Co-winner of Locarno's video competition, Brillante Mendoza's feature debut was a testament to what was about to follow, although truth is, this film seems even more daring than his next ones.
20-year-old Iliac works at a gay massage/prostitution parlor in order to support his family after his father left them. As the movie begins, his father has just died, and the young man has to return to his hometown to take care of the funeral rituals along with his mother, Naty, who does not seem to care that her husband has previously abandoned them. In the parlor, he may not be the most asked-for employee but just the previous night, he ended up “servicing” a romance novelist, who had a real impact on him, in contrast to his girlfriend, who seems distant.
Mendoza creates an intriguing narrative which is essentially a constant montage between the events in the parlor and the funeral proceedings,...
20-year-old Iliac works at a gay massage/prostitution parlor in order to support his family after his father left them. As the movie begins, his father has just died, and the young man has to return to his hometown to take care of the funeral rituals along with his mother, Naty, who does not seem to care that her husband has previously abandoned them. In the parlor, he may not be the most asked-for employee but just the previous night, he ended up “servicing” a romance novelist, who had a real impact on him, in contrast to his girlfriend, who seems distant.
Mendoza creates an intriguing narrative which is essentially a constant montage between the events in the parlor and the funeral proceedings,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Both the most famous, for being the first Filipino film to net Best Director Award in Cannes, among a number of other awards from festivals all over the world, and the most notorious, considering how a number of critics slammed it, “Kinatay” is definitely a landmark for local cinema, as much as for Mendoza, whose international legend essentially begun here.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film is essentially split into two parts. The first revolves around the marriage of Peping, a 20-year-old criminology student, with a classmate of his, 19-year-old Cecile, following the birth of their son, while highlighting their everyday life. Peping, however, is in dire need of money, which is why he agrees to the proposition of his schoolmate, Abyong, to work as a part-time errand boy for a local syndicate that collects protection fees from various businesses in Manila. One night,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film is essentially split into two parts. The first revolves around the marriage of Peping, a 20-year-old criminology student, with a classmate of his, 19-year-old Cecile, following the birth of their son, while highlighting their everyday life. Peping, however, is in dire need of money, which is why he agrees to the proposition of his schoolmate, Abyong, to work as a part-time errand boy for a local syndicate that collects protection fees from various businesses in Manila. One night,...
- 4/6/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Parchi, Ang Panday and all of the International Cinema titles opening at Cineplex this weekend!Parchi, Ang Panday and all of the International Cinema titles opening at Cineplex this weekend!Adriana Floridia1/11/2018 2:49:00 PMEvery week, select Cineplex theatres feature some of the most popular and exciting films from all around the world, from countries like China, India, Korea, The Philippines and more. If you want to try something different at the movies, or simply celebrate your own or a new culture on the big screen, we’re highlighting the International Cinema titles out this weekend that you’ll surely enjoy!
1987: When the Day Comes (Korean w/ English subtitles)
In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a college student gets killed during a police interrogation involving torture. Government officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release,...
1987: When the Day Comes (Korean w/ English subtitles)
In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a college student gets killed during a police interrogation involving torture. Government officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release,...
- 1/11/2018
- by Adriana Floridia
- Cineplex
Set in the bleak plains of Pampanga, Emmanuel Palo's Sta. Nina tells the story of Paulino (Coco Martin) who suddenly unearths the coffin of his daughter ten years after her death. Despite the length of time the coffin has been buried, her daughter remains uncorrupted, seemingly miraculously unchanged. Rumors of the marvel start to spread, causing several townspeople, including the province's sickly governor, to flock Paulino's house to be cured of their afflictions. More than that, the return of Paulino's daughter again unravels his sins from the past and his unfinished efforts for redemption. Palo's crafting is exquisite. The film is beautifully photographed. The greys of the lahar-covered landscape evoke the very emptiness that confounds the people that manage to make a living despite the...
