Review:
100 (Cinemalaya 2008)
2008-07-20 17:38:00 by Regnard Raquedan in Screensucked
I was able to watch a Cinemalaya 2008 film last weekend with my girlfriend and I was lucky enough to catch Chris Martinez' entry 100. I say lucky because I really didn't have any expectations on 100 when I came to the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Heck, I didn't even have a clear idea which movies were showing for that day, so it was really a serendipitous thing.
On to the film: it is about a lady (played by Mylene Dizon) who decided to take control of her destiny when she learned she had cancer and the movie got its title from the 100 things a dying woman would do before her fateful day would come. The film has the good stuff: humor (thanks to Eugene Domingo and Tessie Tomas), a good dose of Filipino satire and of course, a nice poignant story about closure and life's meaning.
Like any other indie film, 100 has some rough edges in terms of the production and the movie seemed to get absorbed in itself (the film ran two hours). I was imagining that there were a few scened that could have been cut from the editing room to make 100 a more lean and tight movie. But maybe that's commercial movie-bred brain talking.
100 is very, very likable-- It's not artsy and it's pretty accessible to a wide spectrum of audiences. It even won the Audience Choice plum in the recently concluded Cinemalaya film fest awards. And speaking of awards, film stars Mylene Dizon won the Best Actress award, Eugene Domingo ran of with the Best Supporting Actress trophy and director Chris Martinez won Best Director and Best Screenplay in the Cinemalaya film festival's competition.
But if the movie ever do get to be distributed in the mainstream cinemas, I would recommend it. If it doesn't, then I sure hope the producers come up with a DVD.
Rating: 4/5
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100
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