Nasaan Ka Man: Star power and much more

STAR BYTES by Butch Francisco The Philippine Star 05/31/2005

There is something about Star Cinema’s Nasaan Ka Man that is personally appealing to me as a viewer. Maybe it’s because of the Baguio setting. I love Baguio and any movie that is set there – from Mike de Leon’s classic romance Kung Mangarap Ka’t Magising to Dolphy and Maritess Revilla’s horror-comedy Dracula Goes to RP – becomes visually attractive to me. I like Nasaan Ka Man – maybe because it stars two of the country’s finest actresses: Hilda Koronel and Gloria Diaz who, as to be expected, both deliver delicious performances here. And then you add in three competent young performers – Claudine Barretto, Jericho Rosales and Diether Ocampo and the whole thing becomes an acting showcase of brilliant talents. But maybe the reason I like Nasaan Ka Man is that it’s really a very well-made movie – the film debut of Cholo Laurel, a TV commercial director, who I was told trained mostly with Ricky Lee, who co-wrote the script. Although a first time director, Cholo Laurel obviously knows what he is doing. He has a great eye for visuals and is a master at orchestrating the other technical elements of a film. The theme of Nasaan Ka Man is actually complicated and delicate. The story revolves around three young people – Claudine Barretto, Jericho Rosales and Diether Ocampo – all adopted kids of spinster sisters Gloria Diaz and Hilda Koronel. When Claudine and Jericho fall in love with each other, the conservative foster mother Gloria Diaz puts her foot down and disapproves of the romance – never mind if the two young lovers are not really related by blood. But that is just one of the conflicts in the story of the multi-layered Nasaan Ka Man, which has a lot of twists and turns to it. Nasaan Ka Man actually has a little of Wuthering Heights, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Sixth Sense, The Others and even Portrait of the Artist as Filipino – what with Gloria and Hilda playing aging sisters there. The viewer, in fact, will have difficulty in the beginning trying to figure out what the film is all about. It is a romance, a suspense-mystery or a horror movie? I won’t tell you anymore what it is. However, I can assure you that it is a finely-crafted movie. Even those themes "borrowed" from other films are well put together in Nasaan Ka Man. (The film opens in theaters on June 15.) I like it so much that I am even willing to forgive its one flaw: A conflict in the story that the movie tries to resolve in a not-so-satisfactory manner as far as the viewer is concerned. In the Cinema Evaluation Board deliberations, Nasaan Ka Man could have easily gotten a grade of A had it not been for this one problem in the storytelling. (It’s something about "believability."). In the end of the film got a grade of B – which is more than good enough. Without that one flaw (the film could have been near perfect), I can go on and on gushing about Nasaan Ka Man because of the very creative and yet realistic execution of most of its scenes – whether big or small. The rape scene of Claudine Barretto (oops, should I have revealed that?), for instance, is truly gripping and seems so real you’d want to rescue her from the clutches of her assailant. At the same time, there are little nuances all over the film that would endear it to the viewer. Take the characters of Gloria Diaz and Hilda Koronel, for example. They may be deeply religious and prayerful, yet they are fun sisters who drink, smoke and generally enjoy what life has to offer. There are no black-and-white characters here and this is another reason why I like the film and find it to be very enjoyable. And while the movie takes advantage of the modern technology in filmmaking to make it the visual feast that it is, the direction, the performances and some over-the-top dialogues somehow bring you back to the golden age of moving pictures – back then when movies were movies.

A new twist to love-triangle genre
By Philip Cu-Unjieng
The Philippine Star 06/14/2005

In the heyday of the pre-electronica 80’s, New Order had a smash single called Bizarre Love Triangle, and for some reason, the title got stuck in my head as I watched the latest offering from Star Cinema. On the surface, Nasaan Ka Man looks and feels like your standard love triangle story, but in the hands of new director Cholo Laurel, the triangle angle takes on dimensions and hues that belie the fact that this is his first feature-film. Thanks to the assured work he’s done with TV commercials (among others, KC Concepcion’s Eskinol, Carmina Villarroel and twins for Nido, Kris Aquino for Kissa), the direction and handling of the actors are confident, and the cinematography shines, reflecting the moods and ambiance of the characters and the location (Baguio).

In what seems to be an idyllic set-up in Baguio, two old maid sisters (portrayed by Gloria Diaz and Hilda Koronel) live with three children adopted by Gloria’s character, and have created a world of their own. There’s Ito (Diether Ocampo), Joven (Jericho Rosales) and Pilar (Claudine Barretto), seemingly as tight-knit as any real family would be. Of course, from the onset, there is something peculiar and not quite normal with the set-up; and in a particularly well crafted dramatic vignette of a New Year dinner, Joven and Pilar announce to the family that they are in love and plan to wed. This is the premise, the set up for all that follows with notions of Filipino family, respectability and privacy, technical incest, loss and redemption, superstition and the paranormal, all held up to the light and scrutinized within the context of the story developed by Ricky Lee and director Laurel.

