Light and death

Film Review: Two Funerals

MANILA, Philippines - When Teamwork Productions’ Two Funerals garnered top honors at the recent Cinemalaya, it served notice that black comedy, when serviced by nimble direction and a solid screenplay, could work here in the Philippines. Too often in the past, attempts to work within this genre had filmmakers falling flat on their faces. They can start the film on a high note, but they lose something along the way; or they insult their intended audience by being as subtle as a jackhammer or a Pacquiao haymaker! In the case of Two Funerals, it’s Gil Portes and writer Eric Ramos proving there’s still a lot of life left in veteran moves and seasoned sensibilities. Working within a tight linear timeframe of Holy Thursday to Holy Saturday, Two Funerals manages to make us laugh in knowing recognition, be touched with sympathy and compassion, and the film acts as a telling mirror to what we Filipinos are like, our weaknesses and strengths, our foibles and our surprising capacity to still be noble.

The film starts off in Nueva Ecija, with Pilar Buenceso (Tessie Tomas), awaiting the arrival of the coffin of her young daughter, Charm, a youth leader who perished in a bus accident along with a number of other unfortunates. Robert Arevalo plays the anguished, distracted father, who’s assisted by Gerry (Xian Lim), the boyfriend and fiancé of Charm. Meanwhile, down in Sorsogon, we meet Mulong Buenviaje (Benjie Felipe), a small town bet-taker for the local jueteng, who’s being castigated for working as the vital days of Holy Week commences. A coffin is delivered to Mulong, and he’s told that it holds the body of his long-estranged brother, Dodong, who died in the same vehicular mishap that took the life of Charm. The “coffin of Charm” arrives in NE, and when Pilar draws up the nerve to view her daughter, lo and behold, there’s a rather seedy looking man inside the coffin! As luck would have it, coffins have been switched and the coffin carrying Charm has found its way to Sorsogon where the death of Dodong is actually good news for the barangay captain, who claims Dodong raped the captain’s mother before he left the Sorsogon town to take up a life of crime in the big city.

The film evolves to a road movie with a difference, with the convoy of Pilar with ex-son-in-law Gerry in one vehicle, and a hearse provided by the funeral parlor, and carrying the coffin of Dodong, making its way from NE to Sorsogon. Jeffrey Quizon is hilarious as a staff member of the parlor who’s married, but used to be gay. And the road trip provides numerous opportunities for funny situations and poignant observations of what mourning and hope means to us Filipinos. For while this caravan makes its way to Bicol, all hell is already breaking loose down there, as Mulong has turned their closed-coffin wake (naturally!) into a money-grabbing exercise, with gambling, loud music and wild dancing filling the night air.

It’s the set-ups, the situations and trenchant commentary that give this shaggy-dog of a film its best asset — and that is its charm. Don’t approach the film with super high expectations, but be ready to be teased, have a smile escape our pursed lips, and then, surrender to the inescapable charm that makes this film such a deserving winner. Tessie and Benjie are the standouts in this film, but that’s not taking anything away from the ensemble effort direk Gil has superbly managed — and how he has masterfully mixed comedy and levity in appropriate doses! Two Funerals starts its run in regular cinemas on Sept. 8.