Reviews

An important and beautiful short film starring Elijah Canlas and Rex Lantano

To make this clear from the start - ”Ang Nagliliyab na Kasaysayan ng Pamilya Dela Cruz” ("The Blazing Hisrory of the de la Cruz Family" )is no Boyslove film, but it stars two of the most famous and best Pinoy BL actors. Elijah Canlas rose to international fame for his amazing acting in the movie ”Kalel, 15”, where he plays an HIV-infected boy, and for setting new standards in the history of BL series and movies with Kokoy de Santos in ”Gameboys the series” and ”Gameboys the movie”. Rex Lantano is well known for his outstanding performances and his readiness to risk something new in various short films like "Siphayo" and the series ”Daddy Love”, ”Meet my Angel Season 2”, as well as for co-producing and acting in ”Love at the End of the World” and the upcoming series ”Papa, what is love?”.

This short film depicts the fight of peasants in the Philippines against landowners who usually live in the big cities, using the De la Cruz family as an example. With stylistic elements of a documentary as well as fictional scenes, it shows the hard life of poor villagers, and the brutal methods of land-owners who try to steal their land by force.

Rex Lantano plays Jun, the son of a family who has joined the non-violent peasant movement in Central Luzon after his elder brother José was killed in a fight against the landowners' minions. He tries to persuade Tonio, the son of the de la Cruz family, played by Elijah Canlas, to join the movement. Tonio is reluctant, because his father doesn't want the family to be involved in the movement.

Things change when Tonio's mother eye-witnesses the killing of a neighbour. In a moving speech, she calls upon her husband to join the peasants' fight for the good of their son Tonio. The father, who was crippled by gunmen when Tonio was very young, is still reluctant, because he is afraid Tonio may face a similar fate as himself, and he has no hope that the peasants' movement can ever be successful against the minions of the landowners.

Tonio, however, agrees with his mother. During their discussion, the village is attacked by gunmen, huts are set afire, and Tonio is hit by a bullet. He dies, so this movie does not have a happy ending, just as the fight of the Filipino peasants has not come to a happy ending, but is still going on today, and with the return of the Marcos family to power, there is no hope it will come to a positive end any time soon.

The short film follows the tradition of Filipino movies that display the social conditions in the country, and it is remarkable that actors like Elijah Canlas and Rex Lantano have the courage to speak out against the inequality and injustice in their country, which is definitely dangerous in the Philippines, when they could lead the easy life of young celebrities.

The short film is very similar to the BL-series ”Padayon” (or rather the other way round, because this short film was released two years before ”Padayon”) which I reviewed earlier, and which I would recommend to everyone who is not only interested in the BL genre, but also in social and political conditions in the countries where most of the BL-series are set.

Elijah and Rex have proven their talent and skills in many other projects, and they do so here once again. Angeli Bayani and Angelo Hulip are also convincing in their respective roles as Tonio's parents, and Elijah's younger brother JM has a short cameo as Tonio's younger self.

To sum up, writer and director Miguel Louie de Guzman has created an important, realistic, in parts brutal, but still beautiful short film that has deservedly earned lots of prizes. It can be found on Miguel Louie's youtube channel.

Country: Philippines (2019)

Duration: 20 mins.

Director: Miguel Louie de Guzman

Cast: Angeli Bayani, Angelo Hulip, Elijah Canlas, JM Canlas (as young Tonio), and Rex Lantano

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Same enjoyable characters, great messages, but different tone

On one hand, this story aged better than it's prequel. But on the other hand, it didn't have the same innocence that attracted me to the prequel.

Nai still feels rather similar to his prequel version. And the friend group is just as mischievous as ever. Gump feels like a slightly different character - but I feel like this might be simply because of his new actor, as I couldn't pinpoint a reason for the difference. But ultimately, I can't find any fault in any of their performances.

Although the tone of the film is quite different than the prequel. I do think it still manages to tell an important message: that just because there is attraction, it does not mean you have to act on it. I loved how even though Gump did find Sunz attractive, nothing ever came of it - and they even became good friends. Furthermore, I liked that he made Nai work for his forgiveness.

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It's just another version of "The Nutty Professor" with a female lead. The ML happens to know and like the 'natural' (large) version of the FL. And you know the standard trope will be that the man she likes will be bad for her. It's kinda of cute, not to funny. It's a movie you want to watch when vegging out and not required to think or remember anything. I made it to the hour mark before I was ready to call it quits and just had it on for the noise after that. The story needs work on the transitions between scenes; it seems to roughly jump from one scene to the next. This is especially true when the FL reverts back and fat shaming and fat comments are made to cover over the roughness.

