Lino Brocka's films

From The Atlantic online forums:

 

Noel, the Philippine director you discussed above, Brocka?

Do you know if his films are available to rent online at a decent rate?

No, none of his films are easily available.

Facets (http://www.facets.org/asticat) has two of his late works, Orapronobis (Fight for Us, 1989) and Macho Dancer for rent on VHS, with English subtitles. Macho Dancer is second-rate Brocka, which means I think it's pretty good if flawed (if this is the uncut version there'll be a shot of male dancers in a row masturbating). Orapronobis is excellent Brocka, if not his very best, and is a good introduction to his works.

 

Maybe one of the very best Brockas, and possibly one of the best Filipino films ever made is Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Neon, 1975) found here: http://www.kabayancentral.com/video/vhs/lvn/lvnmsmknl.html.

 

That link leads to a place where you can order a VHS tape for around 25 dollars. Hefty price, but I think it's worth it. It doesn't say if it's subtitled, unfortunately, tho I suspect the film doesn't really need them.

 

Other Brocka films can be found on VCD format (which usually plays on any DVD player) by searching here: http://www.regalfilms.com/. These are mainly commercial potboilers like Babangon Ako't Dudurugin Kita (I Will Rise and Crush You) and Pasan Ko Ang Daigdig (The World on My Shoulders)--not great cinema, but a lot of fun. No subtitles, I'm afraid--you need to find a Filipino to do "benshi" (spoken translation) for you.

Lino Brocka

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0110653/

Probably the best known of Filipino filmmakers, and one of the finest. Was a regular at Cannes. His Maynila sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Neon, 1975) was cited in Geoff Andrews' book "Film: The Critics' Choice" as one of the "150 masterpieces of world cinema."

I met him in New York, after a screening of Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (You Were Judged and Found Wanting, 1976), and shook his hand; the first thing he said to me was: "you know, you look familiar." I had to explain to him that my identical twin brother once worked for him. He was killed in a car crash not long after.

Rouge

Saw Stanley Kwan's "Rouge." Lovely little film, despite the atrocious subtitles; I especially like it that he uses almost no special effects other than (far as I can tell) a slow fade-out of the ghost in the end, depending mostly on atmospheric camerawork and lighting to tell his tale. The eccentric details about Chinese ghosts is a bit distracting (Is it really taken for granted that they can take their heads off and comb it? And why can't she?), but eventually (from what I could figure out of the plot no thanks to the titles' bad grammar) the love story gets a real hold of you. Maybe the best ghost story I've seen in years, with a delicately bittersweet aftertaste that's unique to this film.

I do feel some ambivalence towards the ending (read no further if you want to see the movie)--she hands her lover his necklace back without a trace of pity. It seems we're allowed to feel sorry for him, but doesn't she? He's suffered too, or does she see it as just punishment? I'd at least have given him a kiss (if I were the girl, I mean) for what he's gone through. But then the ambivalence I feel probably adds to the film's haunting quality--I don't quite agree with what she's done, but neither can I quite forget it.

Ang Tatay Kong Nanay

posted on the Atlantic online forum:

Lino Brocka's Ang Tatay Kong Nanay (My Father the Mother) is a lovely gay film, about a cross-dresser who ends up taking care of the son of a man he loved. Melodramatic and chock full of stereotypes, but at core it's an eloquent and ultimately moving little story about a gay man's outsized heart.

Brocka's gay of course. Practically all of the finest filmmakers in the Philippines during the '70s were gay, and quite a few of them even today.

Kill Bill 2

Saw it. It's okay, didn't knock my socks off.

Builds more on Tarantino's traditional strengths as dialogue writer. Gets most of its emotional heft from its "Sergio Leone"-type sense of drama (I keep thinking of that interview where Tarantino says back when he wasn't sure what the correct term for the type of shot he was looking for was, he would call it--this specific shot he was looking for--a "Sergio Leone" shot).

Gordon Liu was amusing as the sifu. Daryl Hannah was cute, better than Lucy Liu, I thought. Carradine does well enough--we all know Tarantino's gift for putting past heroes on a pedestal, and making them look good up there, and Carradine shines.

Again, the action sequences--the meat and bones of an action movie--seem, well, lacking. Again, I think he'd have done better to produce and write, and let Yuen Woo Ping (who did the fight choreography) direct.

I'll have to admit, the whole looks better now it's complete...but that only means it DOES look complete instead of (as Vol. 1 looked at the time) being some kind of pointless exercise in borrowed style. Still think it could have been a maybe two hour to two hour-plus movie instead of a three hour one. On the whole, I much prefer Leone.

"Passion" penitent pleads "Not Guilty"

Dan Leach, who turned himself in for the murder of a woman carrying his child, pleads not guilty:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2546578

Taxi Driver

From The Atlantic online forums:

 

Sure, he killed a pimp and some other unsavory characters and "rescued" a teenage prostitute. However, how does THAT absolve him of attempting to murder a presidential candidate?

 

The guy reaches for something in a coat and the security men run after him; they don't have a name or a picture or anything, just an eyeball ID. I doubt if they would connect it with the later shootout, much less try bring charges.

 

As for what's the point of the ending, you got to go back to Dostoevsky, from which it was in part inspired. His characters, much like Bickle, are loners so out of touch with society they need to do something to let themselves in, or at least, let themselves be noticed, like shooting a presidential candidate (I also think he believed the candidate was somehow responsible for making the love of his life--Cybill Shepherd's character--reject him).

 

The final violence is supposed to be the consequence of all that obsession--Bickle's frustration and loneliness finally coming out in a blaze of bullets and fountaining blood, so to speak. He wants this so much for so long, and finally he gets it.

 

The finale is the ironic point of the movie: Bickle the time bomb exploded and the result is that he's a hero. Now that's really scary, because as crazy as Bickle is, and we've spent enough time inside his head to know that, the ending shows us that the city is crazier.