A harvest of A's

The year just past will go down as having perhaps the most number of movies graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board, entitling the filmmakers to 100 percent tax rebate. At least 10 received the distinct honor, including three from the recently concluded Metro Manila Film Festival and another three from the 2008 edition of the Cinemalaya festival of independent cinema.

A rundown of the grade A films for 2008:

• Ploning, directed by Dante Nico Garcia. This pastoral ode to one’s childhood by a newcomer director is the country’s bet for a slot in the Oscar shortlist of best foreign language films. Starring and co-produced by Judy Ann Santos, the film has lambent shots of Cuyo in Palawan and tells of a young man’s attempt to retrieve a lost past through the memory of his surrogate mom, the mystically named Ploning (Santos), whose real name may be Apollonia.

• Endo, directed by Jade Francis Castro, was actually the first film previewed by the CEB in 2008 and promptly got an A. The film was actually an entry to the 2007 Cinemalaya, and deals with a romance between casual end-of-contract workers whose search for love and companionship transcends their usual dead-end jobs. Unforgettable is the jig done by Jason Abalos before Katherine Luna at the end of the film, ditto Ina Feleo and Mailes Kanapi’s rejoicing after Ina’s pregnancy test turns out negative.

• Kulam, directed by newcomer Jun Lana, theater veteran and Palanca hall of famer, also got an A and continued the tradition of the good showing by the Filipino horror genre after Ouija and Pamana. “That scene where Mira and Maria (Judy Ann Santos) switch bodies in the heat of kulam has got to be among the most hair-raising in local horror cinema, achieved yet with a minimum of special effects,” read the CEB post-screening report.

 • A Very Special Love netted the highest grade for director Cathy Molina Garcia after a string of B’s in similar lighthearted romantic comedies, mainly due to the onscreen chemistry between leads Sarah Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz, as well the very catchy theme song also done by Geronimo. Feisty poor girl meets rich boy born out of wedlock, and we get celluloid fireworks amid a yuppie but still familiar setting.

• Urduja by Michael Tuviera billed itself as the first full-fledged Pinoy-made animation feature, and though Disney references are unavoidable, the musical does not disappoint. It features the voices of Regine Velasquez, Michael V., Johnny Delgado, Ruby Rodriguez and Eddie Garcia among others, and has a revisionist take on history with its legendary princess falling in love with a Limahong-like character. With great storytelling and even better songs, the movie has something for both kids and grownups.

• Caregiver by Chito Roño seemed like a shoo-in to the A-list, what with “bankable” star Sharon Cuneta doing another star turn after Crying Ladies a few years back. The film is perhaps the most successful of the genre dealing with OFWs, down to the last tinge of homesickness and separated dysfunctional families, and Roño in particular appears to be in his element in this melodrama set largely in Britain. There is a surprise twist, too, in the end, a welcome departure from the melodrama mode that makes it on the whole unpredictable.

• Concerto by Paul Morales was a Cinemalaya 2008 entry and stirred emotions and a round of applause at the film’s conclusion. “It seems for the most part that Morales had the story brewing within him for sometime, so that he pulls out all the stops in this one yet maintaining an admirable restraint that keeps the audience engaged in this episode of war, a family that tries to keep body and soul together through the music of a piano brought into their refuge by the ambiguous enemy,” read the CEB report. “On the whole Concerto may be mentioned in the same breath as past classics Oro Plata Mata by Peque Gallaga and the period piece Ganito Kami Noon... by Eddie Romero.”

• 100 by Chris Martinez won audience choice award in Cinemalaya 08 as well as in the Busan Film Festival also last year. It’s a slow-burning tale starring Mylene Dizon as a woman who lists 100 things to do before she dies of cancer, memorable for its tongue-in-cheek treatment that retains its warmth and humor without being morbid in the face of mortality. Wonderful scene, too, of Dizon, Eugene Domingo and Tessie Tomas skinny dipping in the beach under the moonlight, and a notable cameo by the lead character’s pet cat as a foil and not exactly mute witness to the proceedings.

• Boses by Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil of Cinemalaya 08 was largely ignored by the awards-giving body of that festival, but it mattered little when it captured the hearts of the audience during its commercial run in theaters. The battered child finds solace in music and a spiritual brother in the eccentric violin teacher played by Coke Bolipata in the wilds of Zambales, with eye-catching cinematography provided by Nap Jamir who continues the excellent camera work he did in Maximo Oliveros.

• Magkaibigan by Jose Javier Reyes is the director’s third straight Metro Manila film fest A after the double barreled Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo and Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo of the two preceding years. This tribute to the late actor Rudy Fernandez by his bosom buddy Sen. Jinggoy Estrada is, on the other hand, the senator’s second straight film fest A after last year’s Katas ng Saudi. It’s reportedly a very down-home film that won’t likely do well at the tills but which stuff the festival is in dire need of.

• Dayo sa Mundo ng Elementalia by Robert Quilao. “Described as a signal achievement in Philippine animation, the 3-D Dayo could very possibly be the best film of this year’s festival. Combining technical excellence, expertly voiced characters, inspiring theme song, masterful direction, and a script that makes good use of Filipino underworld lore while espousing environmental and family values, Dayo sets a new watermark in Philippine animated film, one that is at par with yet never imitative of its western counterparts,” the CEB report said.

• Baler by Mark Meily. “While the general consensus was that this was hardly the director’s best film after two previous grade A movies (Crying Ladies, La Visa Loca), the board still felt that Baler, warts and all, deserves the highest rating for offering the film festival audience other than the usual fare, and indeed almost pulls off the epic feat. Maybe Meily, who has a cameo as father confessor, was a bit daunted by the historical material and seems to have held back out of respect for this episode of love and war,” CEB said.