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A coming-of-age story that's more adorable than outdated

This is an adorable coming-of-age BL, with a strong focus on friendship and acceptance. It's a great movie for queer youth who are going through similar struggles of just wanting to be who they are and love who they love - or even adults reflecting on that time in their lives. The majority of the comedy is really cute and innocent, without being cringy or facepalm-inducing. It had me smiling widely on more than one occasion.

However, this movie is by no means perfect. Some of the elements did not age well at all. Especially those moments centered around Kathoey individuals in the beginning portion of the movie - where they were heavy-handed with stereotypes attempting to be played off as "comedy." Fortunately, these attempts at comedy did not stick around, and one of the main individuals to which this was applied to was given a chance to become a well-developed character by the end of it. I also think that the characters act rather immature for a group of so-called 12th graders.

I am actually extremely happy that I got reunited with this movie. I remember watching this movie on YouTube one night in rather grainy quality, probably close to when it released actually. I have since watched many a Thai BL and was very happy to see a young Mild.

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A different take on what this movie is about

In my life I’ve encountered a number of people who are suicidal, alcoholics or compulsive destructive. I’ve found trying to be kind or supportive to these people only enables their issues. More often than not a ‘tough love’ approach is necessary. The term ‘love’ might not even apply but in this case I believe it does. As with basic training in the military, when you need to break someone of their behavior you essentially have to put them through a really rough time and then attempt to build them back into someone else. I believe the doctor understands this and is perfectly capable of being as brutal as necessary to bring about the result of making the patient want to live.

This story may be tough to watch as many reviews have stated but I think it will make it easier to get through it if you understand something as brutal as is shown was likely necessary to save a life. Could it have been in a different direction? If so it probably would have been as tough to watch.

What this story has brought to me is an understanding I don’t have the capability to be tough enough in such situations. I better understand I need to walk away from such situations for the good of the other person.

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Never go against the family!

Golden Job was a throwback movie with a big budget. It spared no expense on the cast, filming in spectacular scenery, or blowing up or smashing cars and spraying buckets of blood. It also didn't spend very much time on developing a well thought out script. Of course, most people who watch heist and car chase movies aren't usually looking for a lot of depth. If you are, you're out of luck.

This "made family" would have benefited from watching a Godfather movie. Never go against the family! Ask Fredo what happens when you do (Godfather II, it's an old movie but worth checking out). Instead, this family kept giving the wayward "child" chance after chance to repent. Penitence was not easy when a truckload of gold was involved.

There was almost no female presence in this movie except for a few scenes. This was amped up testosterone with shootouts, explosions, and multiple car chases with shooting and explosions. Woe to the innocent civilians who become collateral damage by being crushed, mangled, shot, or blown up as the bad guys and badder guys chased each other through Montenegro, Japan, and anywhere they were.

The music was appropriately jaunty for a boys' heist/rampage movie. I have no complaints about the production values, they were top notch.

The cast did fine with what they were asked to do. Not a lot of room between shootouts and explosions for character growth for the 50-year-old men reunited from the Young and Dangerous series. I enjoyed Kurata Yasuaki's small role especially when he put the beat down on a few younger thugs.

The lack of female presence, the very weak script, the whiny "Dad always liked you better" villain, the ridiculous collateral damage that went unaddressed, and the presence of Eric Tsang (google what happened with Yu Sin Man) lowered my score for a mindless action movie that I would normally enjoy.

If you are a fan of older Hong Kong movies and are yearning for a throwback trip down memory lane with a famous cast, exciting scenery and sets, and don't mind the things I mentioned, this would probably be an exhilarating drive for you. By the end I felt more like I'd been stuck on the side of the road in the rain with a flat tire waiting for AAA to show up.

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Not what I had expected ...

I was really looking forward to this, although to be honest I started with the Movie first before the actual series, and well I was not that overly impressed with it, the trailer for both of these looked really good but I was not happy impressed with the movie.

If just seemed to have lacked a whole lot of story line and potential, I did not feel any chemistry between the leads and the some how it feels liked it was all of the place, then it did full circle a year later without back ground to what really happened between them?

So I might watch the drama (MIGHT BEEN THE KEY WORD) or just forget about it, if there are literally the same along the lines of nothing !!

Overall: Guess its up to you, but a NO FOR ME!!

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Did Not Enjoy this

This movie was literally 48 mins long and I just feel that there was so much potential but nothing was really executed.

Strong points:

-- The plot is interesting, engaging and well-conceived. It concerns some heavy topics but is not overwhelmingly depressing. (That said, it does feature a couple of incidents of rape, and people who are sensitive to sexual violence should be warned.)