- 7/26/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Jerome Pobocan's Born to Love You is hardly anything special. A weepy romance with bits of comedy sprinkled sparingly all throughout, the film aspires nothing but mediocrity. It is plotted awkwardly. The story, about an angst-ridden photographer (Coco Martin) who suddenly falls for a tour guide (Angeline Quinto) while wrestling with issues regarding his family, is stretched via convolutions and coincidences that both arrive out of and lead to nowhere. The pleasures it provides are but momentary, barely enough to repay the superhuman endurance that it asks to be invested.As just another one of those run-of-the-mill romances that Star Cinema churns out for a quick buck, it bears the same problems as those that came before it that left no dent on the genre...
- 6/3/2012
- Screen Anarchy
For my segments shown in Balitang America every Friday on The Filipino Channel, I made special movie reviews for "Noy" and "Sa 'Yo Lamang."
First, let's talk about "Noy." It's the Philippines entry for the Best Foreign Language Film competition at the Academy Awards. Will this Filipino independent film make the short list? One thing is for sure, Coco Martin heads an impressive ensemble cast. Take a look at my review:
Now, let's talk about "Sa 'Yo Lamang" starring Lorna Tolentino, Christopher de Leon, and once again, Coco Martin. It's directed by the award-winning Laurice Guillen ("Tanging Yaman") and it is Star Cinema's offering for its 17th year anniversary. Did I enjoy the film? Take a look:...
First, let's talk about "Noy." It's the Philippines entry for the Best Foreign Language Film competition at the Academy Awards. Will this Filipino independent film make the short list? One thing is for sure, Coco Martin heads an impressive ensemble cast. Take a look at my review:
Now, let's talk about "Sa 'Yo Lamang" starring Lorna Tolentino, Christopher de Leon, and once again, Coco Martin. It's directed by the award-winning Laurice Guillen ("Tanging Yaman") and it is Star Cinema's offering for its 17th year anniversary. Did I enjoy the film? Take a look:...
- 11/12/2010
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
If you'd like to read about the now official Oscar submissions for Best Foreign Language Film, click away. But because you -- make that we -- can't see most of the films, due to the hideous state of international distribution, let us use this Academy press release as an excuse to take a different view, a sexytime view... a Beauty Break if you will. Let's gawk at the actors and actresses who are in the submitted films. We'll pretend it's like a Miss Universe pageant (how do you say "shallow" in Finnish?). Randomly selected hotties follow (it's not easy to find info/photos.) whether you're into the men, the women or other. Don't judge!
Beauty Knows No Borders
I presume you'll let me know your very favorites in the comments. Do I presume too much?
Handsome Guys...
Left: Bill Skarsgård a.k.a. Alexander's lil brö (20) for Sweden's Simple Simon.
Beauty Knows No Borders
I presume you'll let me know your very favorites in the comments. Do I presume too much?
Handsome Guys...
Left: Bill Skarsgård a.k.a. Alexander's lil brö (20) for Sweden's Simple Simon.
- 10/15/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
While I do not think that something as edgy or unusual as Giorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth (pictured above) will make the 'final five' short list, but kudos to Greece for throwing it out there. Perhaps something like Tetsuya Nakashima's Confessions will make the cut despite its similarly unsettling subject matter. Either way, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did put out a big release yesterday with all of their Foreign Language film submissions, 65 of them in total even Greenland, from various countries. Many of these films have reviews in our archives.
Albania, East West East, Gjergj Xhuvani
Algeria, Hors la Loi ("Outside the Law"), Rachid Bouchareb
Argentina, Carancho, Pablo Trapero
Austria, La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Azerbaijan, The Precinct, Ilgar Safat
Bangladesh, Third Person Singular Number, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Belgium, Illegal, Olivier Masset-Depasse
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Circus Columbia, Danis Tanovic
Brazil, Lula the Son of Brazil,...
Albania, East West East, Gjergj Xhuvani
Algeria, Hors la Loi ("Outside the Law"), Rachid Bouchareb
Argentina, Carancho, Pablo Trapero
Austria, La Pivellina, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
Azerbaijan, The Precinct, Ilgar Safat
Bangladesh, Third Person Singular Number, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Belgium, Illegal, Olivier Masset-Depasse
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Circus Columbia, Danis Tanovic
Brazil, Lula the Son of Brazil,...
