A Quick Look: Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay

This blog's been dead for a while but I'm bringing out of hiatus for something that must be said. Here's a brief (for me) review of Antoinette Jadaone's Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay.


First, some history: Lilia Cuntapay can be described as one of the Philippines' top "that-guys" (or "that-ladys". With her long, straight hair and toothless maw she is recognized by children of the '80s and '90s as the bringer of nightmares. She is our aswang -our bruha, having played countless monsters or crones in various movies since rising to relative prominence in Shake, Rattle and Roll III as "Yaya".

But perhaps because there are only so many hag roles in television or movies, it's not been an easy life for Ms. Cuntapay. Roles have been few and far between of late and these have hardly been star-making turns for her.

However, writer-director Antoinette Jadaone believes it's Ms. Cuntapay's time to shine and so, with the backing of Cinema One Originals, that's exactly what they let her do in Ms. Jadaone's "Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay."

Finally, after 30 years of working as bit player in the movie industry, Nanay Lilia is finally in the spotlight. And I daresay this film, which follows Lilia Cuntapay playing a version of herself that's been nominated for a prestigious acting award, makes me think that she belongs there.

Now commence the review:

Several things made Six Degrees of Separation for me, namely: Lilia Cuntapay's charm and color; Director Antoinette Jadaone's use of language which is refreshing and witty, and her awareness of her character/actress' best traits and background; both of the leads' keen understanding of narrative/the narrative (there's a discipline involved in keeping from overacting and telling too much) and their ability to play off each other; the fact that it puts forward a cause without being exploitative of the slighted or heavily judgemental of people, and without pounding our heads with the message. 

Also, there is a blend of comedy, horror, drama and romance in the writing that is handled expertly. Most of all, it is a well-crafted entertainment and in this environment (and after having recently seen a movie where I could see the wires lifting a "flying actor), that is a welcome gift.

And though I may wonder about whether the black screens signaling the transition between interviews and the story feeling slightly extended in some parts is intentional, I cannot recommend this film any more than I already have. I've threatened dropping some very dear friends if they don't hop to Shangri-la Mall right now.

In fact, if has any failings at all, it's because its run is ending, and that there aren't more films like this one.

Hopefully though, the release of work signifies the beginning of a new, lasting zeitgeist of smarter, well-made Filipino films that make us think without sacrificing entertainment.

                                                                                                   - originally posted in my Twitter account.

Seriously, RUN don't walk to Shangrila Mall. You only have a day left.
       

Photos taken from the film's Facebook account.


Minutes after posting this I find out that the film has won the audience choice and best editing awards at the Cinema One Originals Awards Night. Congratulations to the cast and crew for the well-deserved win!

NEWS! Kind of.

I've decided that I might need to give this blog an overhaul but - not before posting a few things I found quite interesting over the time that I wasn't around.

Expect some restaurant features or food reviews, movie and TV commentaries and -FINALLY! a book review.

I hope this works out. :)

Before I go...

I should mention that I am looking forward to seeing these:

Movies:

• Legends of the Guardian : The Owls of Ga'Hoole (on 3D to maximize flight scenes!)
• Despicable Me (possibly on 3D, too because I'm made out of money.)
• GirlTrash! All Night Long  (I don't even see this coming out here, but I would love to watch Mandy Musgrave and Gabrielle Christian again.)
• Burlesque
• Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (I didn't get the last book so haha, I'd like to watch it instead.)
• Superman/Batman : Apocalypse

Television
I'm  hoping to do some catching up on

• Bones
• NCIS
• Keeping Up with the Kardashians (where Kim actually seems level-headed, comparatively.)

I'm anticipating the return of:

• Glee
• The Office
• Pretty Little Liars

New Shows:

• Young Justice
• Hellcats

and then there's

• The Gin Blossoms Concert in Manila (supposedly happening on the 18th of November.)

Hiatus.

