My friends and I were about to back out from watching the film mainly because it will consume a great portion of our time and considering that its Finals-Hell week. But our indignation to our past plans reaffirmed our willingness. I am not accustomed to telling the whole movie with its whole crap and goodies so please bear with my seemingly crazy thoughts.

                A nunnery would be a concrete image of prim and proper, serene faith, stable conscience. The initial story gave us a peek on a secretive monastic life confined in the silent walls of the convent. It house women who devote themselves to complete and ultimate seclusion from the outside world which embodies all the chaos that the world possesses. Sandoval’s Aparisyon broke the both the stereotype and the archetype. The nunnery then becomes unstable, chaotic and somehow unfaithful. The story would bring an audience to a new paradigm of a cloistered life. Would the story deify nuns? It’s up to you, so watch the film (if you never had the chance).

                In a mythology class, especially to those who are taking Literature, the concept of a mythological center is thoroughly discussed to have a better lens on reading a text. This center is always applicable to every story from Greek dramas to Chick flick films. The center is a place of serene and psychical balance, perfection and Gods reveal themselves in this place. A better image would be the Garden of Eden for the Book of Genesis or Olympus for Greek Mythology. Having this in mind, we also have a concept of the center’s reversibility. The balance and perfection is altered in a more unwanted appearance. For the Garden of Eden, this would be Adam and Eve’s betrayal of God’s trust. While for Greek mythology, this could be the Gods’ invasion of the human realm to solicit aesthetic satisfaction. Aparisyon takes the convent as a center and therefore presenting its reversibility to a more enhanced plot. The convent like the Garden of Eden and Olympus is twisted to an unexpected angle.

                Nuns despite their unshackled faith became uncertainty as to which they should act according to a sound and heavenly judgment. Their serenity was dismantled from their psyche causing them to be like any other person, circumscribe in a society. They were life any other desaparacidos, by their loss is aligned to a loss of faith, reason and wisdom.

                Aparisyon takes very whetting style of foreshadowing. Mylene Dizon’s opened radio speak about a clearer context from the story will revolve. Jodi Sta. Maria’s detection of animals who were actually rapists behaving as nonetheless an animal. The old nun’s changing distinction of the Mother superior paints the difference of our schema towards the mentioned character.

                The film was set in the pre Martial law period where a chaotic Philippines was presented in forms of Radio and newspaper therefore solidifying the fact that nuns indeed cloistered from the outer world sounding like hermitically sealed for purity in God’s name. This period serves as stimuli for reversibility of the notions of the convent. Man’s politics’ therefore has direct effects to a person as whole. It disestablishes even spiritual balance that completes a nun’s vocation. They deviate from the standards that ecclesiastical thumbs ratify. If nuns are susceptible to a diminished faith, how much more are we?

            There are two fundamental types of sin – omission and commission. Sin of omission is incurred when one doesn’t do what he must do. While sin of commission happens when one does what he must not do. The prevalent infraction in the film was omission. The Mother superior Ruth with her companion failed to protect the raped novitiate. While Sister Remy (Mylene Dizon), left Sister Lourdes (Jodi Sta. Maria) to escape from the troubles of being a second rape victim. Ironically, it was Sister Remy who caused Sister Lourdes to return late night and suffer such consequence.

               Mother Ruth’s washing of her blood stained hands signifies her open repentance over her sin of omission. But a bride of Christ she takes it to a different way, unlike Pontius Pilates’ cleansing. She left her hands on the running water as if no manual effort was taken. Her blood stained hands still remains until she retreats to the Adoration chapel. This pictures her unforgiven soul burdened by an unrest conscience.

             

   The story employs an arrival-departure technique. The story starts as Sister Lourdes travels by foot to the monastery. I see her like Jesus walking his way to Mt. Calvary where she dies. She rests like Jesus who paused due to exhaustion. Initially, I thought of Sister Remy’s decision to go to Manila, amid the turmoil, as the departure that completes the literary motif. But it was actually Sister Lourdes’ death upon giving birth. She departs from the world to meet the Divine Master face to face.

                For me, Aparisyon gives a misleading catharsis. Sister Remy who defies the amorphati psyche of the whole monastery, is tangled in a web of consequences. It appears to me that it was more of a signaling to go away from unconventionalism and to disengage from political activism. Why? Because one may have to suffer from these wraths. The story then demystifies political engagement and free reason as a risky act.

                As the film rolled it credits, I immediately asked myself what or where the apparition is. For me the apparition was narrated allegorically by nuns’ vulnerability to instability and therefore reversibility. The convent was not isolated but is treated as a part of the Philippine landscape. As a corollary, if something bad happens in the nation, the same goes to the convent or any other institution circumscribed in the nation.