- 10/14/2010
- Screen Anarchy
65 Countries Enter Race for 2010 Foreign Language Film Oscar®
Beverly Hills, CA: Sixty-five countries, including first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The 2010 submissions are:
.Albania, .East, West, East,. Gjergj Xhuvani, director;
.Algeria, .Hors la Loi. (.Outside the Law.), Rachid Bouchareb, director;
.Argentina, .Carancho,. Pablo Trapero, director;
.Austria, .La Pivellina,. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, directors;
.Azerbaijan, .The Precinct,. Ilgar Safat, director;
.Bangladesh, .Third Person Singular Number,. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
.Belgium, .Illegal,. Olivier Masset-Depasse, director;
.Bosnia and Herzegovina, .Circus Columbia,. Danis Tanovic, director;
.Brazil, .Lula, the Son of Brazil,. Fabio Barreto, director;
.Bulgaria, .Eastern Plays,. Kamen Kalev, director;
.Canada, .Incendies,. Denis Villeneuve, director;
.Chile, .The Life of Fish,. Matias Bize, director;
.China, .Aftershock,. Feng Xiaogang, director;
.Colombia, .Crab Trap,. Oscar Ruiz Navia, director;
.Costa Rica, .Of Love and Other Demons,. Hilda Hidalgo, director;
.Croatia, .The Blacks,...
Beverly Hills, CA: Sixty-five countries, including first-time entrants Ethiopia and Greenland, have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The 2010 submissions are:
.Albania, .East, West, East,. Gjergj Xhuvani, director;
.Algeria, .Hors la Loi. (.Outside the Law.), Rachid Bouchareb, director;
.Argentina, .Carancho,. Pablo Trapero, director;
.Austria, .La Pivellina,. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, directors;
.Azerbaijan, .The Precinct,. Ilgar Safat, director;
.Bangladesh, .Third Person Singular Number,. Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, director;
.Belgium, .Illegal,. Olivier Masset-Depasse, director;
.Bosnia and Herzegovina, .Circus Columbia,. Danis Tanovic, director;
.Brazil, .Lula, the Son of Brazil,. Fabio Barreto, director;
.Bulgaria, .Eastern Plays,. Kamen Kalev, director;
.Canada, .Incendies,. Denis Villeneuve, director;
.Chile, .The Life of Fish,. Matias Bize, director;
.China, .Aftershock,. Feng Xiaogang, director;
.Colombia, .Crab Trap,. Oscar Ruiz Navia, director;
.Costa Rica, .Of Love and Other Demons,. Hilda Hidalgo, director;
.Croatia, .The Blacks,...
- 10/13/2010
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Coco Martin (left) is smiling because his career is going so nicely, thank you very much. He employs the savvy modern move of many a contemporary Hollywood star which is to say he alternates between mainstream projects for the fame/money and indie films for the cred. 'One for audiences, one for me' as it were (see also: Clooney, Moore and dozens of American A-listers). The irony for stars outside of the Bollywood and Hollywood mega-systems though is that the "art" or indie projects are really the only way you get fame/money in the international sphere, since that's the stuff that travels and wins international honors in other countries
Coco is the star of the Pinoy Oscar submission Noy which he also co-wrote and co-produced. If you recognize him at all, it's probably as the frequent muse of The Philippines most internationally recognized director Brillante Dante Mendoza for whom...
Coco is the star of the Pinoy Oscar submission Noy which he also co-wrote and co-produced. If you recognize him at all, it's probably as the frequent muse of The Philippines most internationally recognized director Brillante Dante Mendoza for whom...
- 9/25/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The story of Laurice Guillen's Sa'yo Lamang is hardly new. An imperfect but seemingly stable family disintegrates into chaos as one by one, the family members figure serious conflicts and secrets, whether from the past or the present, conveniently unravel, threatening the sheen of normalcy that has sustained the family through the years. From Jeffrey Jeturian's low-budgeted but elegantly staged Sana Pag-ibig Na (Enter Love, 1998), to Wenn Deramas' lowbrow yet unpretentiously enjoyable Ang Tanging Ina (The Only Mother, 2003), to Joel Lamangan's middling and intolerably weepy Filipinas (2003), to Brillante Mendoza's highbrow and provocatively stirring Serbis (Service, 2008), the Filipino family has been exposed, crumbling in the midst of dire needs or expanding generation gaps or the simple passage of time.
