Jane (Hasmine Kilip) and Aries (Ronwaldo Martin) in a scene from Pamilya Ordanaryo
Ordinary People and Lola Igna are two Tagalog-language films Netflix is offering to celebrate 100 years of Philippine cinema,
Both these iconic movies have been directed by 40-year-old Eduardo W. Roy Jr., a major talent in the nation’s film industry.
In Ordinary People (Pamilya Ordanaryo), a single-lens camera follows a homeless, glue-sniffing teenage couple, Jane (Hasmine Kilip) and Aries (Ronwaldo Martin), who eke out a living as petty thieves on chaotic Manila streets. Things take an intriguing turn as their 30-day old infant is stolen, and they begin to look for the kid vividly exposing social injustice, exploitation and discrimination stacked against them. What is frustrating is even prosperous people are trying to make a fast buck from the plight of these helpless kids who lead pathetic lives.
Everywhere they turn to seek help to find the baby that was stolen by a transvestite on the pretext of helping Jane, push them further into despair in a system that has little empathy for the downtrodden.
Critics compare Director Roy to Vittorio de Sica (Bicycle Thief) and Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) for his sensitivity and nearness to post-war neo-realism.
A reviewer says Ordinary People is like ‘de Sica’s Bicycle Thief without the bicycle.’ For the bicycle, what Roy gives the couple is a 30-day-old infant.
Aries wants to give up looking for the child as he thinks the baby is in good hands surrounded by comforts which they can’t give the child on a little hammock in the streets but Jane, who is lactating profusely, is not willing to give up her child that quickly as the motherhood instincts overtake her. She thinks the Baby Arjan will be only happy with his own mother.
Speaking about his film at the Venice film festival, Director Roy said the film is based on a real incident. “This is the first feature film for the main actress Hasmine Kilip. She has only acted in a short film made by my editor, who referred her to me for an audition, and the third feature film for Ronwaldo Martin.”
The filmmaker said he was using CCTV camera footage in the film as it is a powerful tool these days, and he was inspired by a lot of real-life incidents going viral on social media.
Roy said he left the end hanging as in the real-life story the couple never finds their baby.
Lola Agne is the other classic about a 114-year-old great grandmother made to vie for a shot at being the oldest living woman in the world against her wishes.
The mayor of the small scenic town surrounded by lush rice paddies sees a windfall and sets the ball rolling. Almost overnight, the town and the nipa-palm sheltered, simple village cottage of Lola Agne (Angie Ferro) turns into a hot tourist destination. Determined to turn the unexpected bonanza to make a fast buck, Lola’s great-granddaughter unveils a line of products using the potential world record holder’s accidental fame.
Foul-mouthed, adamant old woman who wakes up emptying her bladder into a chamber pot and shares the breakfast with the picture of her late husband is not excited about the happenings around her and once even throws urine on her adoring fans.
Roy’s film reminds me of The Ballad of Narayama a lot but Shohei Imamura’s 1983 classic is from a different era and a separate cultural backdrop. Still, the two old women’s desire to die, finds common grounds.
Lola Igna who attributes her longevity to healthy living with lot of fresh air, water spinach (kankung) and half a jug of palm wine (tuba) every morning, laments living too long while every loved one and some of the babies she helped deliver as the town’s midwife have departed before her.
Enter her great-great-grandson Tim (Yves Flores), an uncharacteristically sensitive millennial armed with a cellphone and a camera to make a video about her life. The young man who is prepared to tolerate the goofy attitudes of the old woman wins her trust, and Lola Igne even asks him to make her coffin for her much-delayed funeral.
With Lola Igna losing the world title to a Georgian woman, the myth built around the woman who is engaged in protecting the neighbours’ rice paddies from foraging birds, comes crashing down.
A film critic says Roy has ‘conjured up a corner of the world outsiders rarely see, the Philippines far removed from sexy cities and sophistication, and he immerses us in it’.
“Ferro, a staple of Filipino TV and film for some fifty years, wins our trust by making us laugh, and then uses that trust to break our hearts. It’s a terrific performance, a little piece of screen immortality brought on by playing someone who knows better than to wish that fate — immortality — on anyone,” he says. – newstrails.com