Slowly and deliberately, the seemingly whole, composite world the two sisters have created is revealed as riddled with holes, imbued with frustrations and compromises of varying magnitudes, something each and every character, as it turns out, has had to consider as part and parcel of their lives. Gloria’s character had a lover in her youth, someone who her father had vehemently rejected and had killed when she tried to run away with him. Defending their love because they are all adopted, Pilar soon wakes up to the fact that being in love with one, can also mean being desired by the other. Layer by layer, things are discovered, and rather than spoil the story, I’ll be content to say that nothing is ever what it seems. But thanks to Cholo’s directorial skills, our capacity for disbelief is held sway, and we gladly go along for the ride.

His handling of the actors in the film is to be commended. Each character is well fleshed out, replete with idiosyncrasies and individual flair as in the case of Hilda’s character and her pagka-bingi (which provide much of the shafts of humor that exist in the film), and Gloria’s domineering old maid interpretation. All five of the main actors fit their characters like a glove. Jericho’s brooding intensity we already saw in Tanging Yaman and Santa-Santita; and there are new nuances to how he uses that for this film. Claudine’s dramatic credentials have never been in doubt and her plaintive eyes and facial expressions perfectly suit her Pilar. Diether is the great surprise of the film; moving from standard leading-man/pretty-boy roles to something much darker and tightly wound.

Foreshadowing and flashbacks are used effectively throughout the first half of the film witness one character mentioning how Pilar also possesses a third eye, and how in the hotel room Joven and Pilar run to, the camera angle of only having Pilar in front of the mirror becomes a telling clue for what ensues. Counterpoint is also utilized very effectively, the mirth of the two sisters as they return with Joven from the local fiesta, is placed in relief against the tragedy that has befallen Pilar. The insistence by the sisters of how the protected status of their world can not be impinged upon, even by what evil may lie within, is very much a sober, realistic reflection of the extent to which the notion of family holds sway in our society. Ito’s silent obedience to the laws and rules of his mother and the inner turmoil it produces when acceptance by the sisters is given of the other two siblings love for each other, finds malevolent expression as frustration and rage set in.

This notion of the protected world is perfectly captured in the Baguio location and the cinematography. The perpetual presence of mist and fog is its expression in nature; and this seems to be mirrored in the interior shoots with the liberal use of glass curtains, all creating a cocooning effect that works as a metaphor for how fragile is the world that our five main characters move in.

While some may criticize that the film is more like a pastiche of different Hollywood films - such as Ghost, Sixth Sense and what have you; the use of the setting, the acting talent and the well-handled exposition of the story give the film my thumbs up. It is only in the last quarter of the film that certain concessions to perceived commercial sensibilities seem to have creeped in. I’ve always been one for the "I know where you’re going and I do get the point, so move on" school; so I find some of the lingering sequences superfluous in length. The introduction of the theme song also seems to jar a bit, spoiling the poignancy of the closing scene. Perhaps it could have started when the closing credits are running already. The use of the butterfly symbol was to me "over the top"; but I do concede that generally, people like closure and resolution, while I don’t mind ambiguity and a little bit of open-endedness. So that’s just me.

It’s good to see Star Cinema once again coming up with a release that is more in the Feng Shui vein of last year, a departure from the current year’s roster of Dreamboy (Piolo/Bea) and the Sandara-Hero starrer. It’s high drama, a love story, and suspense all thrown in, with a richness of characterization, and plot twists enough to carry five teleseryes through several seasons. If you’ve been viewing Hollywood and Asian suspense shockers as a staple diet, there are moments of predictability, but the entertainment value of Nasaan Ka Man remains constant, and there is much to recommend in this film.

A well-crafted, bittersweet love story
Date: 6/20/2005 10:04:59 AM
Source: YEHEY! Contributors
By: Rianne Hill Soriano

Starring: Claudine Barretto, Jericho Rosales, Diether Ocampo
Directed by: Cholo Laurel
Official Movie site

Set in the fog-covered, cold and mysterious Baguio (which reflects the moods and ambiance of the story), Nasaan Ka Man is a film about tragic love and passion, undying memories, unfulfilled promises and lost dreams. It opens with that horror feel crawling into a melodrama/love story mood and musing into a suspense-filled story which extends to the issues of the paranormal and that touch of horror injected every now and then. It takes on different dimensions and hues to the usual love triangle story. Filled with metaphors, finely orchestrated camera movements, and breath-taking visuals, its heaviness is complemented with stunning cinematography and powerful individual performances which all absorb deep-rooted emotions that are troubling, secretive, mysterious, violent and painful.

