Easter Vigil at St. John de Baptist Taytay Rizal
CinemaWorld Asia
Post Easter Out of Town
There is more to Cuenca Batangas than Mt. Maculot
Biking around in this small town opens up more interesting attractions but challenging routes with all the abrupt ahons and lusongs
Pedaling casually in the town proper at a slow pace is a delight and a welcome recovery
Thanks to Nelson Malabanan and his accommodating relatives for showing us around
The local town folks' genuine interaction and the simplicity of living (except on political choices) is heart-warming to returning city dwellers
Next time around, more determined, with better tuned and appropriate equipment (brakes and gears) and conditioned body, the 4.8 kilometer stretch of series of sharp ascents and descents from the lake Taal shore to the highway of President Jose Laurel of Barangay Halang sitio Tagbakin in Lipa City will eventually be conquered
San Isidro Labrador, salamat sa gabay sa araw na yun
A 58-kilometer road trip from Grace Park Caloocan to Malolos Bulacan and back
Reunited
The happiest months in the Philippines are not during the Christmas season nor on Easter but in March, April, May.
You are told what you want to hear to the infinity and beyond. You are valued and given importance regardless of your status.
There is herd employment on the streets on a short term basis. All colours compete for attention setting a festive mood. Catchy tunes are heard in every corner.
Unfortunately this happens only every 6 years. Savor it while it lasts. Because after May 9 prepare for brokenness. The dream ends (except when the candidate with proven concrete results wins).
A seasoned biker with a new toy has not seen the Nuestra church even after biking to the sitio several times
Best Things in the World, Brazilian movie in Portuguese on Cinema World channel at Cignal TV and Sky Cable
Three generations of sons with resentments for their fathers travel together by land to pick up the matriarch who just separated from the patriarch. Coming from three separate households, the son plans to pick up his mother so she could take care of the aging patriarch of the family and manage this family crisis.
Best Screenplay, 2012 Polish Film Festival
Discovery of Year (Michał Urbaniak), 2013 Polish Film Awards
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/my-fathers-bike/
Two movies on May-December affairs thrilled me with the couples connecting, hurt me when they separate, rejoiced with reconciliation, shocked with unexpected turn of events.
One is fun to watch, the other more profound and hurting. Couples are happy when not in denial, disturbed when pressured for rightness.
In Love in Mauritius, two couples with issues strike it out: the elder woman with his husband and mother and the younger student with his mother. Both go through a period of transition moving on without each other. Eventually, the two discover that they are meant for each other.
Age gap, marital status, lies, and undisclosed facts were overcome by the feelings the two are meant for each other realized over time.
While both Christian and Stella are physically separated pressured by the local community and the accident, Christian discovered a way to be reunited perpetually through the sight of fossilized insects.
No pressure can block the strong drive of the younger lover to make the relationship work even if it means giving up one's life or ways initiated by the young male to put a closure to the relationship.
A Minute's Silence is a Best Film nominee in the 2016 Munich Film Festival.
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/a-minutes-silence/
Both films shown on Cinema World.
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Two movies on May-December affairs thrilled me with the couples connecting, hurt me when they separate, rejoiced with reconciliation, shocked with unexpected turn of events.
The European films Love in Mauritius in French set in the island and in Paris and Minute's Silence in German set in a fishing village in Baltic tackle the themes on love frowned by norms.
One is fun to watch, the other more profound and hurting. Couples are happy when not in denial, disturbed when pressured for rightness.
In Minute's Silence, I feel the pain of Christian when as a student to his teacher and as a fisherman and boatman in a small community, he represses his feelings. I feel his pain when he cannot even say goodbye in private to his beloved partner and teacher Stella.
While Christian and Stella are physically separated pressured by the local community and the accident, Christian discovered a way to be reunited perpetually.
No pressure can block the strong drive of the younger lover to make the relationship work even if it means giving up one's life.
A Minute's Silence is a Best Film nominee in the 2016 Munich Film Festival.
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/a-minutes-silence/
https://youtu.be/fbwUwpQtwS4
In Love in Mauritius, two couples with issues strike it out: the elder woman with his husband and mother and the younger student with his mother. Both go through a period of transition moving on without each other. Eventually, the two discover that they are meant for each other.
Age gap, marital status, lies and undisclosed facts were overcome by the feelings the two are meant for each other realized over time.
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/love-in-mauritius/
Both films shown on Cinema World.
Identifying Features. Mother in search of her son crossing the Mexican borders detected as missing said to have died
Mother's love for a child is no other doing whatever it takes to gain her son back. Unsettling discovery
But when survival is at stake, men turn into savage beasts
Grand Jury Prize 2020 Sundance Film Festival
Movie in Spanish with English subtitles
https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/384050/
Lovers. 5 Lovers set in Bologna Italy playing different roles seeking assurances for faithfulness and devotion
Several interesting settings essayed by the same actors: Manager-subordinate in a corporate setting. Bookstore owner-real estate agent. Boutique sales person-Boutique sales manager. Wife-Male therapist. Ghost writer-DJ icon
Humans always have insecurities about themselves projecting them to their lovers
Serious, creative, dismaying reality
Best Feature Film 2017 Crystal Palace London International Film Festival
Movie in Italian with English subtitles
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/lovers/
"It's just who I am. Too bad not too many people like that!"
Sean is an obedient 16-year-old son, intelligent, a principled person with a character. He loves his little half-sister who he does not see. He reads Frank Kafka known for themes on transformation, isolation, sacrifice.
Story revolved around deconstructing what's going on in Sean's mind wrongly accused of plotting a crime.
The sufferings and conditions he faced, bullied, ostracized, beaten up toughened his grit, endurance and perseverance.
As the story unfolded, we eagerly track how he gets redeemed from the misconceptions about him and how the universe makes up for the injustice done to him.