                The film, cinematography wise, is commendable since it rivals the mainstream film. It was a detailed definition of sight while giving ample justice for the story per se. A classmate of mine noted that it deviated from the simple perspectives of the indie film convention. But for me it conveyed a very brilliant story, regardless of cinematic technicalities. The plot of Aparisyon seems to be audience selective, it chooses thinking and patient audiences who are ready to seat and be discombobulated.

                I commend everyone’s artistry from Direk V. Sandoval down the line. Two thumbs up! I wish for more Filipino films that embodies instruction and delight. 

Rate 8/10

When the St. Peter’s Throne is vacant (Sede Vacante)by two means-  by death or by resignation, the College of Cardinals is entrusted an extraordinary task to pick the next man who will occupy the vacant seat. According to Universi Dominici Regis, a governing statue for Papal Election, the election must commence fifteen (15) days after the Petrine office is emptied. But Pope emeritus Benedict XVI made an amendment to this provision. Instead of the fifteen day interval, the date of the Conclave must begin depending on the attendance of the cardinal electors.

Before the set date of the Conclave, the Cardinals meet for general congregation meetings. Their meetings comprise of Ecclesiastical matters and issues such as Year of Faith, New Evangelization, Vatileaks scandals, Women’s role in the Church, Diplomatic relations of the Holy See and even the characteristics of the next leader of 1.2 Billion Catholics. Each cardinal may intervene and insert discussions pertinent to the Church’s existence. At this point, Cardinals are bound to keep the meeting’s topics secret.

On the first day of the Conclave, the College of Cardinals (headed by its Dean, now Angelo Cardinal Sodano )  will hold a mass offered for the Election of a Supreme Pontiff. After this, they now retreat to Casa Santa Martha –the Official residence of Cardinal electors during a Conclave. To start the conclave they conduct a procession from the Pauline chapel of the Apostolic Place to their proper venue – Sistine chapel. As they enter to their election precinct, they recite a Liturgy of Saints. Once inside, they place their palm on the Gospel and take an oath to secrecy. This is done as they face the Michelangelo’s Last Judgment painting.  

When the vespers and other related ceremonies are finished, the Dean then announces the start of the conclave. The Master of Ceremonies then declares extra omnes meaning “Everybody out!” Of course this is not addressed to the College of Cardinals, this are for non-cardinals who have nothing to do with the election but present inside the Sistine.

The first day, by tradition, has only 1 round of election. When the cardinal electors reach a 2/3 vote for the Supreme Pontiff, they will burn the Election papers to create a white smoke. The vote is written in a small paper, alteration of handwriting is encouraged. They then cast their votes in a ballot according to seniority. Usually, the first voting reaches no consensus so the smoke in Sistine’s chimney is black. For succeeding days they will have 4 rounds each day until a Pope is elected. The ash is not a divine miracle. The Vatican uses a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene, and sulphur for black smoke while potassium chlorate, lactose and rosin.          

The Conclave is a unique election running through centuries. It is much like Monarch elected by his peers, a monarch who is more of a shepherd than a king. How the Cardinals decide on voting depends on their conscience and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.    

I accidentally (should I say by luck) watched ABS-CBN’s Bandila covering an interview of Peque Gallaga regarding the restoration of Oro, Plata, Mata (one which I recently reviewed).  Though I started the interview in the middle part, I believe I got the gist of a Gallaga prowess. He urged the youth of today to set a critical glance on our national identity. Our world must not be caged in the social media. The computer should not own us. The youth must venture into a more realistic and natural link with patrimony.  Philippine films are good avenues for the expansion of a cultural appreciative attitude. Unlike contemporary movies that favors fancy over quality, movies of our cinema’s Golden Age provides a better outlook and a deeper sense and consciousness. They offer a vivid depiction of a deeper national conflict, one that is more enlightening.

The director of Oro, Plata, Mata praised the high definition restoration of the film.

Gallaga further encourages us to take effort in patronizing Philippine cinema (one which would be in an ‘A’ standard). He also requested to support his newly directed film entitled “sonata.” I fervently wish that this is another Peque magnum opus. 

How would life be like when a man is tossed in the Pacific? Or better say – how can a man, tossed in the Pacific, survive with an adult Bengal Tiger?

Either ways, life with such damage provides no chance of survival.  I, for one, would call it ‘quit’.

