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czarinaqueen's Rating |
My Rating |
| 1 |
Heartwarming!
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| 2 |
Provocative!
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| 3 |
Dramatic!
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| 4 |
Romantic!
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| 5 |
Feel good movie!
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| 6 |
Visually Stunning!
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| 7 |
Sensual!
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| 8 |
Captivating!
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| 9 |
And all that jazz!
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| 10 |
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| 11 |
Powerful!
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| 12 |
Spiritually Uplifting
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| 13 |
Melodramatic!
One way to ensure enough mourners at a loved one's funeral is to hire a few. "Crying Ladies" is Filipino writer/director Mark Meily's whimsical story about three women whose lives are changed by such a gig.
Single mom Stella (Sharon Cuneta), daughter of a professional mourner, is recently out of jail and working a dead-end factory job in Manila. Approached by a Chinese man to cry at his father's funeral, and to find a few more mourners as well, she demurs, but when Mr. Chua (Eric Quizo) mentions the pay, she realizes that with it she will be able to help her son Bong (Julio Pacheco), who now lives with his father and stepmother.
Stella recruits two friends, both interesting characters in their own right. Aling Doray (Hilda Koronel) is an aging former actress, living in the past glory of her last part in a monster movie. Choleng (Angel Aquino) is a pretty, skinny young thing who visits the priest every week to confess her affair with a married man.
"Crying Ladies" is a heartwarming little film with charming performances by the ladies, marking a comeback for Koronel and continuing Aquino's transition from modeling to acting. Cuneta, the Philippines' biggest star, continues her string of successes here.
If there is nothing "Important" about the film, it is nonetheless a fine, feel-good effort, nicely shot by the director's wife, Lee Meily.
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| 14 |
Magnificent!
Modest but engaging Filipino tear-jerker!
Magnifico tells the story of a Filipino family in Laguna struggling to survive from the perspective a young boy named Magnifico. His kuya, older brother, has lost his scholarship to study in Manila; his little sister suffers from cerebral palsy.
The family learns that their Lola, grandmother, has advanced stomach cancer. They cannot afford her medicine; neither, on the other hand, can they afford her burial expenses, which would total, they estimate, nearly 30,000 pesos. Magnifico, with a touching mixture of tenderness and matter-of-fact resolution in the face of death, sets about trying to prepare for these expenses.
Despite a certain tendency, shared with most Filipino dramas, for the overwrought, I found the film deeply touching. The relationshipbetween Magnifico and his little sister with cerebral palsy was particularly moving. The performances of Lorna Tolentino, Albert Martinez, and the remarkably resilient Gloria Romero, were all very well-done - filled with touching understatement rather than the unfortunately more familiar historionics of much Filipino drama.
Most poignant for me in the film was the way in which Philippine provincial life was captured in convincing detail. From the pervasive roar of tricycles and the competing tilaok of roosters to the fragmented stone and root stairs leading to their home to the tire strewn rusty corrugated tin roofs to the delightful chatter and noise of the palengke, Magnifico was, for me, a wonderfully accurate portrait of home.
Despite some minor problems with the film and an emotionally over-the-top ending, I enjoyed watching Magnifico.
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| 15 |
Fantastic!
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| 16 |
Ploning
2008, Unrated)
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