I haven't been able to really sit down and watch anything recently. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted and will be more so over the coming days. Hopefully only until say, January or March by which time I hope to be doing something that isn't exhausting or is at least fruitfully, happily so.

Oh, I'm not saying that I'll be gone until then.but this blog may stay empty until I figure things out or if I see or hear something worth sharing.

I did want to write something about movie posters seeing as I was researching about them recently but I can't be sure when I'll have time to pen it. Ah, well I guess I'll mention how much I love Drew Struzan and Saul Bass's work.

We'll go dancing in the park, walking through the park and reminiscing.

Last night inside the cab, as Little River Band's Reminiscin' played on the radio, it was once again the yuppie 1990s in Hard Rock Cafe. Giordano tennis shirts (with the frog or the teddy bear on the left chest) and Giordano Blues jeans were the fashion. If you raised a pant leg up, you'd see white St. Michael's socks. Shoes were Doc Martens or Keds.

 

A chorus of "hurry don't be late, I can hardly wait" is sang by the crowd, who either drank multiple San Miguel Pale Pilsens (for this was before the Light beer came out) or pretended to get drunk with Cali Shandy. The 1990s were good times for a twentysomething year old. Myself? I was still too young to in the fray. I waited patiently at home, listening to my BoyzIIMen cassette tapes, watching the latest dramatic interludes in TGIS and Gimik, and reading about JTT on Bop! Magazine, until it would be my turn to finally be part of the crowd who hung out in Planet Mars, Jazz Rhythms, and even Club Dredd. 

 

Alas, I enter my twenties too many years too late for reasonably-priced Giordanos. There are no more new Dredd heads. Show bands and grunge acts have been replaced by the fruit of a night of drunkenness amongst bossa nova, acoustic and pop music.

The last strains of Remiscin' fade as the Justin Beiber's ditty about his "baby, baby" begins to play. I look out the cab window at the vastly changed reality. This was not the Manila I'd hoped to grow up in. I ponder how it would feel to be spending the rest of the 2000s not entirely fitting in with the zeitgeist, and wondering where I'm going.

Little River Band's Reminiscing.

Paul and Art and their astute analysis of certain aspects of the human condition.

For the longest time, Simon and Garfunkel's songs only came into mind during days of nostalgia. -When I'd remember how I used to sit in the back of our black 1979 Toyota Cressida with my hands getting warmed as I pressed them on the un-tinted windows and I looked out into Commonwealth Avenue.

Back then Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel's music was more of a soundtrack or score to whatever sort of life the four-year old me was living. While I didn't actively listen to any of the songs, I did know that they had beautiful, calming and somewhat maudlin melodies (which could explain why I didn't really attempt to listen  to them MORE. In some ways their songs made my chest hurt.  Yes. This, coming from a kid who enjoyed Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me" with much gusto.). And as they were my father's favorite, I didn't really have much of a choice since the songs were always in the background even if I didn't know what the words meant back then.

But fairly recently, thanks to the magic of the Internet (and thus the availability of song lyrics), my curiosity, AND especially to my insatiable boredom, I managed to look up the following song which to me, displays the duo's understanding of the human experience and their ability to recreate it lyrically.

In this instance they speak of the gradual decline of a relationship and how sometimes, despite feeling like you match in so many aspects, you just eventually grow apart*. It's hard to explain, oh that it were a simple as the fact that his/her hand didn't fit yours anymore, then you'd know when to stop and start moving on. Instead, the two people in the song, like some of us, carry on the farce that everything's okay and choose to ignore that they're so far away from each other already.

And although the characters are lovers, reality doesn't limit the withering of a connection to those who are bonded romantically. Friendships can dwindle. Even family members, in some ways, break away from each other despite blood relations.

I think I'm digressing and probably reading it all wrong again. I just want you to read the words and maybe listen to the song but don't hurt me because it's melancholy. 

The Dangling Conversation
by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel


It's a still life water color,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference,
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
The borders of our lives.