The story starts in extremas res where, Piscine Molitor, the protagonist reminisces his past experience to a novelist. As kid he undergoes mockery from his name as others associate it with piss rather than the elite swimming pool in France where it is derived. In his youth, he faces a labyrinth of belief with plenty of rooms such as Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and doubt. But his bigger challenge when Piscine is stranded in the ocean with a stripped beast.

Life of Pi gives us a spectrum of man’s survival that results into a web of conflicts. Initially, the protagonist is faced with a name dilemma. His finds a way out by changing his nickname Pi with a mathematical association from π. Pi also anchored faith in different angles which is unrealistically probable. But, as human as possible, he finds a way to reconcile these beliefs even with repeating disapproval from an extensively rational father. His father believes that faith has no stall in a modern enterprise; one that they are currently facing even resembled it to darkness and uncertainty unlike rationalism and western science.

Pi’s childhood is tangled, like most of us, with curiosity. His inquisitiveness makes him trust a tiger named Richard Parker. His father adamantly disapproved this act. In effect, he lets Pi witness a goat’s fate in a Parker’s paws. The scene aligns with Ricky Lee’s “maliit na tao concept” (small person). This suggest that our childish imagination has unlimited spaces but is eventually caged in conventions as parents debunk our manner of thought. The conflict of realism and unconventionalism therefore rises. What is perceived by the intellectual society becomes the convention by which we are subjected to conform with.

As India changes its landscape, Pi’s family zoo is threatened to be shut down. His father resorts to selling the animals in Canada and venture in the same place. Pi waves is disagreement but ends to nothing as he is a son to father. In a ship bound to their ‘soon to be’ new home, the ship is knocked down by a sea storm. The protagonist manages to escape with a life boat.

The story appears to be a story of placements and changes. It baits you to an expecation that in the end is not right much like Pi’s selection of faith that constantly changes through time, experience and circumstance. To wrap it all up the author takes a lot of U-Turns like any others life that branches unexpectedly.

We expect that they find refuge in Canada.

No, his family perished in the ocean only Pi survives.

We expect he lives with a Zebra.

No, an Orangutan sails to accompany him. The Orangutan and he Zebra are murdered by a laughing Hyena.

Pi is accompanied by a Hyena.

No, the Hyena is killed by a Tiger.

Like any other National Geographic coverage, Pi will be eaten by a blood thirsty Parker.

No, they will be friends. And believe me, they will be best friends.

They find refuge on an island.

No, Pi found out the island was a nature trap. Even plants eat human. They leave and end up in a Mexican coast.

Martel brings us to a lot of broken expectation not as twists but as literary twirls – minute surprises that reverses expectation.

But with the story wrapped in twirls, we find a Pi greater that a number and a man not lesser than us. He is a man who has an expansive imagination that transcends rationality. He reconciles water and oil. He has a life that serves as an exemplar to everyman. Despite the heavy conflict, he finds hope to survive, even against natural order and convention.

I am an avid critic of senseless and effortless titles. For example, heading “About Eve” for Eve’s short biography. Or Tale of Adam the Brain crusher as simply Adam and Brain crushing. Life of Pi was not exempted to this. I was partly dismayed by the seemingly effortless title. Yeah, I know. It comes from a story of a man named Pi. But indeed, Life of Pi is a story of twirls that breaks expectations. The title builds its gravity from the story itself unlike films who feed us only from the title or trailer.

Rate: 8/10

The PNUan’s attendance in today’s Miting de Avance for the PNU-SG Election 2013 is a proof of the studentry’s political awareness. The partaking in a political gathering proves that we are still capable of collective action. It is a way against a culture of apathy that, at this very moment, should be scrapped.

                A debate opens a healthy academic communication between and among contrasting and complementary ideologies. Though some comments seem to mishandle logic and sensibility, this mode of conversing is a start of a blossoming intellectual renaissance in the University. Such engagement should be promoted, but it should not end in dogmatism. A critical-intellectual movement should not be caged in thought. It must further reach our daily actions to street parliamentary and therefore in action. For it is in action that ideas are birthed into realistic domains, often tangible and believably verified.

                Going back to the election craze… While others were howling of all sorts, some would be critical listeners to every aspiring officer’s utterance. They would, a hyperbolically, assess every syllable. Despite of the rant throwing, they find peace for their choice. This electorate applies a responsible voting manner. In fact, I would see someone taking down notes as if the Miting de Avance was symposium.

                Despite the positive terms, I lament to the resorting of black propaganda. The evasive use of information ranging from personal to public is made as self incriminatory evidence.

                Tomorrow, I will be joining a ballot counting as Poll Watcher. I hope to have a good eye and possess that of an eagle’s to extend a better service in the name of truth and justice.

