mojacko's recently viewed movies

I loved Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth and I recently viewed his earlier work, The Devil's Backbone and loved it even more! It's a more straightforward ghost story with similar elements of Spain's civil war and creepy characters, human or otherwise.

T-D-B 1
Uploaded by blooppisaster. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

I wondered why we couldn't think of something like it that was intriguing, intelligent and steeped in local lore and history till I remembered we did. Before we started aping japanese horror, we had Diosa and Haplos way back in 1982! Although I was only able to watch them on TV in the afternoon during summer breaks.

Diosa starred Lorna Tolentino as a vengeful encanto whose treasures were stolen by a horny conquistador. Thereafter, every male descendant of that Spaniard was cursed to fall in love with a mysterious woman who would lead him to ruin. Brothers played by nerdy Lloyd Samartino and playboy Alfie Anido are the last generation who are ensnared by Lorna's beauty. Save for the dated special effects and some English diction problems ("What do you mean by that, huuuh?") this movie could put current films like T2 and Feng Shui to shame.


Even more haunting is Haplos, starring Vilma Santos as a modern woman caught in a truly bizarre love triangle with Christopher de Leon and Rio Locsin as a mysterious barrio lass who turns out to be a ghost who was killed by Japanese soldiers in World War 2!!! When Christopher finds out the truth he is so traumatized by it, Vilma has to ask for Rio's help as a last resort! The ending will leave you thinking of it long after the credits have faded.

I do hope we make unique movies again someday. I have heard good things about Yanggaw...

mojacko's recently viewed DVDs

Since Twinx's school was shut down due to a case of the swine flu, we bought some, ehem, DVDs to pass the time. We watched Coraline, T2 and Shake, Rattle and Roll X.

I had no idea about what Neil Gaiman's Coraline was about but it was an exciting experience! This is the only movie where I don't hate that precocious Dakota Fanning! From one of the makers of "The nightmare before Christmas," Henry Selick's movie is about the adventures of a girl named Coraline who finds a door that leads to a parallel world where everything is perfect except for the fact that the people there have buttons for eyes and her "other mom" wants her to stay there and sew button eyes on her, too! Plus, I love the roles of Brit duo, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders! Hilarious and scary!




Chito Rono's T2 is not Terminator 2 but stands for Tenement 2, the setting of the climax of the latest Star Cinema horror flick. It has an interesting and promising premise about our local folklore's encantos.

(SPOILER ALERT)

Maricel Soriano is a woman whose marriage is crumbling when she decides to bring an orphan girl to her new adoptive parent in T2 but all sorts of strange beings keep following them from Samar to Manila to get the girl who is a child of a man and an encanto.

My main problem with this movie is that is seems to have confused encantos with the aswangs. Encantos are enchanted beings who can be wicked and playful but not evil. Here, encantos turn into giant black boars, rats or wall-crawling creatures with green-grey skin who are vanquished by throwing salt at them. I also find it funny that in the movies, the encantos' world looks like Hong Kong Disneyland complete with fireworks, though a very interesting blog claims that this otherworldly beings do live in a very modern world replete with golden castles and hi-tech airplanes. (But what for, when they can travel anywhere in the blink of an eye?)

While Maricel is a competent actress, Rono should have reined in the young girl's OA tendencies and take a cue from Haley Joel Osment's mysterious turn in The Sixth Sense.

Finally, while we all started giving up on the Shake Rattle and Roll franchise after the brilliant first movie featuring Ishmael Bernal's "Pridyider" and Peque Gallaga's "Manananggal," right? But every now and then a jewel rises out of the muck like Lore Reyes' "Aswang" in part 2 or part 3's "Nanay" by Gallaga.

For part 10, upon my sister's recommendation, I skipped to the third part titled "Nieves" starring Marian Rivera as an encanto-buster who retires after losing her husband(Pekto) to an encanto queen. Far from being scary, this is intentionally funny and so refreshing! Forget T2, the encantos here are naughty, seductive and speak in a weirdly familiar language. It turns out one of the encantos (Iwa Moto) spoke swards speak (gay language!)

This movie showcases Marian's true calling : comedy! Forget another remake of Darna, they should make Nieves into a TV series!

This part got such good buzz, Regal Films is turning it into a full-length movie this year!