Film Review: Birhen ng Manaoag

Birhen ng Manaoag
by Rianne Hill Soriano

I made this article two days after watching the film. Just to make sure I’ll be more on the critical side than the too emotional one who felt much disppointment for the film. At this early, I would like to say that this review is on my personal note but I do respect people who might criticize me especially those connected or part of the film. In fact, I know a couple of people from the film and I have the fear that because of this review, they would have that grudge for me (considering I’m a production person as well, and sometime, somewhere, I might be working with them in the future…). But one thing, please take this as an opinion from somebody who watched the film… whether you would yield to any of my words here or not, it’s a matter of respect for each other’s stand. I’m actually facing it like a man and a woman and as a production person as I am using my real name in the by line.

I don’t exactly know how and where to start. But overall, I would have to say, that this review would plunge more into the technical side and a part of it into the thematic side of what I saw in the movie theater. It was really disappointing that nobody from the production, or probably it was just tolerated… it could have been more realistic if Jody Sta. Maria (a single mom making a documentary about miracles) was taught how to open the videocam and record when it’s a take. A number of shots with Jodi shooting a priest, a lady, and a few others were shot with the videocam turned off. That’s supposedly not a big deal. But the problem was it was quite noticeable and disturbing especially for people who know how to operate a videocam that it was off because the red light to signal it was recording wasn’t seen at any of the scenes in the film. There was even a shot that could have been placed in the out takes when the start of that particular shot showed Jodi’s back and the LCD of the camera was seen turned off while she was acting as if she was looking at both the interviewee and the LCD screen. In fact, the next shot then was the close-up (CU) of the LCD screen with the interviewee being shot. And Jody could have learned how to hold a videocam the right way and shoot not the neck nor the chest nor the chin of the subject but hold the camera lens towards the face of the subject. It was quite irritating that the long shot (LS) showed her holding the camera towards the neck and chest of the guy she was interviewing then the next shot was the LCD screen clearly showing the CU of the face of the guy. Practically, she could have used a tripod in a couple of her interviews. Simple things, but why tolerate?

The cinematography was disappointing. The color grading didn’t provide conitinuity at some scenes. There were a number of shots that were either overexposed or underexposed. It was quite noticeable that constantly, the upper right part of the screen, especially the shots with considerably bright light sources, were all overexposed – far from the exposure of the other parts of the frame. I was thinking if it was really a problem with the cinematography or with the theater projector or something else. I noticed the trailers prior to the next showing of the film, and such weren’t having that problem at all. And so, I believe it’s either a problem with the cinematography or a technical problem with the camera used for the film then. In my head, I even asked, “Could it be a problem with the lenses used? Were there fungi/finger prints in/on the lenses? Or could it be a problem with the camera itself?” If it were a problem with the lenses, then it meant that all the lenses used had the same problem on the same spot of the frame. But then again, giving the benefit of the doubt, we wouldn’t really know… not until we hear the side of the production team… who knows… it could have been a problem with the theater where I watched the film… Apart from the overexposed shots almost seen in the entire film’s upper right side, it was such a dismay to see almost all the establishing shots (ES) – including the ES of the hospital scene, school and CAT scenes, Spanish era scenes, and a number of others – were underexposed. They were too dark and grainy with less details and really poor lighting which were obviously not intentional. Moreover, some shots including those in the procession of the “poon” (the saint) and a shot at the church showing some lit candles had too much glare which were just way too disturbing and couldn’t be considered an escape for anything. It could probably be out of poor cinematography and once again, they weren’t intentional glares meant for the aesthetics of the film.

