A new twist to love-triangle genre

In the heyday of the pre-electronica 80’s, New Order had a smash single called Bizarre Love Triangle, and for some reason, the title got stuck in my head as I watched the latest offering from Star Cinema. On the surface, Nasaan Ka Man looks and feels like your standard love triangle story, but in the hands of new director Cholo Laurel, the triangle angle takes on dimensions and hues that belie the fact that this is his first feature-film. Thanks to the assured work he’s done with TV commercials (among others, KC Concepcion’s Eskinol, Carmina Villarroel and twins for Nido, Kris Aquino for Kissa), the direction and handling of the actors are confident, and the cinematography shines, reflecting the moods and ambiance of the characters and the location (Baguio).

In what seems to be an idyllic set-up in Baguio, two old maid sisters (portrayed by Gloria Diaz and Hilda Koronel) live with three children adopted by Gloria’s character, and have created a world of their own. There’s Ito (Diether Ocampo), Joven (Jericho Rosales) and Pilar (Claudine Barretto), seemingly as tight-knit as any real family would be. Of course, from the onset, there is something peculiar and not quite normal with the set-up; and in a particularly well crafted dramatic vignette of a New Year dinner, Joven and Pilar announce to the family that they are in love and plan to wed. This is the premise, the set up for all that follows with notions of Filipino family, respectability and privacy, technical incest, loss and redemption, superstition and the paranormal, all held up to the light and scrutinized within the context of the story developed by Ricky Lee and director Laurel.

Slowly and deliberately, the seemingly whole, composite world the two sisters have created is revealed as riddled with holes, imbued with frustrations and compromises of varying magnitudes, something each and every character, as it turns out, has had to consider as part and parcel of their lives. Gloria’s character had a lover in her youth, someone who her father had vehemently rejected and had killed when she tried to run away with him. Defending their love because they are all adopted, Pilar soon wakes up to the fact that being in love with one, can also mean being desired by the other. Layer by layer, things are discovered, and rather than spoil the story, I’ll be content to say that nothing is ever what it seems. But thanks to Cholo’s directorial skills, our capacity for disbelief is held sway, and we gladly go along for the ride.

His handling of the actors in the film is to be commended. Each character is well fleshed out, replete with idiosyncrasies and individual flair as in the case of Hilda’s character and her pagka-bingi (which provide much of the shafts of humor that exist in the film), and Gloria’s domineering old maid interpretation. All five of the main actors fit their characters like a glove. Jericho’s brooding intensity we already saw in Tanging Yaman and Santa-Santita; and there are new nuances to how he uses that for this film. Claudine’s dramatic credentials have never been in doubt and her plaintive eyes and facial expressions perfectly suit her Pilar. Diether is the great surprise of the film; moving from standard leading-man/pretty-boy roles to something much darker and tightly wound.

Foreshadowing and flashbacks are used effectively throughout the first half of the film witness one character mentioning how Pilar also possesses a third eye, and how in the hotel room Joven and Pilar run to, the camera angle of only having Pilar in front of the mirror becomes a telling clue for what ensues. Counterpoint is also utilized very effectively, the mirth of the two sisters as they return with Joven from the local fiesta, is placed in relief against the tragedy that has befallen Pilar. The insistence by the sisters of how the protected status of their world can not be impinged upon, even by what evil may lie within, is very much a sober, realistic reflection of the extent to which the notion of family holds sway in our society. Ito’s silent obedience to the laws and rules of his mother and the inner turmoil it produces when acceptance by the sisters is given of the other two siblings love for each other, finds malevolent expression as frustration and rage set in.

This notion of the protected world is perfectly captured in the Baguio location and the cinematography. The perpetual presence of mist and fog is its expression in nature; and this seems to be mirrored in the interior shoots with the liberal use of glass curtains, all creating a cocooning effect that works as a metaphor for how fragile is the world that our five main characters move in.

While some may criticize that the film is more like a pastiche of different Hollywood films - such as Ghost, Sixth Sense and what have you; the use of the setting, the acting talent and the well-handled exposition of the story give the film my thumbs up. It is only in the last quarter of the film that certain concessions to perceived commercial sensibilities seem to have creeped in. I’ve always been one for the "I know where you’re going and I do get the point, so move on" school; so I find some of the lingering sequences superfluous in length. The introduction of the theme song also seems to jar a bit, spoiling the poignancy of the closing scene. Perhaps it could have started when the closing credits are running already. The use of the butterfly symbol was to me "over the top"; but I do concede that generally, people like closure and resolution, while I don’t mind ambiguity and a little bit of open-endedness. So that’s just me.

It’s good to see Star Cinema once again coming up with a release that is more in the Feng Shui vein of last year, a departure from the current year’s roster of Dreamboy (Piolo/Bea) and the Sandara-Hero starrer. It’s high drama, a love story, and suspense all thrown in, with a richness of characterization, and plot twists enough to carry five teleseryes through several seasons. If you’ve been viewing Hollywood and Asian suspense shockers as a staple diet, there are moments of predictability, but the entertainment value of Nasaan Ka Man remains constant, and there is much to recommend in this film.