Whistle from the river?

It is time for the Manila Film Festival once again. It sucks that they have to hold it on Christmas break because that means they’re going to show all the movies I want to see on January (A Series of Unfortunate Events and Ocean’s Twelve, to name a few), right when I’ll be working onprojects and studying for midterms. *sigh*

I caught Panaghoy sa Suba with my family yesterday, a World War II movie in Bisaya. Panaghoy sa Suba is a very pretty movie. The movie was filmed in Bohol and there were lush forests everywhere and adorable little tarsier monkeys. In the movie, the river is supposed to be the locals’ means of transportation but its rippling, blue-green waters looked so cool and inviting and was surprisingly devoid of red plastic bags and belly-up fish. Great, great set. The cinematography was beautiful too; my favorite scene was when the mother and daughter were crying, and then through the window you could see her older brother passing by on his boat. Beautiful. Oh, and Juliana Palermo is so hot. If I were a lesbian I would have the biggest crush on her because she has the most lovely figure and looks great even without makeup.

Unfortunately, those are the only good things I have to say about the film. I was incredibly disappointed by it because no matter how gorgeous the set is, or how great the cinematography is, a movie is a bad movie when the story sucks. I’d summarize the plot for you but I can’t even remember who died how, where, and by whom. That’s how bad the story is (or how bad my memory is). It was so convoluted–and long. After thirty minutes of unnecessary death scenes, action scenes, and conversations, it was as if the writer suddenly went, “Oh, right! The story.” Enter the Japanese, and then the pace starts picking up. But just when I thought the movie was about to get to the point, it didn’t, because there wasn’t really much of a point.

Panaghoy sa Suba is actually allegorical. Iset, Juliana Palermo’s character, represents the Philippines because an American guy and a Japanese guy fell in love with her. I don’t know what the hell the other characters represented because I hate delving into symbolism–it was my dad who pointed that out to me. ;p The film reminded me of Indochine, another lengthy, confusing, allegorical film that made no sense whatsoever. If you’re too lazy to read what I think, I’ll say it in a nutshell–watch Panaghoy for the cinematography and for Juliana Palermo.

New hairstyle

Got a haircut today, just because.

The depressed-looking before picture. I actually have nothing to hate about my old hair because it’s still quite nice.

After. The haircut was actually an accident, but unlike the last accidental haircut I had four years ago, I love this one.

I have the car. I got my license yesterday (I look great in the picture). But am I driving? No. Will I be driving anytime soon? Probably not.
*SIGH*