The story revolves around three adoptive children of two spinster sisters who have raised them. An epitome of a happy, religious and conservative family from the outside but filled with repression and tragic memories from the inside, family complications, jealousy and revenge try to seriously tear them apart. The composite world the two sisters have created where the three adoptive siblings have dwelled in becomes a contrived space of fragility and emotional disturbance of varying magnitudes.

The direction and handling of the actors are effective. There is rich characterization. The characters are played around with grayness, greatly contributing to the story’s complications and its side of suspense. Each character is well crafted both inside and out. On the physical, emotional and psychological plane, we see: the quirkiness of Trining’s (Hilda Coronel) slightly deaf character (which becomes a source of humor, a comic relief to the story’s heaviness) and her passive bearing to her older sister’s authority inside their prison-like home; Lilia’s (Gloria Diaz) domineering old maid stance which expresses herself by covering up her sadness by trying to look good through her flair for make-up; Pilar’s (Claudine Baretto) initially loving and innocent nature to a confounded, fear-stricken temperament – along with her opened third eye, and her being a product of sin and violence herself (one of the family secrets to be revealed in the story), she unconsciously gets cleansing by immersing herself on the bath tub at times; Joven’s (Jericho Rosales) kind, introvert bearing as the outcast adopted child who is so much filled with his inspiration and thoughtfulness for his beloved Pilar; and Ito’s (Diether Ocampo) repression from his silent obedience to the laws and rules of the house as an overprotected adolescent male who becomes ultimately jealous and troubled.

Pilar and Joven fight for their love until they are finally granted the hard-earned family blessing. Ito, totally-wrecked by this, gets his revenge by violating Pilar. Trining is sympathetic to Pilar's plight, but Lilia is more concerned with his favorite son, Ito. The deliberation among them becomes a realistic reflection of how it goes within a typically conservative Filipino family in such turmoil. And as the story progresses, Ito rages further as he knows he can’t have Pilar’s heart in any way. And violence causes a tragic death in the family.

There is parallelism between the spinsters’ and their adopted children’s fate. And though there are some questions on the believability of the storyline (more than just the paranormal vs. realism and family issues), the capacity for disbelief is removed. The justification on what happens to the story is carefully built up by the well-made screenplay of Ricky Lee and Rafael Hidalgo, effective characterization and performances and the over-all treatment of the director Cholo Laurel.

Aside from having an efficient production staff and crew, the cast provides a good contribution to the film’s success. Claudine gives justification to her role. She is not overacting nor underacting, just right. The rape scene is truly gripping. It gives that worst feeling for the viewer. The tight and uncompromising shots of her being gripped upon make a really effective scene giving a sad and painful grudge to such fate. The characters of Jericho and Diether with their roles as rivals give enough room for steady development. The chemistry of Gloria and Hilda, delivers wonderful portrayal. They also provide the comic scenes and lines. There is a nice utilization of silence supplemental to that shock mood after the family learns about what Ito did to his sister. Jericho bursting from the hurt at the bathroom scene during the rape aftermath was very much compelling. Irma Adlawan’s character as a blind helper who has an opened third eye and Katherine Luna as her daughter, a willing victim at a certain point of the story, become the weaving factor for the enhancement of the storyline.

The film is filled with a number of intense scenes of argumentations and fighting. The love scenes are subtle, suggestive and carefully crafted. Pilar and Joven’s love scenes are very passionate and very gentle and very sincere. Pilar and Ito’s rape scene is way much violent, painful and struggling.

There are small bits of loopholes in the story. A very much disappointing part for me personally is the scene where Pilar is asked to check the fuse (after a blackout) when the suspense of Ito’s further revenge is at its peak. It seems forced into the story just to get Pilar alone in the dark, ready to be menaced by the deadly Ito. When in reality, if you are in danger, you wouldn’t check on the fuse but think of how you can save your life… and make sure that you have company with you…

Overall, the story has a well-handled exposition. It is complicated and delicate. Tight and distorted shots contribute much to the heavy and emotional moments. Even though the themes are "borrowed" from other films, it has been put together in a good light. With its effective twists (although most are gotten from thriving Hollywood films), the audience is given some silent screams that are far better and scarier than the outright shocks of red gore and hard-core monstrous effects (talk about what genre… horror/suspense/love story/melodrama?). The film is emotionally tying and won’t give that feel-good mood after watching it. With a considerably depressing ending, this film is a must-see for those who can take a certain heaviness in a film and would like to ponder on some simple but good realizations as “being thankful to things that are given to you, mainly, the people you love who are still with you… or who are still there...”