A realistic picture of life's journey

The end of the year is always a good time to do musings on life. In the thick of the revelry of the holidays, it may help to step aside and retreat to one quiet corner of the world to ponder on the past, present and future. The cold Siberian wind that blows into the country around this time also helps us gather our thoughts and adds a little ambience to all the brooding we have to do.

The Dec. 9 (Wednesday) exhibition of the indie movie Walang Hanggang Paalam by Paolo Villaluna and Ellen Ramos is quite timely and watching it is the perfect break from the dizzying preparations for Christmas. This may also be the calm before the onslaught of the entries from the annual Metro Manila Film Festival. Catching this movie may help us reflect on what we are going to do with our lives before we get back into the frenzied activities forced on us by the commercialization of what is supposed to be a blessed season.

Walang Hanggang Paalam is basically the story of two people: The first is Lovi Poe, a minor who elopes with her boyfriend (Joem Bascon) to Baguio and is trailed by a gay detective (Jake Roxas) hired by her father (Ricardo Cepeda).

Jake actually also has his own story, but it is secondary, almost tertiary. The conflict of his life is that his lover (Rico Barrera) is a married man and he can’t have his inamorato all to himself. Walang Hanggang Paalam, however, is no gay movie — in spite of some suggested homosexual sex scenes.

The movie is primarily centered on the other character, Jacky Woo, a Japanese national dying of cancer and has to make a visit to the Philippines, Baguio in particular, to retrace his past. It is in the City of Pines that he meets Lovi and it is interesting to discover what they make out of that encounter.

I may have to warn you though that the journey to reach the film’s end may feel like a trip to Baguio with monstrous traffic in Urdaneta in Pangasinan. Yes, the film seems longer than it really is because there is a lot of brooding elements thrown into it. Most of the time, the characters pause to smoke, talk and wait — and you wait it out with them to find out what will happen next.

But what is that saying again about how the best is reserved for those who wait? Moviegoers who like their films serious and reflective of life may savor this film because the filmmakers are able to successfully capture the severity of our existence in this world, especially its pains.

The Baguio setting helps establish the mood of the film, which paints the gloomy, but realistic side of life and its problems, mysteries and intricacies. It is through Walang Hanggang Paalam that I realized why filmmakers love to shoot their movies in the City of Pines — from Baguio Cadets in the ‘50s to current mainstream and indie projects: Baguio is versatile — its look can help set up romantic tones (Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising, Ngayon at Kailanman, etc.), horror (Dracula Goes to RP and other flicks of that genre) or even both — as in Nasaan Ka Man, where Claudine Barretto gets to romance Jericho Rosales, who later turns into a ghost.

In Walang Hanggang Paalam, Baguio is captured the way it is — cold, but crowded. The film never turns into a travelogue and Villaluna and Ramos are both excellent at composing their shots. But the problem at times is that they fall in love with what they capture on film that they have difficulty parting with some scenes or shortening these — the both of them serving also as film editors of this project.

A lot of these overextended scenes, however, also help the actors establish their characters and they deliver impressive performances in the process. Jacky Woo? I wasn’t sure what he was before. I was even confused about his nationality. It turned out he was a Japanese actor who did action and, later, comedy. In Walang Hanggang Paalam, I discovered that he is also capable of doing great dramatic work.

Lovi is also outstanding as the young woman who, while running away from home, discovers her sad past and caps it with a bitter ending.

Villaluna had always been successful at bringing out the best in his actors. In his film Ilusyon, screen nymphet Jaycee Parker managed to snag an Urian Best Actress nomination. 2007’s Selda, on the other hand, gave Sid Lucero and Emilio Garcia their chance to win the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor trophies, respectively, in that year’s Gawad Urian.

Jacky may not win an Urian for this film, but he and Lovi are sure to get citations — I’ll see to that (The Cinema Evaluation Board members who gave the movie a B grade cited their acting). The two lead performers deliver such credible performances that the viewers feel their pains and aches.

Yes, I’m telling you now, Walang Hanggang Paalam is no feel-good movie. In fact, it is rather grim. But it shows us a realistic picture of life’s journey — that it is no leisurely walk in Burnham Park.