The family, considered as an invaluable social element, is a persisting Filipino need. In the absence of it, a typical Filipino, in his desire to find personal comfort...
The family, considered as an invaluable social element, is a persisting Filipino need. In the absence of it, a typical Filipino, in his desire to find personal comfort...
- 9/3/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Filipino director Brillante Mendoza is going international. The acclaimed director of Serbis and Kinatay has announced plans for his next feature, one based on the real life kidnapping of foreigners in the Mindanao region. Title Captured, production is slated to begin next year with French actress Isabelle Huppert joining locals Coco Martin, Ronnie Lazaro, Jhong Hilario, Ketchup Eusebio, and Ping Medina.
- 8/2/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Clearly Isabelle Huppert has a thing for Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza. It was not so long ago (May of 2009 to pinpoint the year) where Huppert and her Cannes jury peers awarded Mendoza with the Best Director award for Kinatay (the pressed hissed at that selection) and now, she'll venture off to the Philippines, sometime next year, to star in a picture that will most likely be a brutal drama if we go by the title and the director's previous work. According to this source, the pair of been keeping in touch for a while. Captured would tell the story about a foreign missionary (Huppert) who is caught up in a hostage-taking of foreign nationals by Philippine group Abu Sayyaf (which would include Philippine actor Coco Martin). The project sort of reminds me of the character she played in another hostile land in Claire Denis' White Material. French producer Didier Costet...
- 7/20/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The biggest and most fatal problem of Dondon Santos' Noy is that it was never allowed to grow its own set of balls. The film is basically a product of favors: from then-presidential candidate and now-president apparent Noynoy Aquino, his family, and his campaign team, who allowed Santos and his crew the opportunity to shoot the presidential campaign from the inside. As such, it never fully acquires a voice. It relays its message, or whatever sort of motherhood generality it tries to impart, through minuscule peeps and squeaks. It is what it is, and no matter how it musters every conceit in cinema like mixing documentary footage with overt melodrama, it remains to be at most, a limp and flaccid political statement if not an absolutely impotent failure.
Noy (Coco Martin) is an ambitious yet unqualified young man who by submitting a fake diploma and a demo reel he...
Noy (Coco Martin) is an ambitious yet unqualified young man who by submitting a fake diploma and a demo reel he...
- 6/7/2010
- Screen Anarchy
instead of a tues top 10, a 25.
I did this once for the actresses but I'm always giving the ladies their due. So, here's to the silver screen men that have enriched my movie-life. I admit up front that I haven't investigated Classic Hollywood actors to the extent I've investigated their leading ladies, so this list is highly subject to change the more old movies I see in my life.
Nathaniel's 25 all time favorite leading men
In no particular order and extremely subject to change
Gene Kelly | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai |
Montgomery Clift | Jeff Bridges | Paul Newman
Jude Law | James Dean | William Holden | Gene Hackman | Rock Hudson
Jack Lemmon | Gael García Bernal | Ewan McGregor | James Stewart | Gregory Peck
Steve Martin | Marlon Brando | Jack Nicholson | Burt Lancaster | Richard Burton
Brad Pitt | Johnny Depp | Cary Grant | Warren Beatty | William Hurt
Because sometimes you just want to name names
The list is not comprehensive, not set in stone,...
I did this once for the actresses but I'm always giving the ladies their due. So, here's to the silver screen men that have enriched my movie-life. I admit up front that I haven't investigated Classic Hollywood actors to the extent I've investigated their leading ladies, so this list is highly subject to change the more old movies I see in my life.
Nathaniel's 25 all time favorite leading men
In no particular order and extremely subject to change
Gene Kelly | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai |
Montgomery Clift | Jeff Bridges | Paul Newman
Jude Law | James Dean | William Holden | Gene Hackman | Rock Hudson
Jack Lemmon | Gael García Bernal | Ewan McGregor | James Stewart | Gregory Peck
Steve Martin | Marlon Brando | Jack Nicholson | Burt Lancaster | Richard Burton
Brad Pitt | Johnny Depp | Cary Grant | Warren Beatty | William Hurt
Because sometimes you just want to name names
The list is not comprehensive, not set in stone,...
