Cannibal Holocaust could be the most controversial movie of all time. After the movie was premierred in the 1980's, it was seized by the courts, banned in some 50 countries, and its director, Ruggero Deodato, was charged and thrown to prison for murdering his actors as shown in the film. He was later released after he summoned his actors to appear in public. But the film (screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici and filmed in the Amazon rainforests), regarded as the best horror movie ever which spawned so many imitations, remained banned or censored in some countries, even as it reportedly became the biggest hit in Japan, second only to ET.
I watched the film a long time ago in VHS, when DVD was still unknown. And I really thought that it was semi-documentary because the scenes were very realistic. It had a lot of gore, nudity, obscenity, and cruely to man and animals. I even showed it to a friend and asked him to verify who among the characters were the real cannibals in the movie, because to me, it was the civilized urban characters who terrorized the uncivilized jungle natives.
The movie was about a university anthropologist who looked for a film crew which was reported missing after it left for the South American jungles to get a scholarly documentary on the lives of the jungle tribes who could be cannibals. With a lot of help from the locals, the anthropologist succeeded to recover reels of film of the missing crew. On his return to civilization, he learned of the tragic fate of the crew as shown in the reels of film recovered from the jungle tribe.
I happened to stumble on this movie again only lately in the internet. And it was only at that time when I fully understood that this Italian movie was indeed a fiction.
Watch this critique. Warning: Some scenes could be unacceptable to some.
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Most horrifying horror movie
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Yanggaw
Yanggaw is an Ilonggo term meaning ‘to convert to being a witch or aswang’. If used as a noun, yanggaw means ‘a new convert; a new witch or aswang’. Technically, yanggaw connotes witchery and must be used sparingly and in private conversations or in whispers only. However, lately, the term has evolved into a common idiom which is used openly in jest. It loosely means ‘to convert’, or ‘a convert’ without the aswang connotation. So, a new member of a group of drinking buddies can be referred to as a yanggaw; or a new member of a barkada is a new yanggaw. Similarly, somebody who has just been addicted to smoking or to a new Boy Band is said to be na-yanggaw.
Yanggaw is also the title of an indie movie currently being talked about in Iloilo. The movie has earned awards and citations and is especially popular among the students from the elementary to the graduate school.
But unlike other indie (for independent, or a movie made outside any major film studio) movies, Yanggaw is not about sex, sexuality, and sex organs. Yanggaw is about culture, traditions, and beliefs which may clash with modern day living.
But what makes Yanggaw a hit in Iloilo is that, it is a mainstream Philippine movie that depicts a slice of Ilonggo provincial life. And most of all, the movie was dubbed in Ilonggo and is topbilled by Ilonggo actors.
It is a story about a yanggaw in a rural baranggay which is, based on the names of places in the movie, somewhere between the municipalities of Oton and Tigbauan. And possibly, it is a story common in many Philippine rural towns told in a hush and only to trusted friends, lest the ire of the concerned is stoked. Or worse, the rumour monger gets the sinister attention of the real aswang and the aswang stalks him (the rumour monger) till he dies of fear or from loss of blood after being disemboweled or dismembered by the aswang before he is turned into sushi or dinuguan.
Yanggaw, as the title connotes, is a horror movie. But unlike other horror movies, it does not use heavy make-up, prosthetics, zombies, alien creatures, and ghosts which tend to be hilarious rather than horrifying. It does not need an expert make-up artist or a cinematic engineer to create an aswang. An aswang is just any common folk around us. He or she can even be the person sitting beside you right now. Yanggaw creates fear through implied scenes and situations which become vivid in the viewers’ imaginations. It is a researched movie, playing on the aswang image and derring-do as cultivated in the Filipino psyche through years of story telling from childhood to adulthood. Scenes are made real by terminologies like ‘buyag’ (means ‘the ire of evil spirits’), which were long lost after the aswang-believing generation has died or has been eaten by the ghost of alzheimer’s.
I like the movie, not necessarily because of its technical aspects, but on its way of unravelling the story and its ability to capture the attention of the viewer from start to finish with feelings of non-stop excitement and anticipation. The dialogue is simple and real, with no flowery lines of written prose. The scenes are heart-rending especially to a family person. The line ‘a face only a mother can love’ pertaining to a super ugly baby is truly reflected in the movie. A father will do whatever he can, even to kill another person, just to protect his child, even if his child is a known aswang. Parents will never abandon their child, even if they know that their child is an aswang. And to do the extreme of killing his aswang child , a father will do it but with the welfare of his child in his mind. ‘Patya na lang ko, Tay’, the daughter implores her father because she is an aswang, a beast. The father will do it, but will first advice the daughter in a fatherly tone to first close her eyes. ‘Piyunga lang mata mo’, so the child will not see death coming. And death will be sudden with no pain at all to the aswang.
Ti malantaw na kamo Yanggaw?
The first time I uploaded this post, I included an internet version of the movie which I found by sheer patience. But I took it out for professional reasons. Instead I placed a YouTube version of the trailer. Anyway, you still can find the internet version if you really search for it, and if it was not yet taken out.
The internet version is free. But please help the Philippine indie movie industry. For many of you who are abroad and who can not watch personally the movie in its commercial screening, please advice your kins in the Philippines to watch Yanggaw in its commercial run. Or if they prefer the VCD version, please advice your kins to buy the original copies and NOT the pirated ones.
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Ga-patad ka sa LOTTO? I-memorize ang numero nga ini....