My Dear PNUans,

To all of you, may you be guided by your rational faculties in voting. Every casted vote is a number that counts a number you owe the studentry’s future. Though cliché, please vote wisely. And don’t forget your IDs.

Love,

Wordzoned

Like the Filipino architectural omen corresponding to Gold, Silver and Death, the Peque Gallaga directed and Jose Javier Reyes written Oro, Plata, Mata (1982) takes a triple dimensional story. The film depicted a filial exodus around the gold, silver and death.

Oro                                                                       

       

     At this dimension the setting is at the city where harmony exists. It was an imagery mainly drawn from a usual elite society. The place was filled with merriment, as if bad luck takes no space for the characters’ time. But the golden time is broken when a ship sinks at Corregidor, Bataan.

Plata

          

  Gold becomes demoted to silver when they retreated to a hacienda. The stellar of the urban life is converted to a more rustic comfort. At this moment, even the elite’s options become limited. They are reduced to foreign circumstances which were not present in the city.     

Mata

       

     As the Japanese stretched powers over the country, the Lorenzo and Odeja clans resort to plain bucolic house in the mountains for refuge. For both clans descending from a high economic stature, such living is a bad luck. It appears to be more of a curse as they are cloistered in a dystopian society. They turn to be a self sustaining manor but it was reversed when some of their servants plotted against them. Conflicts further surfaced. Characters transformed into more unknown and unexpected psyches.

            This Oro-Plata-Mata pattern appears to be cyclical in nature since the ending depicted a restored setting. But the restoration doesn’t parallel the former Oro state. The characters apparently preserved a postwar stigma which is psychologically inevitable.

            Though the story is rooted in the Japanese occupation, the war that reached the characters is a fragmented placebo effect. It was Filipino versus Filipino. Where does the conflict breakout? Their social classes. Some of the servants became bandits by force of circumstance and epiphany. These bandits became defiant to their masters to an extent of overcoming them. The elite family at this moment becomes crippled lamely depending on their bare hands. Hands which were meant to play mahjong and other recreations, not household work. This film becomes a caveat for the ruling class that their posts are reversible in any point of time.

            War is a social equalizer. The top and bottom are scattered in different posts. The Shakespearean notion that love is transcendental seems to fade out in the plot. Love in this dystopian living is an unavailable commodity. The initial love pairs are tossed to different partners.

            A classmate of mine posed a question, “What if we lived during that time?” Fathoming that I have no guts to survive in such conditions, I replied a blank face. The question until now consumes me. To witness actual bloodbath is something traumatic what more if I were the one being bathed in blood. For me the film I not an isolated case, it is a rampant occurrence happening not only in the Philippines. Anne Frank’s diary would tell a European struggle at World War 2. CS Lewis’s Narnia documented the children’s retreat to the British countrysides. Auschwitz witnessed the inhumane part of man during this epoch. World War Two is something that leaves an etch to everyman’s thought. This is too punitive that until now it becomes the content of granny stories.

            Star Cinema should further widen the avenue of restoring the classic Filipino movies. This is a divisive tool to build a more multifaceted culture among the youth. I commend them for initiating a ‘could be’ Oro-period on our local classics. It is my fervent wish that Philippines would be introduced to more creative movies not only capable of making the audience laugh but arousing them think and act. 

I had no further expectations yesterday than to watch a great play staged by PETA. As I arrived the venue (as if coming from a maze hunt), I was given free tickets. While waiting for the start of the show, most were taking pictures of themselves rather than place itself.  

Pete Lacaba came to the theater early. Initially, no one would ask to take picture with him. It seemed that no one below the roof (except the organizers and other guests) knew him, physically. Until someone divulged his identity that the people waged war to take a picture of him. I easily recalled his story. During the Martial Law times, he was imprisoned (as it was a fad that time). He gained his freedom with the help of the Hispanic fixated Nick Joaquin. Some of his writings are present in Balanghai – an anthology of Philippine Literature. He taught us to eat ayungin  and helped us differentiate the burges from bakya while introducing us to modern view of literature. Sir Pete asked where we read his writings, I gladly replied, ”Balangai”  

Bien Lumbera. Not until the theater recognized his presence as Pambansang Alagad ng Sining, no jaw would fall to the ground. I met him more than twice over. He has this inexplicable radiance. Lumbera is a simple old man who knows the Philippine letters by heart. He would be simple in every manner he has. I remember his social criticism entitled Bakit Asal Mayaman si Pedrong Maralita – an eye opener of our dreadful society rooted in the education that we have. I declined to go near him because of the discouraging crowd. It was fulfilling enough to see him from a far.

