Sana Dati

Out of all the movie or drama genres, I have one that I really don’t like watching; the typical love story with a married (or soon-to-be) couple with the relationship wrecker, aka the typical 3-way love story. When I was watching the movie, I felt the need to punch a guy in the face.

Sana Dati focuses on the love triangle happening between the cameraman, Dennis (Paulo Avelino), a novice wedding videographer serendipitously hired to cover the wedding of Andrea (Lovi Poe), the last love of his older brother Andrew (Benjamin Alves). Andrea weds Robert (TJ Trinidad), a failed politician-turned-businessman she met during an election campaign. Through Andrea, Dennis finally understands the reason behind his brother’s sudden decision to leave their family. Through Dennis, Andrea discovers another way to relive the perfect love that was abruptly terminated by fate’s cruelty.

First of all, the girl protagonist is really brainless. There are so much more ways to handle that situation in a calm and demeaning manner but she chose to run away and make her family feel bad as if she acted like they never cared for her. Secondly, she had the GUTS to flirt with her DEAD ex’s little brother? Not only that but she requested that they run away together? WOW GIRL, you need Jesus. I was actually really happy that Dennis left and never looked back and Andrea ended up with Robert anyway. I don’t understand how and why Andrea is stupid enough to leave her family again when the guy she has is already so perfect but… Who am I to judge when I haven’t faced love at a true view point. When the movie was nearing its end, Andrea chose to try and love Robert back, she left Dennis and Andrew behind and actually TRIED. I was only happy with the ending, the rest of the plot where… no.

I hate the plot, really. But the cinematography and the way that they delivered the story was amazing and awe-dropping. Despite it being an indie film, it was very well made and you can really tell that the film crew made so much effort in the scenes. A job well done to the director.

RPG Metanoia

I had a very good childhood; playing outside, getting dirty from playing on the dusty grass and being soaked in sweat from the heat of the sun, I had the privilege to play with video games too but that still didn’t stop me from playing outside physically. Seeing that concept in a movie really made me keen on watching it some more.

The movie revolves around an avid online game named Nico who as an eleven year old boy lives a normal child's life. But when he is playing the MMORPG (Massively Multi-players Online Role Playing Game) called Metanoia, he is an unpredictable vagabond armed with a magic yoyo and with uncanny speed and agility in his skill set. Nico got low self-esteem and is only getting his guts from playing Metanoia. That is why when he and his friends were faced with an adversity from the local boys, he felt his world shattered. But they found a saving grace from a new friend which inspired them to continue their online endeavor. However, the Metanoia network was infected with a virus affecting the whole internet, most computers and the minds of gamers all over the world. It's up to Nico, his friends and the other remaining Metanoia players to stop the virus from taking control of the online and offline world. But to do that, Nico must muster his courage, and discover the true hero he really is.

RPG Metanoia is the first 3d-Animation Film that the Philippine’s has ever produced, and with a proud Filipino blood running in my veins, I would say this film is one of the major breakthrough of the Philippines in terms of producing an animation film. The movie showed the very culture of the Philippines, even in the game itself, they showed characteristics of how the Filipino’s dress and the weapons were even more fascinating.

Aside from the interesting plot-line, I loved how the movie showed the values of a kid and the importance of kids being able to find out who they are and what they really want to do in life. Kids nowadays are so busy with technology and we always see parents complaining about that; always saying that when they were kids, they would play outside. I feel bad for the youth nowadays actually… With all the obstructions and technology, I doubt they’d be able to feel what a childhood is really supposed to be like.

Some people detest the movie for its corny animation, but really, it’s better than you think… The animation itself is actually outstanding since it’s the first 3d-animation movie our country has produced. I believe RPG Metanoia is a movie that is highly worth to watch to get in touch with your Filipino roots.

Turn Left Turn Right

Turn Left Turn Tight is based on the best-selling illustrated love story of the same name by renowned Taiwanese author/artist, Jimmy Liao.

The story revolves around dashing John Liu (Takeshi Kaneshiro), an inspiring violinist and Eve Choi (Gigi Leung), a professional translator. Like millions living in a large city, John and Eve lead lives of solitude. Despite staying in the same apartment building, their paths never cross. One day, while walking around a fountain in the park, they finally bump into each other... and it's love at first sight! Unfortunately, a sudden shower cuts the encounter short. They manage to exchange telephone numbers but the rain renders the phone numbers illegible.

