One Fine Pinoy Comedy

CEBU, Philippines – If you have to see just one comedy film this year, I highly recommend Ded Na Si Lolo. The film, the second of six offerings in the Sine Direk festival, is a refreshing break from the long string of films that are supposed to be funny but are not. Thanks to the masterful handling of Director Soxie Topacio from his own screenplay, Ded Na Si Lolo is hilarious without being overly slapstick. It pokes fun at the practices and superstitions surrounding a typical Filipino funeral. Irreverent as it is, the film is a triumph of humor over scruples.

The director’s task was undoubtedly made easier by the talent-laden cast that delivered big-time.

The line-up is bannered by Elizabeth Oropesa, Dick Israel, Gina Alajar, Manilyn Reynes and Roderick Paulate. They are siblings whose father had just died, and who must get their act together so that their dad gets a decent burial.

The film gets its laughs by milking the idiosyncracies of a funeral, Philippine-style. To name a few: You’re not supposed to clean the house until the wake is over. The money you slip into the hand of the corpse is supposed to bring those he left behind luck. You can’t take a bath in the house where a wake is in progress (bathe in a neighbor’s house instead). You have to cut the rosary clutched by the deceased to break the chain of deaths that might befall his family.

No expression of grief is complete without the usual fainting and keening. And the members of the family try to outdo each other in losing consciousness at the drop of a hat.

A sinister element surfaces when a mystery woman makes an unannounced appearance at the wake. Who is she? The siblings of the deceased are perplexed.

It’s Roderick, however, who takes the cake as the youngest sib who makes no effort to hide the fact that he is gay. Roderick fits the role to a T as the counterpoint to the overbearing eldest, played by La Oropesa.

Ded Na Si Lolo has all the hallmarks of a fine comedy movie.

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It’s ironic that a musical piece that is supposed to evoke unity and patriotism is creating a lot of ill will. That is what’s happening to the Philippine National Anthem. The furor began when Martin Nievera sang Lupang Hinirang at the opening of the fight between our very own Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas last Saturday. There were objections to the way Martin sang the anthem. His was a slow, stylized arrangement. The objectors claim that Lupang Hinirang must be sung the way its composer Julian Felipe meant it to be sung: with a march tempo. To render it otherwise would be a crime, literally, under Section 37 of the Republic Act No. 8491 or the 1998 Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines. The violator faces a fine and worse, a prison term of not more than year.

The raging issue is, should a singer take liberties with the national anthem or stick to the prescribed rendition? I expect the debate to linger a little longer. Even some lawmakers have raised the possibility of a congressional inquiry. That I think is going a bit too far. Martin himself has said he is ready to make an apology.

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Expected to fly in with Manny last Friday was Sarah Geronimo. Sarah has just finished a successful, two-month concert tour of the US with Billy Crawford, Charlie Green and Mark Bautista.

She is coming home just in time to receive three major plums from the Guillermo Mendoza Memorial Awards. After that Sarah hits the road again, this time for countrywide tour, beginning June 12.