Ligalig

Ligalig

Cesar Montano, Sunshine Cruz, Johnny Delgado, Celia Rodriguez

directed by Cesar Montano

Uhmmm…. Okay, so Cesar, what's your point? I actually watched this movie first, may balita kasi sa tabloid that Cesar let the actors signed a clause of agreement for none of them to reveal the movie's ending. Unfortunately, I was somehow disappointed. A regular movie-goer could very much guess what the ending would be miles away.

The Filipino audience is certainly not ready for this kind of movie. Cesar Montano made a brave attempt in doing this one. It was actually refreshing though, given the unique style that was applied by Montano in this film.

Robert Rodriguez's SinCity and as well as some of the styles used by Baz Lhurmann are very much visible in this film. A Quentin Tarantino treatment could have made this film even better. More gore, more violence, more blood, darker, … they should have maximized it na lang, given that they already made an attempt in going through this genre. I like the treatment that was used in the car scenes… If you have seen "Sa North Diversion Drive", both in the movie and the stage play, you would surely remember that with how Montano used the car in this movie. 

Quality is good! But to satisfy movie-viewers, certainly not. Visually good, treatment was very much detailed and scenes were perfect. Acting is intense. Theatrical in much cases. Monatano plays a schizophrenic, he was able to play it well, but i have seen him doing that before… at parang nasa talent portion siya ng isang contest. Johnny Delgado is a natural in his character, short screen time, no efforts need to scare people.

Celia Rodriguez's comment during the filfest is actually notable. Comments are very much respected but I think she should not expect for this movie to get too much credits or awards. For this to get the Best Picture award is more scandalous. It deserves some awards for the technical aspect. Cesar could've joined this film in an Independent Film Festival and they would surely reap much of the awards.  

The movie is about 1: 20 mins, really short but you would really wish for it to end sooner. Not much to be excited about . It is a suspense thriller but the movie is at par to satisfy that genre. It lacks the suspense to be called a suspense thriller! heheh… Pramis.. papasok sa eksena ang kiler at papatay na lng ng papatay and that's it! Cesar could have tried to develop those scenes. Nasayang ang material. this could be a great movie. Sana sineryoso na nila, tinodo-todo na! Kung talagang ginawa pang mas grabe ang chasing scenes at mga killer scenes dito, it would be better. Kung nilagyan pa nila ng more element of mystery, kung ginawan pa sana nila ng paraan na mas mabigyang climax ang ending… pasok na sana! 

Nicely though, I heard that some foreign producers are interested in making an international version of this film. One thing that this movie could be very proud of. They should not level themselves with the other films in this film fest. They require an audience that could very much welcome their innovativeness.