Detention in prison not once but twice drew out the true good humanity in Sean. Resolving issues on his own; he simply was just truthful about himself and how he feel for others.
"Doesn't anyone care about the truth?"
His goodness was not easy to extract but once it surfaced, he is seen not just human but an extraordinary human.
Nothing not even the most adverse condition can put a good man down. The universe finds a way for one to get what one deserves.
"Easy isn't really my thing"
Still serving the last 2 months of his sentence, the black bird has been freed
Disturbing, depressing, enraging
How can a patriarchal society be cruel to a marginalized mother who took on the difficult responsibility of raising her family?
Burning Birds movie shown on Cinema World at Cignal TV set in Sri Langka makes you question why families have to face such tragic fate.
It is about the plight of Kusum, wife of a murdered fish vendor who took on the role of a breadwinner to feed her family doing odd and compromising jobs.
A responsible mother will do whatever it takes for the sake of the children even at the expense of her pride and dignity. Man as humans has limits and tipping points.
Watching Burning Birds, I recalled Pope Francis' message to the youth at UST in January 2015 when he saw the children assigned to present cry.
Pope Francis in his message paid tribute to women and posed a question on suffering children.
Women see differently from men. She poses questions which have no answers and could not put them in words but in tears.
"Why do we allow children to suffer?," he asked. There are no answers but reaction can either be in silence or in tears.
Only when we weep are we cleansed to see the reality of life. Only when we weep are we capable of fully understanding life.
I weep for what all that mother Kusum did to raise her family when the breadwinner of the house was deliberately killed. I weep for the tragedy that she faced doing what she did for the love of her family.
The movie Burning Fires powerfully elicited that response.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/.../burning-birds.../
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/burning-birds/
The Vegetarian shown on Cignal TV's Cinema World channel 59 introduced me to the culture of the Indian Brahmin from an Indian-Italian male son perspective particularly on beliefs on family, death, reincarnation, after life journey.
Story as narrated by Krishna, a staff at an Italian cow farm milking and measuring the outputs has a firm embrace on the caste and the sacredness of a cow; through narration, poetry, images, flashback, storytelling as a "live book" he educates us on nature, trees, rivers, marriage and singleness and the relationship between a vegetarian meal and the cow.
Living in Italy working hard to make ends meet to support his Italian wife, he stood by his Indian roots.
Admirable how Krishna has not compromised the sacredness of the cow, beliefs even with most difficult situations confronting him.
Enlightened and inspired by the lead character, The Vegetarian as it ended left an unexplainable impression, not sadness nor joy, not disturbed nor convinced but certainly respect for the Brahmin's beliefs.
"When the sun has set, when the moon has set, when the fire has gone out, what is then the light of man?"
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/the-vegetarian/
Bon Appetit, set in Switzerland and Spain is another favourite
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/bon-appetit/
https://cinemaworld.asia/schedule/
@CignalTV’s CinemaWorld on channel 59 features foreign "indie" films entered in international film festivals
Watching several films in a marathon each day feels like being in the festival itself without paying for festival passes
Literature on synopsis and schedules is available on Cinema World Asia website https://cinemaworld.asia/schedule/
(all foreign films have English subtitles)
Channel is an exposition of the diversity of culture, values, tradition, language, norms, landscape, situations and emotions across the continents
Conflicts though are universal differing in resolution
-Felt how an Afghan woman is tortured if pregnant and not married in Wajma
-Experienced how the Italian farmers love preparing food, enjoying meals together and how influential the police and the Mafia are in Mafia and Red Tomatoes
-Brought me to Saint-Petersburg in Russia figuring out how a single mother can make a tourist park work to save it in Love in Saint-Petersburg
-Introduced to Dafne, an extraordinary daughter with syndrome managing the grief of the loss of her mother and emotional state of her father through her wisdom, long walk and conversation
-Witnessed how couples in Sweden plan their weddings, work out divorce papers and live on boats in Greta's Wedding
-Brought me to a safari farm in Johannesburg South Africa following the changing behaviors of a grandfather, teenage boys, daughter and their relationships with each other in Nanny on Board in South Africa
-Observed how an introverted only son living with an absentee single mother cope with struggles in school and with his relationship with his mother in Sebbe. Disturbed with the escape choices Sebastian set up: self-destruction or disappearance
-Saw through the psyche of a refugee son in Macando Austria acting as the man of the house for his mother and two young sisters in the absence of a soldier father who died in the war. Witnessed his coming of age as influenced by young friends, older father image neighbor friend from responsible to mischievous, delinquent, hating eventually accepting
-Followed the turnaround in a waiter's life when he took on an identity of a mysterious writer living a life of lie in My Words, My Lie, My Life
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wajma_2013
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbird_(2012_film)
https://2015.italianfilmfestival.com.au/.../mafia-and-red
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/love-in-saint-petersburg/
https://www.screendaily.com/.../dafne.../5136806.article
https://cinemaworld.asia/movie/gretas-wedding/
https://cinemaworld.asia/.../nanny-on-board-ii-south-africa/
https://europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/film/macondo.7368
https://theweereview.com/.../my-words-my-lies-my-love.../
A number of films tackle difficult and disturbing conflicts between child and parent ending either with a redemption or left unresolved
Son and mother https://europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/film/sebbe.7886
Son and mother https://europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/film/macondo.7368
Daughter and father https://europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/film/dafne.13154
Daughter and father https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wajma_2013
Daughter and father https://cinemaworld.asia/.../nanny-on-board-ii-south-africa/
Son and mother https://cineuropa.org/en/film/309499/
Finding Rizal in a time of barriers, a documentary premiered on Jose Rizal’s 160th birth anniversary on ANC Sky Cable