Weak point:

-- The decision to make this a short movie limited the creators too much. A longer treatment could have given the audience a better understanding

I just feel that they should have been longer and more understanding to this movie.

Overall: The weak plot and shortness of this movie was a major let down.

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I despised this movie

I know the title may seem a bit dramatic but I am not exaggerating, I genuinely hated this movie. Don't get me wrong, the actual movie part was good and I would have loved it if not for the story. I hate romanticised cheating with a burning passion, there are very few stories where I don't mind it and I assure you that this was not one of them. I understand being unable to be yourself due to the pressure of society and such but jfc, just break up with her if you want to date another person. And, while I do like him for the most part, Toey was no better than Oat. He engaged in the relationship even though he KNEW he was married and had a kid! Like they knew each other for a few weeks in the first movie and that forms enough love to last four years and make him ok with being a side piece??I don't think so. If he was with him not knowing he was married, that would be much more sympathy inducing. But the ending of this had me so angry I was on the verge of tears. I don't know how I finished this movie, at least the first one had Yumi. Sorry for the lengthy rant but oof, I haven't been this pissed off at a movie ever so I needed to get it all out. As a recap, don't watch unless you are ok with cheating in your romances.

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fifteen years of love all gone by a single word: regret.

WOW! okay so i just finished this about two hours ago and I can't stop thinking abt it. So my love is a remake of on your wedding day (a kor movie) and I haven't seen that YET so just letting yall know :D also this isnt much a review rather and rant because boy oh boy i have thoughts.
These two are literally the definition of 'right person wrong time' ! they were soulmates but they kept walking into each other lives at the wrong time, and for the brief years they were in a relationship were cute however they wouldn't have worked out for many reasons. like he literally did sm for her, spent years after her, got injured, which literally made him sacrifice his career, THATS HUGE?!?!?!AND SHE TRIED DOWNPLAYING IT LIKE GIRL ?? clearly he was down at that moment and anyone in his place would be questioning his life choices even if its for a moment, even her husband, i bet!!!! but she just decided to leave!! and the sad thing is if she was in that position, he would've done the exact opposite. and instead of understanding him and allowing him to grow she decides to leave. like it’s kind of selfish bc he’s literally the way he is bc of her yet she goes and purses her dreams leaving him in the dust to suffer
LIKE IKKK BUT IG IT WAS FOR THE BEST TO LET HIM GROW TOO AND FIND HAPPINESS?? CUZ HE WAS HAPPY WITH HER BUT NOT WITH HIMSELF AND SO I WOULDVE LIKED HIM TO GET LOVE AND ALL THAT
she was really just waiting for him to say the wrong words and leave him:((
but i really do recommend this because the acting is really good and it is a cute story!

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Be Careful to Not Being Scammed, Before It's Too Late

On the other hand, Byun Yohan is here! And it's A Day (KMovie) 2.0 again *evil laugh*

A compelling storyline that touches on issues regarding voice phishing. Total propaganda schemes are exposed by the devil organization (sub and main) itself. It literally hurts seeing the victims being scammed without anyone's realization (me included ofc). But to resolve this matter takes a long time to get the owned money back

Looking at these involved scammers, including all arise mighty above bosses and below workers... made me boil to the core, due to their not being felt guilt while engaging these propagandas, of their own will... which is totally wrong, clasp my both hands into fists, for not being a part for returning respective money to the victims. I can't help but cry watching them helpless, not knowing how to resolve to claim theirs back

And do you know what I really detest them the most? When they seize opportunities in no time: whether the victims are happy, grateful... even also in a vulnerable state

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It Was All Play-Around to Be Happy-Go-Lucky, Until Things Getting Seriously Out of Hand

This movie is actually pretty refreshing, not gonna lie! Mayhaps some of you would say it's pretty cringy (which I relatably understand since this falls under romance drama, which I 'really rare' to watch onto), but again, source: trust me, bro; it's really good X"D

To be honest, this is pretty risky and this is, actually, 15+ (yes, you've seen it. not 18+, which I find odd; because... its silhouette skinship and all. oh shoot, I'm gone blushing; back to the topic) and also giving issues about related real-life things prior to love life: to find a soulmate or long life partners, which is pretty cool, to begin with

Although there has an upcoming drama to release, like Welcome to Wedding Hell, suffice to say this movie is an introduction to finding your true love. It's really simple, but not total complex, if you get me. To find comfort and confess our flaws towards each other before love sparkles... there have some things like that, but it's actually rare to find the quality of one's partner nowadays

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