Aside from the sappy and kind-of idiotic coincidental encounters that the two main-characters have gone through with and also from those cringe worthy ending scene where they finally found out that they live right next to each other with the help of a freaky earthquake that magically breaks down the wall of their apartment that separates them; the story was humorous in my view. Humorous in a sense that I just laugh at the scenes and not go “awww”, because honestly… The movie was really… too corny in a sense?

First is with that “Rain” incident; they wrote down and exchanged phone numbers on a piece of paper but then it got smudged by the rain. They ended up getting sick and ordering the same food, from the SAME restaurant… I mean… Seriously? YOU GUYS LIVE NEXT TO EACH OTHER. There is over 90/100% possibility that they could have seen each other when going out or something. Another thing are those “supporting” characters; June and Dr. Hu… Seriously? They were just really annoying. I found it funny that they ended up together though, that was actually expected.

I’m not biased or anything since I love watching movies… but this movie… If I had to choose watching any drama love movie, I’d never choose this or even include this in my list of options.

Parasyte

I have always been a fan of gore and bloody films; seeing Parasyte live-action with real looking effects made it even better. I’m actually fond of anime and I’ve already watched the series but the live-action movie did not disappoint at all.

Taken from Wikipedia, “Parasyte” is a science fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki, and published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga was published in North America by first Tokyopop, then Del Rey, and finally Kodansha Comics USA. The manga has been adapted into two live-action films in Japan in 2014 and 2015. An anime television series adaptation by Madhouse, titled Parasyte -the maxim- aired in Japan between October 2014 and March 2015.

It starts with a 17-year old boy named Shinichi Izumi, who lives with his mother and father in a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo. One night, worm-like creatures called Parasites appear on Earth, taking over the brains of human hosts by entering through their ears or noses. One Parasite attempts to crawl into Shinichi's ear while he sleeps, but fails as Shinichi is wearing headphones, and enters his body by burrowing into his arm instead. In the Japanese version, it takes over his right hand and is named MigiBecause Shinichi was able to prevent Migi from travelling further up into his brain, both beings retain their separate intellect and personality. As the duo encounter other Parasites, they capitalize on their strange situation and gradually form a strong bond, working together to survive. This gives them an edge in battling other Parasites who frequently attack the pair upon realization that Shinichi's human brain is still intact. Shinichi feels compelled to fight other Parasites, who devour humans as food, while enlisting Migi's help.

The plot itself is so typically fiction-like; with his mother and dad dying and leaving him to fend for his own, still, its story contents are actually very good as compared to others. I also liked the relationship and bond formed between Shinichi and Migi. Their relationship had some symbolic significance too; as a human , they’re made with a sense of urgency to protect themselves from harm from the likes of Migi’s kind, yet he still chooses to stay with the said parasyte. Migi on the other hand feels strongly for Shinichi; seeing he didn’t fully take over Shinichi’s human form, he developed human senses from Shinichi’s side. Both sides had a strong bond which was tested out when Migi was offered to join his kind as one, but declined and killed the other parasyte in order to protect Shinichi.

Parasyte has a lot of corny and predictable plot twists and turns but nonetheless, the content and flow is just right for a gore fan like me.

Jon Santos

I have to be honest, I was really feeling lazy and I didn’t want to attend because of it, but it’s a good thing I did. I was expecting it to be boring and I was expecting to fall asleep, but Jon Santos kept me awake and lively the whole time.

I got to find out who this “Jon Santos” person is and to say, I was actually thrilled in listening to his story.  An actor, comedian, host, ‘legal’ impersonator and entertainer; Jon Santos has talents that a million would dare kill for. Besides his humorous personality on stage, he told us that he wasn’t actually funny when he’s off stage. That fact surprised me since most comedians have quite the hilarious personality off-stage. Jon is also a writer and has been writing since his college days in UP Diliman and is not writing his own shows. It was even said by the people “In the Philippine scene, nobody is anybody until he or she is done by Jon Santos”.

It was a hard journey for Jon Santos; He started off as an Econ student, but never found satisfaction with being just that. While he was still a student, he started doing shows with Willie Nepomuceno and Tessie Tomas as a supporting role. Both impersonators gradually tell him to choose the path he wants, which was doing shows. And so, Jon Santos followed the path he thought he would never pursue. In a Philippine Entertainment Portal article, the article goes to say that “only a select few can be so hilarious that they’re famous for whom they’re not in real life. Performers like Willie Nepomuceno, Tessie Tomas, and Jon Santos have all been successful in this field. It’s a wonder that they can perfectly imitate not just one but various personalities in different fields” and he was listed as the top 3 in the industry, ranking below Willie Nepomuceno and Tessie Tomas, both of whom were Jon Santos’s mentors. The article further states that Jon is “one of the few actors who can impersonate a man or a woman with perfect ease and gusto”.