Genaro Gojo Cruz. My classmates, especially Froe and Charelene Jadia, would know this man by heart. He currently writes for children and promotes local literary works. He generously gave us tickets for the D’Wonder Twins of Boac which I never knew that it guaranteed VIP seats.  Grazie! My March 2, 2013 would never be completed without this mentor.

Yesterday was buena mano for March – a month of bloodbath from a pile of works. I hope to have this cool experience the coming days.

Needs Thingking Skills. Archaic. Epistaxis.

                Have you ever been reluctant reading Shakespeare? I for one would volunteer to say yes. His sonnets and plays seem to be an undeciphered hieroglyph or even a riddle from the Middle Ages. But Philippine Educational Theatre Association (PETA) breaks down the Shakespearean stereotype. In their 45^th Theatre Season, Rody Vera offers a deconstructed Twelfth Night entitled D’Wonder Twins of Boac.

                Set on the 1960’s, the story circles around Viola’s effort to meet her twin Sebastian, after being tossed to the seas from a shipwreck. It also portrays film cinema crisis and how it becomes tempestuous and helpful to twin’s reunion.

                Vera’s deconstructive approach paints a more Philippine color of Shakespeare’s comedy. It even opens a different angle of the country’s Cinema industry which the camera lenses fail to convey. Viola’s attempt to find her lost twin digs not only Sebastian but a labyrinth world behind the film screens. It mirrors a societal hierarchy. The first estate is composed the Film Company executives who decide what films to produce. The second estate is occupied by scriptwriters and directors who plot the film stories. While the third estate belong to the masses who views the films produced by the first and second estate.

                “And the telenovelas, how utterly asinine, bizarre, foolish, insipid moronic and mephitic they are! And there are so many talented writers in our vernaculars and in English as the Palanca Awards show every year — why aren’t they harnessed for TV? Those TV moguls have a stock answer — the ratings of these shows are very high. Popularity not quality is their final arbiter.”

-F. Sionil Jose (Why Are We Shallow, 2011) 

When popularity becomes the final arbiter, it is therefore capital that serves as an absolute ruler. Sadly, art is not an exemption of the neo-dictator. Art which is naturally quantitative bends to quantity. So, most Philippine films lack catharsis. Why? They make the audience numb from the reality that they are facing such as poverty and other domestic problems. The masses then are directed by the first two estates to be escapists, providing only delight and a false hope.  It should always be a reminder to everyone that art has two functions: first is to entertain, and the other is to instruct. If one function is absent, it doesn’t really mean that it is not art. It is more of a lame art that doesn’t serve a greater purpose.

William Shakespeare knits every play from overlapping to blank and tangled to untangled. But it boils down to a critical interconnectedness- order out of chaos. This is highly manifested in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night.  He was able to insinuate his unconventional thoughts and anti-Elizabethan sentiments incognito. At the same time he revives the classic Greco-roman ideals (as a part of a conceptual-applied movement of Renaissance) with an English angle.

While in the play, I could hear murmurs of the play as a parody. I beg to disagree. The play presents a modern adaptation in a Filipino context not a parody.  It unravels a local industry where we could easily understand implications of the play. The setting of a recognizable context with Shakespearean identity justly extends a larger realm of audience.

Should I say Rody Vera is the New Shakespeare? Yes, but certainly he is not alone. There are a lot of shakespearses who remind us of the plight and reality we face. It is my fervent wish that there be more writers like Vera who alarms us from the notion of shallowness (As F. Sionil Jose and Letticia Shahani emphasized).

Such plays would bring Shakespeare to the modern world. He would conventionally be unconventional (pardon the oxymoron). To wrap up, PETA shares a senile artistry in a modern medium. Seldom does any play extend to such innovative feat.  

As I took time reading by the PNU Chapel, I realized a noticeable fall at the BPS (Bonifacio P. Sibayan Hall). I even thought that the trees were undergoing chemotherapy.  It was like the autumn of the polar countries that signifies a coming of snow.  One of our professors shared that his husband of old age would be singing by the trees, waiting for the sunrise. Singing as if the place were in real autumn. (What a fulfilling recreation on retirement!)

But a different climate struck me further – more than a transition of seasons. While the Talisay leaves are leaving their bark, student political factions come to battle for the electorate’s vote. A spring of leaflets and posters came to be witnessed. True enough that PNU has four climates – rainy, summer, off campus and Student Government elections. 

The election season is the time that student’s should blossom by being informed on who to choose. It is in every casting of a vote that the progress of the studentry lives or dies.