Taklub

[highlight color=#939393 ]This review tackles a few scenes from the film in detail. Tread lightly if you haven’t seen the film. Mild spoilers ahead![/highlight]

There’s a different speculation towards Brillante Ma. Mendoza’s new film that can only be summed up in one word, one that film buffs and his fans wouldn’t dare compare to his 2009 Cannes breakout film Kinatay (Butchered): “propagandist.”

As the film opened to Cinemalaya viewers on August 7th, the film’s opening credits inform that it is funded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as well as by Sen. Loren Legarda herself. I worry that certain things may change for the award-winning filmmaker. The story and his vision may lose focus now that he is presenting a film that’s funded by the government.

It could also be a great deal for the film’s production, with better funding its aesthetics may be better, but will this mean his whole filmography has to suffer, too?

The possible answer I have for you is no. The film is restrained in some ways but his usual blend of characters stricken by a sense of hope in an ill-fated world is still evident here. Corruption remains an existing element here although we never see its physical representations centered on one soul; and that’s the fear that continually builds up the story. Its actual backdrop confirms this, as the film is set in Tacloban with the question scattered throughout: “Where did all the Yolanda funds go?”

Taklub, which in Waray or Cebuano dialect means “to cover”, Brillante Mendoza and his scriptwriter Honelyn Joy Alipio uses the word’s alternate synonym “Trap” (or to trap). The same unfortunate synonym can be taken from the Haiyan-stricken Tacloban.

The film opens to a tragedy; a burning accident in which a family is trapped inside a burning tent. Ms. Nora Aunor joins the crowd of curious residents, of worried neighbors and of fellow rescuers. There’sa little bit left of humanity as we find stretchers being dropped off, of medical technicians fight to save these lives. Ms Aunor plays Bebeth,as she witnesses another life taken out of the vicinity, she wonders where the father of this household is? Which all the more intensifies this tragedy. In the dimness of the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo’s projection, CCP’s Main Theater, all hope is lost (and the same can be said for my eyes for the next hour and a half). Ms. Aunor’s performance of the optimist mother of three, in search of her other two children, is deadbeat but it is her eyes that do the talking. One may find it strange for her calmness for the entirety of the film, until one breaking point which joins her and the other survivors lost at will as they are trapped in this town.

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It is the unfortunate character of Lou Veloso’s Mang Renato who steals the spotlight from Ms. Aunor. In his first appearance at the hospital, he strikes anger towards God and his apparent loss in the wheel of life. His next scene (again at the dimness of the theatre’s projection) his unique execution of a father whose life suddenly loses its meaning (albeit it only been shown for a mere ten seconds) he sets off to the ocean, taking with him a gas light which he hangs at the other end of the boat (one that can easily remind him of his loss). He is left wandering in the vast ocean. The sun sets and we see the expression on his face turn from confusion to grief.

I have much praise for this man’s performance. The same can be said for his other cast Julio Diaz and Aaron Rivera. Diaz’s sedate return to cinema is one that should occur more often. As Larry, he converses in a little bisaya (unlike the other characters, which is weird for me because it isn’t a language too difficult to learn) and plays a post-version of Mang Renato. His wife and children are lost during Haiyan, what remains of him is his faith and his father. A panata occurs with or without him; men and women dressed in robes roam the village while one carries the crucifix signifying the return of faith for the villagers. But tragedies strike soon and he is again at loss when a close family member dies.

Aaron Rivera plays Erwin. Upon the loss of his parents during the typhoon he and siblings try to survive by building their old home in one of the restricted sites. He wins by continually surviving with his siblings, but loses it when his petition to leave the town cannot be granted by the government.

The film eulogizes the survivors as a cry for mercy at the height of the catastrophe. The film’s narrative, although restrained, is constructed into several pieces depicting ways on how each player survive. And it is important to note that. But the real question remains resonant for the film’s entirety, one that perhaps Mendoza and his team tries to execute neck-deep “Where is all the help these people need?”.

~

The film premiered to Cinemalaya audiences as its opening film last August 7th.  The film’s nationwide release has been moved to September 16.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uK0dadVfzs