Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Pupulutin ka sa kangkungan (Your corpse will be found in a spinach pond).

Philippine cinema has long been out of business since dog-knows-when. Most of the film productions that get funded nowadays are either about comedy, romance, rom-com, or some occassional horror. But it's very rare to see good films or least to say, a variety of, released in the local silverscreen. I guess we're just a big TV industry.

I kinda miss watching old Tagalog films. The catchy lines, stereotypical characters, and even predictable plots. But at least you know that they're making films out there. I think those days were gone with Lino Brocka. Though there may be few independent filmmakers who struggle to penetrate the mass media, the vast majority of the local audience still preferred to watch senseless love stories of their favorite love teams.

Joel Limchoc managed to intertwine the popularity of TV-watching and the good ol' days of local cinema. He picked out a 70's action theme for a Pepsi advert and made it even quirkier with the literal/visual translations of the dialogues not to mention the use of vegetables as weapons (meets the MTRCB requirement!). The result is nauseating, epic, and brilliant.