Sunday, January 16, 2005

Here’s my phil cinema paper – a review of santa santita. Hehe, just wanna share.

It Makes us all Wonder

Life is a mystery. And God, who most of us Christians perceive to be in control of this life, also works in ways incomprehensible to us.
This is the central message Laurice Guillen’s Santa Santita wants to communicate as it adapts into the modern day context a story of the biblical character Mary Magdalene – in its narration of the transformation of Malen (played by Angelica Panganiban) from a young woman of naughty personality and superficial spirituality to a ‘prayer woman’ / ‘taga-dasal’ of extraordinary ability to heal and intercede for others so that their prayers be answered by God.
The first scenes - the opening frames showing art pieces depicting cherubins and saint figures; and the scenes in front of the busy Quiapo area - establish the film’s religious theme and at the same time, foreshadow the many contradictions embedded in it. That is, the Quaipo church, or any church for that matter, is perceived as a place for ‘saints’ - the house of God wherein people in faith come together to pray and worship Him. However, Quaipo is also perceived as a place for fortune-tellers, fake beggars, pickpockets and vendors who make money out of the scapulars, rosaries and other religious paraphernalia. Quaipo thus serves as an appropriate setting - a place for saints and sinners, for santas and santitas – which are divisions defined by religion, which in this case is Roman Catholicism.
The film then acquaints its audience with the main character Malen who with the way she dresses, moves; and approaches and flirts with a guy stranger, who happens to be Mike (Jericho Rosales), is immediately identified to be a liberated teenager. Her character highlights the modern touch on the film so the viewers recognize it to be a film of our times. For instance, compare her torrid kissing scene with Mike during their first date (which happened after they have met each other less than a week before) with the ‘kissing’ scene in the 1959 movie Biyaya ng Lupa wherein the newlyweds ‘shyly’ kiss each other on the cheeks.
The so-called High Definition (HD) technology, which Unitel Productions is proud to use in filming this movie, attests to our advancement nowadays when it comes to technical production in our films. Such high technology made most of the scenes appear golden and the love scene almost red hot; and made possible the unconventional camera shots and the SFX, such as in Malen’s dream sequences in the desert and her stigmata. Moreover, the film’s musical score is commendable – mostly of conga drums, if I’m not mistaken – which significantly adds up to tension and heightens up emotions in certain scenes. This is definitely an improvement from crude sound effects in our movies in the past.
However, while the film speaks of a modern day character and is also crafted using modern techniques / production technology, the film does not leave out elements of the old – with the traditional religious beliefs of other characters such as Chayong, Malen’s devout mother (Hilda Coronel), who never fails to pray the rosary and utter memorized prayers and even wipes the religious figures before leaving the house; as well as of the other people who still believe in the power of those ‘taga-dasal’ to intercede for them. In addition, the film tackles on the possibility of miracles (in our own definition, that is) which contemporary people believe to be logically impossible or merely gimmicks by those wanting to earn money or to be in the news.
Honestly, my initial overall evaluation of the film is negative, almost disagreeing with its Grade A rating. The film left me perplexed and wondering of what exactly it is trying to say. Also, I think the characters are underdeveloped that we can hardly identify where they are coming from or what are pushing them to behave such ways. Why is the priest alcoholic? Why is Mike so deceitful even of Malen who he ‘loves’? Isn’t Malen’s character somehow shallow – similar to a typical rebellious teenager disobeying her mother who expects her daughter to be as religious as she is? I noticed also how ‘discentered’ the film is – lacking focus and clear cause-and-effect logic with its events incoherent and inconsistent with one another. How could true love blossom between Malen and Mike when no particular event/s in the film testify to this plus considering the fact that Mike even lied to Malen? How could one dream of stigmata immediately change Malen? What prompted Mike to change and believe in God? Is it the death of his child? Malen? Or the prison? What’s with Malen’s smile during the last scene? (which, I think, actress Panganiban portrayed sloppily because she looked as if she’s just finding her best angle for a photo shoot rather than expressing that she is happy having been part of a transformation of Mike.)
Surprisingly, this series of question I had pushed me to a deeper reflection and afterwards an appreciation of the film. It is human nature to be asking a lot of questions, to be demanding explanations and clear-cut evidences to everything inside and around us – akin to how people pray for miracles – those that we can see – to prove that there is really a God. Then I realized that since the film portrays life and faith – whose meanings we cannot really fully exhaust / understand, it also needs not provide ‘in-your-face’ explanations to every aspect of the film, lest spoonfeeding its audience, allowing them no further reflection.
The film subtly encourages us to rethink of our faith – our personal relationship with God by making us identify with just a particular character. At one point in our lives, we are like the ‘former’ Malen who prays with the mouth and not with the heart; we are like Mike who can be dishonest and manipulative yet at a certain point feels helpless; we are like Father Tony who falls victim to vices, pleasures of the world; we are like the nun who amidst faith, feels neglected and unanswered by God; we are like the people who feel to need other people interceding for us; we are those who look for miracles and start to believe only when we have seen it. Oftentimes also, we question God every time the ‘unwanted unexpected’ come our way in the same way that the other people in the film raise their brows as they feel Malen is unworthy to receive such gift of healing.
The film possesses a certain degree of ambiguity and the key to understanding its primary message is through one’s deep reflection of oneself and one’s faith. During that process, a miracle is already being made.
We are sinners. We are saints. We are santas. We are santitas. We all yearn to witness our own miracles and we all wonder how. Santa Santita left us thinking about that.