And you read your Emily Dickinson,
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
And the dangled conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.


Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives.

  

The Dangling Conversation

Cartoonerrific (archived from June 2007)

I (perhaps prematurely) consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of things that are the courtesy of childhood. -Toys, pop music, childrens' books and cartoons are among my delights although I am sure pop music and cartoons are also widely enjoyed by "groan ups." -Those that will admit to it anyway.

And I am pleased today because I was able to procure copies of the old Merrie Melodies classics, The Dover Boys of Pimento University or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (that's the full working title) from 1942 and the 1961 Academy Award nominated Nelly's Folly.

A great component of my love for these cartoons are their uses of music. Dover Boys contains two songs (of the same melody, so that could arguably be just ONE song), the PU Alma Mater Song and the Dover Boys' rescue song. And Nelly's Folly? Why it's about a singing giraffe so, I think it runs courses around the Boys musically.

So basically the Dover Boys contains just a slight storyline about --you guessed it, the three brothers from Pimento University, Tom (the fun loving one), Dick (a lad of eighteen winters and a summer in Florida) and, Larry (the youngest of the three jerks, brothers). 

They visit their fiancée, Dora Standpipe (note how it says "their" fiancée.) for a little frolic which involves a ridiculous game of hide- and- seek and leaves the "it," Dora easily susceptible to the boys' rival Dan Backslide's kidnapping. A rescue mission ensues which is, given the tragedy of this being a cartoon, somewhat botched by the brothers. Nevertheless, we can assume that Dora lives happily ever after and the boys live out their morally upright lives affably without Dora.

The film plays out like one of those old time theatrical presentations. The characters are ridiculously stagey as one would see from the part when the boys pass by the snooker salon. And even Dan Backslide, suffering from what seems to be a green greasepaint-y complexion, is given to the staple villain's stage whisper.  I guess that's why i like the cartoon so much. It's got the camp and charm of a stage play, and it's not so bewilderingly over-the-top as most other cartoons.














The Dover Boys of Pimento U.

 

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Now Nelly's Folly is an absolute charmer but aside from that, it also contains social commentary on celebrity (thankfully not an overwhelmingly preachy commentary because I would otherwise try to escape as soon as it begins). All in all, it's a smart and enjoyable film, if I do say so myself.

It starts off in the jungle where Nelly is heard singing sweetly to an audience of animal friends. There she is discovered by an adventurer who may be channeling Tony Danza's voice a few years early and brought to the city where Nelly is a success. She starts off with a liver tonic jingle (to the tune of Auld Lang Syne) and branches out to Broadway plays and multiple records.

But despite the success of her musical career, Nelly feels empty and finds solace in someone who can understand her, a male giraffe from the zoo. But also, he's a MARRIED male giraffe from the zoo. At first Nelly is aghast that a married man would consider flirting with her. --But when you're lonely...

And there Nelly's career starts its downward spiral as the public find fault with her consorting with a married man. She is initially unconcerned by this, even as the Tony Danza-adventurer/agent pleads with her to find someone else, until on the opening night of one of her shows, she is abandoned by the public that was once so smitten by her. Without her celebrity, Nelly is also left by the lecherous man she risked her career for.

Nelly leaves Hollywood brokenhearted and goes back into the jungle singing the saddest songs you can possibly imagine with the same sweet voice. And before you think all is lost, a beautiful deep voice joins her as a handsome (and presumably single) giraffe enters the scene. And Nelly is happy again.

Nelly's Folly is a beautiful cartoon, a mix of aural and visual artistry. Nelly's singing is amazing, with vocals done by Gloria Wood. --I can't say I can remember anyone that her voice reminds me of but the style harkens a smoother, more relaxed Judy Garland or the Andrew Sisters (possibly, but you can help me out here) and concert hall music. The fact that such a unique voice was used for a liver tonic advert is pleasantly absurd.

