Ligalig (2006)

I was in the public library and it led me to this particular DVD called "Ligalig".It was a multi-awarded film in the Philippines.I decided to borrow it to see whether it was really a good film.After viewing it,there is only one thing I could say about it. To put it in words,"Ligalig is definitely High Tension". Not in the sense that the movie is filled with suspense and tension but rather due to the fact that it was an imitation of the French film,"Haute Tension" which is also known as "High Tension",for majority of the movie.The story involves a taxi driver named Junior.He is taking her girlfriend Trixie on his taxi together with their fellow friend.We have Junior and Trixie as the main characters instead of having Marie and Alex.A mysterious killer appears named Damian,who slashes people's head.We have Damian riding an old car instead of having an unknown killer riding a truck.When Junior visits Trixie's family,a number of murders take place.Damian kills all member of Trixie's family just like the killer murders all members of Alex's family. As the story progresses,the viewers will be surprised to see Junior is seen performing the killings and has Trixie in captive just as the viewers were surprised when Marie is seen murdering people and has Alex in captive.Then the conclusion has Junior professing his love of Trixie just as Marie is towards Alex.The final scene is somewhat different with Junior getting killed when Trixie tries to escape while Marie locked up in a psychiatric hospital with Alex looking on a window.This Filipino movie as a complete imitation of the French movie as I have previously stated.Most of the scenes from the latter was added to that former.Unfortunately,it does not match the suspense filled French version.What's worse,the viewer is exposed to poorly handled special effects.Except for the great performance of Cesar Montano,there is nothing really positive that could be said in it except possibly the guts and courage that the filmmakers have in producing another version of the suspense-filled movie that many people are still talking,discussing and debating about until now.

The movie Ligalig was released for DVD rental this month here in the US. I was able to see it over the weekend. I was really disappointed. It's a shame for him and wife Sunshine to claim that he came up with this story. He copied the whole thing from a French movie i saw last year titled 'HIGH TENSION". It was released here in the US as DVD rental movie. I wish Cesar would have just made the movie but should have advertised it as a copy then i would not be very upset and disappointed in him. Oh boy, it's really a shame. I hope someone would be able to send this message to him. I guess, he thought no one would see the French movie and went on claiming he came up with this story.

I saw the trailer for this movie and it was enthralling and looked like the greatest thriller of 2006. Sad to say, it is a great disappointment for me.The movie starts with a hyper-extended sex scene (complete with audio) which I did not find relevant to the plot of the story (except for the fact that the woman in the scene was the prostitute acquainted to Cesar Montano's character, Junior, who was murdered). I mean, why the full-blown sex scene? What happened to "fade-outs"? The rating was only R-13! I assume that this is something to lure men to catch the movie. It's something to boast about for them, isn't it? ("Hey, this movie is steamy! Go see it!")The second thing I noticed was the use (or misuse thereof) of green/blue screens. Cesar plays a taxi driver in the movie. The problem was that the scenery around him was so so evidently unrealistic. You could see where his taxi ended and where the CGI magic began without subtlety. Most movies have their cameras switching one or two angles every now and then, while this movie kept going 360 degrees round and round over and over. It made me quite dizzy.The third thing was that almost everyone in the movie smoked like chimneys. Again, what relevance to the story? The ending was the biggest bummer. It was a rip-off of Secret Window. Need I say more? I left the theater irritated. One good thing: The makers of this movie know their trailers. It's really deceiving. They should stick to strictly trailers. Leave the actual movies alone. Please.

Ah, it's Christmas once again! And in this festivity-mad country, that means the ubiquitous Christmas lanterns, "noche buena," carolers, and - tada! - the Mother Lily Film Carnival, er, Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF). The Philippines has held onto a long tradition of this year-ender film festival, most of which revolve around mediocre fantasy and horror films, much to the dismay of many local film pundits, although in recent years the burgeoning of alternative indie film festivals has somehow made it easy taking MMFF with a grain of salt. As it is, as far as MMFF is concerned, film-making per se is only a junior-grade objective compared to marketability, lending further credibility that the festival has transformed along with the season it is held as one that succumbed to crass and commercialism. But to be fair, some recent MMFF had seen some fair share of decent, if not remarkably good, movies."Ligalig," by director/co-writer/co-producer/star Cesar Montano (best known in the circuit as the director/co-writer/co-producer/star of 2004 MMFF entry "Panaghoy sa Suba"), falls somewhere in this category. Although experienced movie-goers will probably figure out the ambivalent story's twist from a mile away (which is similar to a number of foreign films, Hollywood and otherwise), and that Montano's camera-work tend to be distracting at a few points (honestly the revolving camera during the car scenes get to you after a while), much of the film is dominated by a morbidly thoughtful and stylish atmospherics.The movie tells the story of Junior (Montano), a taxi driver who goes to the countryside one day with his girlfriend (Montano's real-life wife Sunshine Cruz) and her sister (Katya Santos) amidst news that a serial killer (Johnny Delgado) has been rampaging around Manila. Junior meets the woman who could be his mother-in-law (Celia Rodriguez) and she certainly doesn't like him for her daughter. Soon, for some reasons the killer reaches where Junior is and shortly begins to off the folks in the area.Viewing "Ligalig" gives an apparent sense of the director's eagerness in creating a visually arresting if somewhat pokey topic of discourse. The style is so deviant of mainstream Filipino films that it feels more at home with digital film festivals (the cinematography in some parts reminds me of Ron Bryant's "Rotonda") where the gritty quality of the digital camera aids in giving the film its quasi-noir look. But there are times the film feels dilatory and a pruned script could have provided the attempt in ambiguity with more impact.*STATEMENT OF PLOT TWIST FOLLOWS* It probably doesn't help either that the film's posters give much of the nature of the story as we see Montano wearing the outfit of the serial killer. So from there, if you've seen enough films from Hollywood tackling the same theme, it's easy to deduce the ending. Schizophrenia or possession of an avenging ghost? Take your pick. *STATEMENT OF PLOT TWIST ENDS* Besides the ever-reliable Montano and Delgado, the performances are pretty much competent throughout. Cruz (in her second CEB A-rated film this year after "Inang Yaya") is good as Junior's girlfriend (try as I may, I can't recall her name), as is Rodriguez as a woman with something who may or may not hold something up her sleeve. Santos provides extra pull for the male demography but her presence is mostly on-off where her longest scene involves taking a bath in lingerie with John Regala (don't get any ideas; it's an R-13 movie). Fellow Viva Hot Babe Gwen Garci has a love scene with Montano during the opening credits but it's heavily grained and in black-and-white.Released in a period that has virtually become this country's excuse for creating mainstream movies, I don't think "Ligalig" would be the film most Filipino viewers are willing to give a chance to this season. However, it could find its audience in those who can overlook the movie's weaknesses in favor of Montano's strong and refined narrative style. For that, I'm looking forward to brighter (or darker, for that matter) things from him in the future.