- 8/29/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Film Review: Serbis, Cannes, In Competition
Taking place mostly in a porno theater ironically, yet fittingly, named Family, "Serbis" is part homage to cinema, part intimate domestic drama that vividly details the tangled relations and all-too human frailties of an extended family running a theater in the provincial Philippines.
Director Brillante Mendoza continues the neo-realist vein of "Foster Child" and "Sling Shot" in "Serbis", but displays marked improvement -- both the grunge aesthetic and film language now bear his personal handwriting. To this, he adds some bristling sexuality, both gay and straight.
"Serbis" contains elements of soap opera from popular Philippine cinema and TV, but without any of the froth and lather. Unspooling at an almost real-time pace, with a narrative that is all foreplay and no conventional climax, the film won't win any commercial converts to the Philippine new wave. Festival and art-house bookings are optimistic though.
The film adopts a worldly and tolerant attitude in dramatizing the double standards in operation every day at a porn theater that has involved into a hotbed for rentboys to service gay clients (hence the title, which means "service"). Gena Pareno ("Kubrador") is a towering presence, who puts fire and tears into her multiple roles -- as a wife clenching the bitterness of abandonment, an aggrieved mother feeling betrayed by her children's divided loyalty to their father and the pillar that holds together the tottering family business.
But the theater itself may be the film's real star. Flooded toilets, running sores and steamy sex behind the projector that outperforms what's happening on screen create a dank, dripping texture and festering mood that echo most of Tsai's oeuvre.
The camera explores each nook and cranny of the dilapidated movie-house like an usher who knows his way round blindfolded, and the building, with its richly visual interior structures desperately in need of an overhaul, comes to symbolize poetically the predicament of its inhabitants and their moral ambiguity.
Cast: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, Roxanne Jordan. Director: Brillante Mendoza. Screenwriter: Armando Lao. Producer: Ferdinand Lapuz. Director of photography: Odyssey Flores. Production designer: Benjamin Padero, Carlo Tabije. Music: Gian Gianan. Editor: Claire Villa-Real.
Center Stage Prods./Swift Prods.
Sales: Fortissimo Films.
No rating, 90 minutes.
Taking place mostly in a porno theater ironically, yet fittingly, named Family, "Serbis" is part homage to cinema, part intimate domestic drama that vividly details the tangled relations and all-too human frailties of an extended family running a theater in the provincial Philippines.
Director Brillante Mendoza continues the neo-realist vein of "Foster Child" and "Sling Shot" in "Serbis", but displays marked improvement -- both the grunge aesthetic and film language now bear his personal handwriting. To this, he adds some bristling sexuality, both gay and straight.
"Serbis" contains elements of soap opera from popular Philippine cinema and TV, but without any of the froth and lather. Unspooling at an almost real-time pace, with a narrative that is all foreplay and no conventional climax, the film won't win any commercial converts to the Philippine new wave. Festival and art-house bookings are optimistic though.
The film adopts a worldly and tolerant attitude in dramatizing the double standards in operation every day at a porn theater that has involved into a hotbed for rentboys to service gay clients (hence the title, which means "service"). Gena Pareno ("Kubrador") is a towering presence, who puts fire and tears into her multiple roles -- as a wife clenching the bitterness of abandonment, an aggrieved mother feeling betrayed by her children's divided loyalty to their father and the pillar that holds together the tottering family business.
But the theater itself may be the film's real star. Flooded toilets, running sores and steamy sex behind the projector that outperforms what's happening on screen create a dank, dripping texture and festering mood that echo most of Tsai's oeuvre.
The camera explores each nook and cranny of the dilapidated movie-house like an usher who knows his way round blindfolded, and the building, with its richly visual interior structures desperately in need of an overhaul, comes to symbolize poetically the predicament of its inhabitants and their moral ambiguity.
Cast: Gina Pareno, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, Roxanne Jordan. Director: Brillante Mendoza. Screenwriter: Armando Lao. Producer: Ferdinand Lapuz. Director of photography: Odyssey Flores. Production designer: Benjamin Padero, Carlo Tabije. Music: Gian Gianan. Editor: Claire Villa-Real.
Center Stage Prods./Swift Prods.
Sales: Fortissimo Films.
No rating, 90 minutes.
- 5/18/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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