The visuals are jazzy, they call into mind beat poetry but that's just me. Highly stylized and shape-heavy, they also rely on cool tones unusual for a movie that contains jungle creatures (this scheme, in fact, carries over from the jungle jungle to the other jungle, the city), perhaps as a complement to Nelly's yellow and brown colouring.

As for the commentary, well, it shows us how the earlier 20th century audience was with regards to their adulation for their celebrities. Apparently, if their idols succumb to vices, or to what society deems taboo, they lose faith in them. 

Does this still hold true for our generation? How do we explain the "fame" someone like Paris Hilton who’s been arrested already for irresponsible drinking and driving? Or similarly, Gretchen Baretto’s fame, despite the questionable  photograph with a man not her husband? On the one hand it is better that we do not pass judgment so quickly (let the one without sin cast the first stone yadda yadda). But what about those that cheer them on? Sometimes I wonder if the drugged up, destructive and silly behavior celebrities project is a tonic that revives careers. It seems like it sometimes.  Oh. Oh well.

Regardless of the commentary, you can still enjoy Nelly's Folly as a moving animal musical movie.





Nelly's Folly

 

*

By the way,  both movies were directed by the legendary Chuck Jones who, as I belatedly realized, was the cartoonist behind most of my favorite Looney Tunes shorts like Rabbit of Seville, One Froggy Evening, Broom-Stick Bunny (I have a weakness for any cartoon that involves Witch Hazel, Gossamer, and breaking the fourth-wall), Transylvania 6-500, and Hair-Raising Hare.


Mr. Chuck Jones, wherever you are, you are a genius and you certainly made my childhood bearable.




And oh, I'm looking for Disney's Casey At Bat and Peter and the Wolf too, if anyone wishes to help.

On the Beatles.

I like the Beatles. I can't say that I'm obsessed with them because unlike my more musically-appreciative friends, I don't have the entire Beatles catalogue memorized. I know a few songs, like the popular ones (Hey Jude, Girl, Here There and Everywhere, and then a few others (such as Good Day Sunshine and I Should Have Known Better) that i just discovered around the past two years thanks to my friend Arthur (who writes the blog ihategameswithballs.blogspot.com) and, to You (to whom the best songs were offered)..


But I do like the Beatles, particularly because of a little event that occurred in my life when I was eight that featured the song "Til There was You". I wrote about it around two years ago in a piece I call "Paul and the Musical Insects" because I suck at making titles.

He was a nice and handsome drunk, with his normally fair skin already tinged red after a few glasses of San Miguel, but it was my eight year old self who was tipsy with delight in this situation.

And why wouldn't I be, having such a charming rogue serenade me with a decent though unaccompanied warbling of The Beatles' 'Til There Was You?'

As far as I was concerned, the goodly solid nine years we had between us was hardly relevant. Perhaps if I even believed in the concept of marital bliss (that involved myself), which I already didn't at that age, he would have been the Mister to my Missus and maybe somewhere in the back of my second-grade mind I may have entertained that fantasy.

I wasn't drinking then (because this didn't happen in Europe where children could have their meat with a little wine, and even then it wasn't vino that they had) but my beer goggles showed me that my very, very first Adored had been lost until I was found and that when I was, his heart leapt while roses bloomed and music played all around.

What he sang was an almost silly, simply rhymed Beatles song. What I heard was that our distant ages could not keep us apart, not at all, for if love was true it transcended anything or anyone that willed its demise.

I was all of eight, falling in love for the first time ever that night.

When the morning came a few hours later I was still all of eight years, give or take a few months, weeks and days and I had completely forgotten the heart and soul I offered the night before as I played hide-and-seek with my friends.

True story, by the way. I didn't see him around much after that but but he did move into my cousin's house across the street when I was in high school. Of course, as luck would have it, I learned this a few months after he'd left. Haha.


*




Anyway, back to the Beatles. Actually, I don't have much to say on them, much of their myth and history escape me. I just like their songs.


