The year 2015 has certainly been one of surprises for Philippine show business – from the AlDub phenomenon rising from obscurity into a massive success, stirring up a frenzy on social media websites and beyond with every new development, to Popoy and Basha reuniting to bring tears of sadness and joy, along with a healthy dose of “hugot” lines, once again, for A Second Chance.
It has been a year of long-awaited movies, such as the latest superhero smack down from Marvel, Avengers: Age of Ultron, or the “revival” of the Star Wars saga with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Filipino movies on the other hand (the best ones, anyway), aren’t defined by larger-than-life characters, such as The Avengers’ superheroes, instead by regular, average Joes squaring off against whatever life throws at them.
With the year’s end close at hand – it is once again a time of reflection, a time to look back at the year’s most notable releases, a time to salute those that truly stood out amongst a sea of rehashed rom-coms, and foreign superhero movies – a time to honor the best and brightest of Philippine cinema for 2015:
2 Bea Alonzo, Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta playing this year’s most popular love triangle to hit the big screen
3 John Arcilla in Heneral Luna, which critics regard as the best movie of the year
4 The well-loved pop icon Popoy and Basha played by John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo
A Second Chance
(Drama, by Star Cinema)
Enter A Second Chance, the long-awaited sequel to 2007’s One More Chance – a film that’s just as entertaining as seeing Iron Man facing off against the Hulk, with astoundingly less CGI (and explosions).
Engineer Rodolfo “Popoy” Gonzales (John Lloyd Cruz) and Architect Basha-Belinda Eugenio (Bea Alonzo) are now married, following the cliffhanger ending of One More Chance. Strangely, despite that premise, they still find themselves unhappy – with Popoy being a failed achiever, struggling to keep his business (and self-esteem) afloat, and Basha sacrificing much to keep their marriage intact.
By local standard, A Second Chance is a good movie – it doesn’t dwell too much in its humor, it is, first and foremost, a drama – with well-acted scenes combining with an equally well-written script that will have viewers actually caring about what happens next to the characters, not just the movie.
It is a relatable, well-grounded film, with “real” characters facing real problems. It is certainly one of the year’s best releases, and recently, Philippine cinema’s biggest release, being the highest-grossing Filipino film of all time, all to the tune of more than P550 million (and counting) worldwide.
Crazy Beautiful You
(Romantic Comedy, by Star Cinema)
Crazy Beautiful You may seem like your generic, run-of-the-mill, twenty-something rom-com with a plot that may or may not be connected to the title, but, wait… Nope, there are no buts, Crazy Beautiful You is just that, complete with one of the nation’s hottest love teams, a convoluted, confused plot, a love triangle, and a montage set to a cheesy song to move the plot along, in order to stop the audience from asking, “wait, aren’t they rushing things a bit?”
Kathryn Bernardo stars as Jackie, a troubled 19-year-old, a product of her parents’ separation. On the other side of the coin is Kiko, played by Daniel Padilla, also a (gasp!) product of a broken family. Of course, “something” happens in the movie to bring the unlikely-yet-still-quite-likely couple together, and it is here that the movie actually musters up a more-or-less interesting story, with the two young lovers’ familial backgrounds getting exposed, forcing the two to make amends with their respective families. Eventually, a love triangle transpires but fizzles out, and other events are sprinkled throughout in order to usher the movie towards its inevitably happy ending.
The film does manage to be entertaining, distracting, and is extremely successful, earning an estimated P326 million, thanks to the support of a massive KathNiel fan base. However, Crazy Beautiful You does not reinvent the wheel of Philippine cinema – it is, first and foremost, a cheesy, romantic comedy with all the conventional elements and a dash of realism sprinkled throughout, like many others that came before, and, with this film’s success, the numerous iterations that are sure to come after it, hoping to emulate its achievement.
The Love Affair
(Drama, by Star Cinema)
Yet another movie running the gamut of extramarital affairs and love triangles that spring forth from the aforementioned affairs, The Love Affair tells the all-too-familiar story of Vince (Richard Gomez), a neurosurgeon who finds out that his wife, Trisha (Dawn Zulueta) is cheating on him with his best friend. He seeks the help of a lawyer, Adie (Bea Alonzo), who is also, conveniently, undergoing the same hardship, as her fiancé has also recently cheated on her with a model. You can probably guess what happens next.
The Love Affair is unnecessarily complicated – a melodramatic mess, if you will – with its well-acted characters delivering grandiose speeches in a film chock-full of equally dramatic, and sadly, artificial-feeling, confrontations. It is a sad movie, not because of the drama, but because you can see the actors genuinely trying to bring to life a confused, overwritten script, in this cliché-ridden, convoluted mess of a movie.
It is, overall, a well-acted movie hindered by a preference for dramatic confrontations, loud noises, and crying, in addition to an ending that fairy-tales away all the emotional weight and interesting questions posited by the film’s premise.
It is, however, a certified box office hit, earning more than P300 million worldwide, owing to the fact that it has such a star-studded cast of veteran actors and actresses, in addition to an audience that just craves confrontation, scandal, and drama.
Heneral Luna
(Action, Historical, by Artikulo Uno Productions)
No other movie encapsulates the year’s preference for surprises other than Heneral Luna – first and foremost, it is a historical action film, combining two local genres that are, more often than not, either left behind, forgotten in the box office, or are forcibly fused together into a disgusting monstrosity, which promptly gets put out of its misery by failing box office numbers.
Heneral Luna is entertaining – at face value, it is a historical movie focusing on Gen. Antonio Luna (John Arcilla) during the Philippine-American war, featuring all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a war movie – the explosions, the blood and violence are all there – but Luna isn’t just a General, he also dabbles into the intricacies of the early days of Philippine politics, a quagmire of personal interests, political intrigue, and treacherous plots – and that’s where the movie gets even juicier – Luna’s exhortations of “Bayan o sarili? (Country or self?)” resonate further beyond the film’s setting, asking a question that today’s politicians should do well to heed.
That Heneral Luna did so well, being an indie film that attained mainstream success, earning more than P250 million, and did so convincingly, releasing as one of the year’s best films, is a fantastic accomplishment in Philippine cinema. Add that to the fact that Luna relied more on word-of-mouth and the Filipino netizens to advertise, rather than bombarding us with billboard and TV ads, in addition to being a well-shot, well-written, well-acted movie with a deeper meaning, and the sum is an outstanding achievement rivaled by few in the Philippine indie movie scene, or perhaps, even the entirety of Philippine cinema.