You can say Jon Santos has earned many fans during his talk and as well as the respect of many youth for standing up for his own passion and going against the flow of his life.

Cheers and Chants

I was pretty indifferent when Ms. Joyce told us we were going to have a cheer’s and chants competition, but since it was required, I didn’t really have any choice to back out whatsoever.

It was all really tiring to be honest. They merged my block with another one so we were this big group of ABMA students cheering and shouting all over the place. In the beginning of the semester, we had to choose two team leaders; Josh and Nina. They did a good job to actually bring the group together, they were open to others opinion and was able to make the members cooperate willingly.

Our practices were often held in the classroom, if not, then we would go to the auditorium or the activity room in the ground floor. When the day of the competition came, I wasn’t nervous until I was actually on stage. We we’re all in all black and we had an orange bandana on our right arm; we also had a military effect by adding black and orange paint on our faces. Heck, I was even late during the morning. In all honesty, I sucked during the performance and made a lot of mistakes. Despite it being tiring, our chants and cheers were really neat. We started off with our own version of “We will Rock You” by Queen, then a whole lot of others like peanut butter resees cup and other original chants. The last part , we had to spell out “Tigers” using tiger printed cardboards made by me and Rachel, but sadly, was a big failure when we performed it LOL. We didn’t win any place at the end but all of us gave it our all and that’s enough to for us to be satisfied.

I wouldn’t say this was one of the ‘most memorable’ event that I had during the third term, but it was fun to experience, especially because we had another block with us.

Plagarism

Plagiarisms, we often hear that word in the literature and journalism world and the word actually familiar to writers. But for those who don’t have knowledge of what it actually mean, this post was meant for you; what does the word ‘plaigarism’, actually mean?

In the dictionary, ‘plagiarism’ is described as “an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author”. This, in my case, is exactly correct as to dealing with meanings.

Now my other question is, why do people do plagiarism? It’s pretty easy to think about it if you see it in a perspective. If you really don’t want to think, well, here’s an example; imagine yourself having a thesis paper due in just 4 days. Of course you would feel stressed and panicked because you can’t just write a whole thesis paper by yourself within the span of four days, so you’re left with limited options, either you copy and paste, let someone else do your work, or not do them at all. The effects of being a lazy person can also be an example to the topic at hand, if you get too lazy, you get discouraged in writing and studying. So, you reach that brink wherein you just want things over with so you copy someone else’s work. This method is still the same with having someone else doing your work, since another person made the piece, you need to credit them- not you-THEM. The true authors are the ones who receive the recognition, not the people who get paid in cash just because they did.

Plagiarism is already one of the major problems in this world; people copy articles, interviews, and even lines from books without having to put proper credits. Sadly people don’t even care about sources and credts anymore.

Nick Joaquin

Nick Joaquin– also known as Quijano de Manila or Nicomedes Marquez Joaquin– was a Filipino novelist, writer, playwright, poet, and biographer who uses the heritage of the Filipino people as his inspiration and topic for writing his work. Joaquin is very well known for his short stories and novels in the english language– like May Day Eve, The Woman Who Had Two Navels, etc.– and was awarded with the title "National artist of the Philippines for Literature."

Born in the old district of Paco Manila, Joaquin originally started of as a proofreader for the Philippines Free Press and rose up the ladder in becoming a contributing editor and essayist under "Manila Old-Timer". After World War II Joaquin worked as a journalist, gaining fame as a reporter for the Free Press. In 1970 he left the Philippines Free Press and went on to edit Asia-Philippine Leader. During the reign of Ferdinand Marcos, who had won presidency in 1965, corruption started to fuel opposition to his administration. When martial law was declared in 1972 Joaquin was subsequently suspended. He then became the editor of the Philippine Graphic magazine and publisher of the Women's Weekly.

It was during 1943 when Joaquin started writing short stories, poems, and essays. The said author was awarded several times throughout his years as a writer; His essay 'La Naval de Manila' (1943) won in a contest sponsored by the Dominicans; 'Guardia de Honor' was declared the best story of the year in 1949, he received in 1963 the Araw ng Maynila Award, and in 1966 he was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Literature, Broadcast and Journalism. In 1976 Joaquin was declared a National Artist.

Nick Joaquin has touched and inspired so many Filipino writers and artists. In fact, he is the most anthologized of all Philippine authors.