I do like George Harrison, however, as he always seemed to be serious. I'm drawn to serious people, I guess.  Besides, as I found out through wikipedia, Mr. Harrison did pen some of my favorite Beatles songs like While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Here Comes the Sun and he sang the lead in I'd Be Happy Just to Dance with You.


Aside from that, I also just learned his connection to Eric Clapton's song Layla, where apparently the song was written by Clapton for George's wife at the time, Pattie Boyd. Dirty trick, innit? Though I guess she must have been the sort of woman men write songs for.


Anyway, to abruptly end this pointless rambling, I offer you a song from the Concert for George (now available on DVD). I don't think it's a Beatles song per se, but it's a sweet tune played by Joe Brown on the ukulele for George Harrison.

Travels, 3 (Japan)

After taking a break from this series on traveling vicariously by talking about musicals and Glee, it's now time to close the series with a little insight on  how The Land of the Rising Sun, Japan, is on my itinerary.

I suppose it started with IBC-13's airing of Japan Video Topics back in the late 1980s until the early 1990s. The show covered a plethora of well, topics ranging from advances in technology, religious or cultural feasts, traditional sweets, or artisan crafts from small towns.

I remember one of my favorite episodes being about those wax food models that Japanese restaurants use to show diners (foreigners, especially) what they're selling. I

n fact, this episode was what sparked my interest in the whole exercise of making fake food and that's just one reason I want to go to Japan : to learn from the experts. (For those who don't know, they're still showing Japan Video Topics  although I can't rightly say if it's still on IBC-13 or on that religious channel that sometimes has Euromaxx and Arts21 on rotation.)

*

Meanwhile, the mid-1990s, I discovered the (accidentally) funny and very engaging Tokyo travelogue, Oh, Tokyo which starred a number of Japan-based Filipinas who went around Tokyo and the neighboring areas visiting tourist destinations.

They were all pretty good hosts although many people who saw the series on WINS (that would be Channel 54 on Skycable back in the day. Right before that channel which had Sister Wendy's show) would agree that the breakout star was Ellen Nishiumi who had a preternatural gift for converting yen to pesos in practically zero seconds, a cheerful disposition, and an honest face. (For instance, when giving her opinion on a traditional fish soup, she went "Aaaa, kakaiba siya" while her face displayed an "ew" look.)

Ellen's job was ridiculously fun, in my opinion. She and her co-hosts went to amusement parks, shopping districts, and restaurants. They basically visited any place that would interest tourists. It was pretty cool too, that she was able to bring in her camera crew into the amusement attractions so you didn't have to rely on mere reportage. You actually saw the ladies shriek in delight, or fear depending on where they were. (One of them, whose name I don't particularly know, went on a dinosaur-themed ride and you could tell she was freaking out. Awesome.)

Ellen on Oh! Tokyo

I wanted to steal their jobs, that's for sure. :)

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Of course there's also Sofia Coppola's 2003 film, Lost in Translation, which starred Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray (known for comedies but turns in a spectacular dramatic performance here as Bob Harris). A fascinating film that inspects the (temporary) lives of two strangers brought together by loneliness set against the backdrop of modern-day Tokyo.

The film looks beautiful, making good use of the location to show how small and alone the two characters are. The shots of Bob and Charlotte wondering about and wandering around Tokyo, and those in the dimly-lit hotel rooms are alluring and heartbreaking. (The soundtrack is amazing, too, featuring Phoenix, The Pretenders, and Jesus and Mary Chain.)

*

And then there are the Haruki Murakami books. I actually don't know why the Murakami books I like (Norwegian Wood, Dance Dance Dance, Wild Sheep Chase, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle) would make me want to go to Japan. In most cases, the lead characters I identify most with are the lonely, jazz-loving (or western music-loving) men who live somewhat unstructured lives (working as either writers or artists) that they can leave easily to chase a dream or nightmare. They could be from any country, I suppose, especially since Murakami doesn't really provide names for most of his lead characters and I can't tell if they really ARE Japanese, but since they're living in Japan, that should be enough.

