Probably the only country whose cinema can rival the Japanese freedom of expression is the Philippines, where art, however, seems to come from completely different sources than the Japanese one; from financial and political instability, from the different stages of colonialism, from the intense impact of Catholicism, all of which create a rather chaotic setting that always benefitted art of any kind. It is due to this concept, as much as the richness of its cinematic past and present, that we have decided to focus so intently on the country’s cinema this year. Granted, our knowledge of the past is not so intent, since AMP took a turn of covering a more wider part of Asia after 2019, which is why the particular list is the biggest among the ones focusing on the various decades of Filipino cinema.
Without further ado, here are 35 great Filipino films of the 00s, with a focus on diversity as always.
1. Palawan Fate (aka Busong, 2011) by Auraeus Solito
The style focusing on the imagery of beautiful Palawan reinforces the links between the stories and their narrators and, in the same time, the main idea of the film. Despite a rather disturbing message, “Busong” is very tranquil in style. The cinematography of Louie Quirino has the capacity to stun whether we speak of the landscapes or of underwater takes. It suggests the well paced rhythm of the film and it is very easy to dive in the beauty. Sometimes it seems that Solito, Quirino and even the film`s editor Chuck Gutierrez dived a little bit too deep or just enjoyed the digressions too much.
Through a rather brutally realistic approach, Brillante Ma Mendoza directs a film that portrays life in a very poor area, (the island of Tawi-Tawi) focusing mostly on the marriage traditions, which are actually arranged between elders and include dowries of cash, whose amount depends on the “quality” of the bride, as we see in one instance when the father of the bride mentions the fact that his daughter…
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