Bea, Kamusta ang sabado mo? By Beanca Navarro

Ilo-Ilo (2013) included in the Director’s Fornight of the Cannes International Film festival, a film by Singaporean director Anthony Chen. A movie that paid tribute to the Ilongga nanny who raised Director Chen during his childhood. The Filipino nanny is being played by theater and indie film actress Angeli Bayani. The film’s set is in the mid 1990’s in Singapore, the Asian financial crisis(1997) to be exact; unemployment rates and suicide rates were high. Jiale a 9 year old boy, son of Hwee Leng and Teck, who is a brat and very stubborn was always in trouble especially in school gave his parents mostly his mom a hard time so they hired a maid. The arrival of Teresa, the new Filipino maid presented a new situation for the family and especially to Jiale, he wasn’t a bad kid or anything he was just acting like that because his parents don’t have time for their kid, they were too caught with their work. So when Aunty Terry, as they called her in the film, arrived in their household, Jiale treated Teresa as the enemy and did nasty things to her; for example the scene where they were at the store and Jiale placed an item in Aunty Terry’s bag in order for her to be caught stealing. But because Aunty Terry was always left with Jiale, the two grew closer to each other and formed a bond; A bond that made the mom of Jiale in a way jealous. Then the worst happened, the family cannot pay Aunty Terry anymore so they had to let her go, this it broke Jiale’s heart and he didn’t want Aunty Terry to go. What a beautiful and touching story indeed, the fact that one person walks into your life makes a huge amount of difference. Although, I can’t relate with the yaya story, but I did have people come and go that made me realize things, bad and good. I commend Director Chen for producing such a heart-warming film and the Ilongga maid who made a difference in a young boy’s life. I wish that when a person enters another person’s life they will strive to make a good difference to that individual’s life. 

Ang nawawala (2012) by Marietta Jamora a film about our generation and is dedicated for our generation. Though this film is about our generation it’s not the “typical” love story we all are used to, “mute” falls in love with a hipster girl and kind of falls in love with him too but they didn’t end up so it was kind of a messed up love story that also happens in our generation so yeah it’s a twisted story but beautiful. It also tackles how music plays a role in our life, in the film Gibson used music to give out messages and to forget or erase the past and the noise around him; it gives importance to antique music enriched with a savoury of good quality music, features a few of non-mainstream bands or songs wherein it proves that good music can be discovered in non-mainstream or old songs. I will definitely go and watch this again, maybe even promote it to my friends and cousins; this is an incredible film, how in one film it can tackle a lot of situations in our life. 

Pinoy Transkings: An advocacy documentary is one of the most educational and inspiring documentary I have ever seen in my lifetime to be honest. A Transman, is a transgendered person who was born a female but whose heart or gender identity is a man. This documentary tackles the lives of Filipino Transmen who openly shared their stories, Popoy, Sid, Aiza, Nil, Le Andre and Prince Eagle about coming out, transitioning, their struggles, and doubts and how they discovered their true identity. When I got to watch this, my life flashed before my eyes, no pun intended, I asked myself did I live my life being true to myself? Am I happy with my life? Although I did not relate to the topic of gender identity, I did relate to their story of finding who you are, how you'll fit in this world, the hinders of being happy and more; this movie may be about the story of transmen but I can relate it to the lives of the bullied people, or even our daily life, where we often think of what our life SHOULD BE not what we WANT our life to be. That maybe the biggest mise-en-scene I have ever analysed. I just wanna say to the others who feel, what they call “different”, EMBRACE IT because you are unique, you are beautiful, you are happy and you’re YOU.

These 3 films made a difference in my life, indeed. It changed the way I viewed my life. My eyes, mind and heart were filled with wisdom and gifts of perception. What a full and awesome day Saturday was.