And it is, I guess.

Besides, I want to see Murakami in person.

Ah, and before I end, the last book that makes me want to go to Japan is Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. A young-adult title I bought on a whim when I was in highschool and I've loved it ever since, for its lovely descriptions of Japan's changing seasons which are also used literary device to explain parts of Yuki's (the lead character's) life.

If Japan was indeed as gently sad and beautiful as Mori's book says it is, then I don't know why I'm still writing this and not sitting on a JAL flight at this very moment.

*


On the whole I'd rather be on the road right now.

Ready, one, two SING! (On Musicals)

This whole Glee phenomenon isn't all that surprising, if you ask me. Following the massive, MASSIVE success of the High School Musical movies which showed us that randomly breaking out into elaborate production numbers during seemingly mundane parts of day is a moneymaker , it became pretty obvious that a full television series about singing kids wouldn't be far behind.

And it's not a bad show, that Glee. The "kids" are great talents for sure. Lea Michele (Rachel) and Chris Colfer (Kurt) are particularly entertaining, and I can't wait for them to feature more of Naya Rivera and Heather Morris (Santana and Brittany) for the same reasons Dorothy Snarker of lifestyle website AfterEllen.com is also tuned in.

BUT if you had to ask me what my favorite musical is, I'd have to give that prize to Woody Allen's masterpiece, Everyone Says I Love You. I spoken about this film to everyone who would listen. This movie, in case you were wondering, showed in Manila in 1996, opening with nary a word from marketing types which meant that there were about ten people in the cinema including my mom and myself.

I was about twelve when I saw this and up until that point, I'd only seen the big musicals like the Sound of Music, The King and I, and the Disney cartoons. And of course, as you know those films were dated and in Technicolor (TM), so when I saw the trailer for Everyone Says I Love You before the screening of Conspiracy Theory (starring Julia Roberts, too, who seemed to be in every movie showing that year, and Mel Gibson) where everyone lived in the NOW and were singing, boyohboy, I was ecstatic. A musical for MY time. I knew I just had to watch it. So I did and I enjoyed it.

The story revolves around this very wealthy extended family, the Berlins (Woody Allen and his daughter played by Natasha Lyonne) and the Dandridges (Alan Alda married his best friend Woody Allen's ex, Goldie Hawn bringing with him two kids of his own and two other children from the marriage) who lives in New York City. It's basically about the family members' attempts at finding and keeping love.

Because the family is moneyed, they are able to spend parts of the year in NYC and the other parts in Paris or Venice and believe me, the film doesn't waste any shots of the most beautiful parts of those cities. From the gorgeous fall scenes in NYC and Upstate NY to the breathtaking Venetian Canals, and of course, Paris for New Years', you're probably going to fall in love just watching their stage.

But the best parts are the production numbers. They range from very madcap and silly like the Makin' Whoopee episode in the hospital after Drew Barrymore swallows her engagement ring (dancing emergency ward victims), sweet like the Just You, Just Me sequence (Edward Norton singing to Drew Barrymore), and precious such as the Halloween scene with little kids singing for their treats.

I love it because while the characters randomly burst into song, these actors aren't trained singers. So you hear a little bit of hesitance, a little warble. Imagine someone just singing in the middle of the street. That sort. Although of course, they're accompanied by actual singers so it's not all caterwauling but it's all campy fun. It didn't even matter if the songs weren't Allen's compositions, they were well-loved classics and he made them fit.

And of course I should mention that Woody Allen's characters are so over-the-top and fun, even his usual neurotic character is adorable.

I'm probably not explaining this very well but I guess this clip will do it :

Such is my love for this movie that I  was inspired to write my own musical three years later as a high school sophomore for a street play in my Literature class. It wasn't any good, not anywhere near Everyone Says I Love You, for sure. But it was an enjoyable experience nonetheless.