Another disappointment were the camera shots and angles and editing fo the film. One of the scenes that showed this was the scene of Joyce Jimenez smoking inside her room out of the stress and anxiety upon learning that she would soon die of leukemia. The shot seemed to disobey the concepts of perspectives. The juxtaposition of shots was quite confusing. It was like shooting a long shot (LS) of Joyce alone on her bed with the camera on the left side of the room, then the next shot is a medium close-up (MCU) of her but this time the camera was situated somewhere in the right side of the room. Then the shot would go back to a medium or long shot (MS/LS) with the camera back to the left side of the room. It was really confusing. The editing was quite choppy too. The cuts were not very smooth at times. Some looked as if they were parts of the rough cut. It didn’t convey much conviction for the shots. The headroom and framing were at times kinda problematic as well. A number of examples were seen at the middle to the latter part of the film. It seemed like the shots were filmed without considering the cinema crop as seen in the viewfinder and the video assist. It seemed like it was shot in TV format without considering the cinema crop. And this could have caused the cropping of the heads of the subjects (e. g. Jean Garcia’s head on frame started from the eyebrows, or sometimes it even started at the eye and nose areas already). But then again, I would give the benefit of the doubt, I was thinking if it was a problem with the theater projector then. And whatever it was really, I’d have to say: “I can stand to be corrected in case I will be wrong with this.”

I found the scene in the school with the shot roughly weird and I wasn’t been able to come up with a justification why it should be handheld and handled that way. With all these comments, I was wishing that it was just because of the theater where I watched the film. Otherwise, the only wise thing that could have been done would be doing a reshoot of the problematic shots, or if that’s not feasible due to budget constraints, how about doing something about it through the editing and placing some really bad shots at the out takes?

The dubbing really bothered me so much. It was kinda distracting everytime the actor or actress was out of synch. There were a couple of times that the words were out of synch considering the fact that it was dubbed in the same language as the one uttered originally by the actor/actress. Sometimes, the last word you will hear from the dialogue being heard from the dubber would only show a non-moving lips of the actress. An example of this was when the dubber of an actress said “bye” as her last word, but actually, the lips of the actress obviously didn’t move a bit then. The scene of Joyce walking by her knees at the aisle of the church was supposed to be a great “moment’ for her acting. But it was sad that it didn’t quite work because of the poor dubbing. The sound of her cries were really out of synch. It could have been so much better and so much effective if it were given more polishing, especially since the scene was more into “tuhog shots” – a number of CU shots could have placed more heart into it. Moreover, the voice used to dub the part of the male doctor sounded more like Aga Muhlach. No problem with the idea that he sounded like the renowned actor, but the problem came with the delivery of the dialogues which were not very “doctor-like” if you ask me. The voice used could have been more authoritative and professional sounding. With these, overall, some of the acting of the performers promoted more of the lip service type, just plainly uttering their lines; the emotions weren’t striking enough to hit the audience’s hearts more effectively.
The production design for the Spanish era were convincing. The tribal people who wore g-strings were commendable. They seemed realistic and contributed to the feel of it being a part of both the Spanish and tribal period.

With the story, it was something worth for a feature film. The idea of miracles unfolding and the mystery behind it was quite a good topic to dwell on. But personally, it could have been better if there was more build up with the “mysticism and mystery mood” for the film. Such could have provided great elements for the film’s theme, cinematography, mise-en-scéne, production design, music and sound design. And it could have positively affected the film’s heart, mood and temperament – especially such themes could further develop the tales of emotional anguish, untimely death, and desperation as seen to be intersecting with each other in the storyline of the film. What was brought about by the “Birhen ng Manaoag” since the miraculous times back to the early Spanish colonial era provided the rich spiritualist notions of Filipinos with strong fascination on supernatural phenomena and myth-making. The script and story could have been further developed, and it could have worked much, much better. More tension on intense scenes could have made it work more on the spectators’ emotional side.

After all the things I said about the film, I am not stopping anybody from watching it. Actually, you won’t really know and you will never really be personally sure of things unless you watch the film and see for yourself your own stand and you can probably make your own movie review about it. And one thing, if we really want to revive Philippine cinema, we should watch our local films. Through such support and the criticisms we do for the betterment of local productions, sooner or later, who knows, we would finally be producing a great number of quality films meant for the global market… But to rate this film now, after all the technical problems that came to me when I watched it, I would have to rate it 1 out of 5 (with the 5 as the best).