze of niceties. Soon even the pleasantries are skipped. It’s obvious that both Rose and Anastasia are characters of flesh and blood. That said, their world is effectively a gilded cage, even if they live on the margins of society. Isla Babuyan creates an atmosphere where the viewer feels as trapped as Rose. The film could easily have veered into telenovela territory, but the director mostly avoids sentimentality. And, crucially, Rose and David (James Blanco) have a believable mix of love and hate with memories, experiences and resentments always bubbling just under the surface until finally, inevitably, they erupt. When Langit lets the explosion rip through in a confrontational scene where Rose and David's second wife, Margaux (Nathalie Hart) go at each other with their misgivings and fury, it is bursting with raw, undisguised emotion bobbing up from the very pits of vulnerability where mean, hurtful words are tossed. Isla Babuyan is stunning in its uncompromising devotion to not cutting away from emotionally acute needlepoint-like moments, conceding gradual privacy and dignity for its characters to grow and forge selfhood through painful realizations.

Screenplay: Jessie Villabrille

Director of Photography: T.M. Malones

Editing: John Anthony L. Wong

Production Design: Jay Custodio

Music: Dek Margaja

Sound Engineer: Paulo Estero

Directed By: Jose Abdel B. Langit

     Jay Altarejos' Huwag Mo Akong Salingin (2076 Kolektib, 2025) begins with an homage to Noli Me Tángere, a novel by Filipino writer and activist José Rizal. From the glossy visual elements to how outfits redefine women and the effectively sublime satire of an environment that Altarejos knew so well. In any case, analysis of the plot development or personality traits of its main characters is hardly the appropriate approach to a film like Huwag Mo Akong Salingin.  Even more than the pointed socio-political commentary, this is a playful exercise in ideas that hides its more serious provocations, but still retains the power to dazzle any viewer willing to just be taken in by the visual audacity of it all. The sets and costumes are absolutely gorgeous. They help influence the characters making the film worth watching. Through the beautiful sets and costumes, Altarejos gives audiences a visual delight and perfect representation of that. Both help tell the story and play an integral part in keeping the viewer invested. Its anarchic skewering of a fashion culture much lighter in tone on its surface but still wielding a bludgeon every bit as cynical and dismissive of wholesome mainstream tastes, puts us on the other side of the camera, posing the question How does it feel to be a woman? Altarejos is too savvy to just tell us how it feels, but he clearly has a fun time giving us some delirious imagery to stop and take a good long look at. 

Fearuring the Gowns of Rene Magtibay Salud

Jewelry By: Milagros Berboso Imson

Written and Directed By: Joselito Altarejos

Director of Photography: Marco Bertillo Mata

Edited By: Jay Altarejos, Marco Bertillo Mata

Sound and Music By: Arbi Barbarona

Production Design: 2076 Kolektib

     Mike de Leon's Itim (1976) is a quiet, delicate piece, one aching with loss and regret. It's the kind of film which demands patience, not least because of the static photography and the largely wordless storytelling he employs. The characters are established with quick, subtle strokes. There are prolonged stretches which unfold without dialogue with only flourishes of a score. His tendency as a director is to privilege images over dialogue. Sometimes he hangs on an image for minutes more than we’re conditioned to expect by most Filipino films, forcing us to contemplate what we’re seeing. The storytelling is conveyed through style over narrative, both in its lingering visuals and editing. You have to watch, feel and experience what’s onscreen in order to follow the story, which begins to play with our expectations in ways that are deeply satisfying, almost cathartic. He repurposes elements of horror and makes them melancholic. 

     In Batch '81 (1982), De Leon guides us through Sid Lucero's (Mark Gil) initiation into ΑΚΩ (Alpha Kappa Omega), a prestigious campus fraternity, based around surviving hell as a rite of passage to entry into the fraternity that’s intended to build the bonds of brotherhood. The film is a terrifying look at this phenomenon – it’s about out-of-control male machismo, the sadistic pack instinct, hazing and its repercussions on vulnerable individuals. A sequence of a pack of naked young men silent, though they are clearly shouting or maybe screaming, explores in convincing detail the sadistic macho posturing that pervades such organizations. But as the hazing gets more and more psychologically and physically tormenting, the casual, almost unconscious one-upmanship spirals out of control. What’s almost worse is that these heinous acts of torture are mostly met with blind obedience. Batch '81 creates suspense, disgust and amazement, it’s resonant, thought-provoking and memorable. 

REQUIESCAT IN PACE…

MIKE DE LEON

May 24,1947 - August 28, 2025

     KANI Releasing’s Bona is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-free and the Blu-ray is Region-A locked.

     For more about the 4K restoration, see Bitter Revenge

     The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this release:

Bona was restored in 4K by Cité de Mémoire from the 35mm original camera and sound negative reels.

4K Scanning: Cité de Mémoire

Film handling, image and sound repairs & Digital Image Restoration: Regis Desort

Negative scene by scene image scanning & color grading: Isabelle Barrière

CSI Negative sound scanning & digital restoration: L.E. Diapson

Project Management: Denis Garcia

     In native 4K, the 4K makeover of Bona can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I chose to view it with Dolby Vision and later spent time with the 1080p presentation of it on the Blu-ray. Please note that the screen captures included with this review are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc, including the actual color values. This is by and large a great looking transfer, one with good saturation levels and some nicely rendered fine detail. Reds in particular pop with considerable authority. It gives the film an all-around attractive and stable organic appearance, which is equally convincing in native 4K and 1080p resolutions. Bona features naturalistic colors and a relatively high dynamic range that creates a distinct separation between the subtle shades of browns that dominate the film’s color palette. Many different parts of the film easily convey far better density levels. As a result, virtually all of the darker footage boasts clearer, tighter and ultimately more pleasing visuals with wonderful organic qualities. Various primaries and supporting nuances have vastly improved saturation levels. I think that they are a tad warmer now, but the overall balance is right and there are no distracting anomalies. Also, in native 4K, the color palette is expanded, so there are some new ranges of supporting nuances, many of which help the darker footage quite a bit by further strengthening the dynamic range. The Dolby Vision grade is gentle and effective. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. The entire presentation looks spotless. I think those who have patiently waited for Bona to be restored will be enormously satisfied with its transition to 4K Blu-ray.

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Tagalog DTS 1.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame. The lossless track reproduces the qualities of the original soundtrack very nicely. The audio presentation boasts clean, crisp dialogue and it especially impresses whenever Max Jocson’s score is brought to the forefront.

Special Features and Extras

Jeric Soriano - in this new program, Lino Brocka's Assistant Director discuss the filming of Bona and its complicated production. The program was produced in 2025. In English, subtitled (11 minutes).

Nanding Josef - in this new program, Nanding Josef who played Nilo, Bona's suitor discuss the film and its unique qualities. The program was produced in 2025. In Tagalog, with English subtitles (22 minutes).

Q&A with Allan Brocka at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The program was created by KANI Releasing in 2024. In English, not subtitled. (22 minutes).

Clodualdo del Mundo Jr.'s short film, SUPERFAN produced in 2009. (SD). In Tagalog with English subtitles. (22 minutes). 

Trailer - presented here is the New 4K Restoration trailer for Bona. In Tagalog, with English subtitles. (2 minutes).

Booklet - a 25 page illustrated booklet featuring Perverse Defiance, an insightful essay by Professor José B. Capino, author of the book Martial Law Melodrama, as well as technical credits and acknowledgements.

     Bona attests to Nora Aunor’s remarkable versatility as an actress.  KANI's combo pack introduces a fabulous new 4K restoration available only on the 4K Blu-ray, that is guaranteed to thrill its fans.