A tale of two mothers

Complexity is of the essence in films that I find at once entertaining and enlightening. This quality is easily evident in the best of Korean cinema, which is one of the world's most intoxicating visual brew. Highly layered, the Korean facet of the human condition--even at its most horrible and heartbreaking--never fails to beam up with a grin and to surprise us with the grace of transcendent beauty. Since getting bedazzled by the films of Park Chan-wook after watching his exhilarating offbeat trilogy--Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)--I've been bracing myself to wade deep into the New Wave of Korean filmmaking.

After reading the reviews of Bong Joon-ho’s Mother and Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, I watched them one after the other recently and still can't get over it. I can not recommend it strongly enough to give justice to its exquisitely nuanced narrative, performances, and other production values that are simply world-class. In a nutshell, both films feature two of the most out-of-the-box and complicated characterization of mothers I have ever seen---crazy, scary, but always feisty with resilience and tenderness.

Let these trailers speak for the pleasure that awaits those who will watch these two modern gems of Korean cinema:

A Filipino giant named Mario O'Hara

Vita brevis, ars longa. Life is short, art is long. This truism becomes a living testimony to the works of a Filipino Renaissance Man—“actor, director, writer, a giant of Philippine theater and film," as affirmed in the eulogy from National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Mario O'Hara, 68, died from complications due to acute leukemia last June 25, 2012. With the news of his passing, a chorus of  artists and writers memorialized their mourning by turning his name a trending buzzword in Twitter. After the outpouring of grief came the ode to his artistry—at turns socio-realist and fabulist in its cold-eyed dramatization but always warm with its humanist vision.  Known for his unassuming ways, O’Hara certainly left a void in the hearts of many who attest to his generosity of spirit and his non-compromising craftsmanship. “Though he’s been invited to direct soap operas and mainstream films many times, O’ Hara was consistent in refusing offers from major studios, citing the creative limitations set by network executives,” cited a report.  

O’Hara wrote the screenplays of two famous films by Lino Brocka, the most internationally renowned Filipino director, one of which (“Insiang”)  became the first Filipino film to be invited to the prestigious Cannes International Film Festival in 1977.  In 2003, "Ang Babae Sa Breakwater" (Woman of the Breakwater), written and directed by O’Hara, was also shown in Cannes. “This low-budget independent film was one of the pioneers leading the charge of Philippine cinema on the international festival circuit. Today Philippine movies are a fixture at Cannes, Venice, and other festivals. This would not have been possible without the ground-breaking work of the quiet, self-effacing Mario O’Hara,” acknowledged the Cinema One Originals Festival last year when it named him a co-recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award along with the Superstar of Philippine entertainment, Nora Aunor.

Known as  O’Hara’s muse and collaborator in most of his critically acclaimed films, Aunor started to be recognized as the “country’s greatest actress” when O’Hara directed her in the 1976 classic “Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos" (Three Godless Years), which a film critic arguably considered as “the best Filipino film ever made.” 

That immortality becomes O’Hara can be gleaned from his body of work as a performer and filmmaker. That immortality becomes O’Hara’s can be gleaned from his essential body of work both as a performer and filmmaker.  His influence is immense, wrote a fellow filmmaker in a tribute titled "Once There Were Giants."

Cinemasia

Can't imagine life without cinema. Neither can I see the real getting more vivid and multi-dimensional if it is not rendered in reel or in the digital magic of motion picture. As much as I'm hooked on books, movies are just as mystifying to me with its seduction of light and shadow that compels me to behold and grasp the world inside and around me in sharper focus.
  

To the extent that films feed my imagination, what I watch also shapes my evolution: my sense of identity, my image of a nation, my notion of a worldview.

I'm an omnivore as far as films are concerned, and my viewing pleasure knows no genre, no race, no border. Indeed, my ongoing education about the universality of the human condition is largely owed to an appreciation for and fascination with the diversity of international films regardless of whatever is lost in translation. 

As a Filipino, however, I'm obviously most at home watching movies made not only from the Philippines but also from neighboring countries in the Asian region. My interest in Sociology also inspires me to look for qualities of Asian character and culture portrayed on screen that makes it both local and global at the same time. One sociological theory that appeals to me is "glocalization." That such concept was mulled over by a Western scholar (Roland Robertson) makes it all the more fascinating, proof-positive of the interconnected aspects of self and social experience that animate the dialectics of homogeneity and heterogeneity in time and space. 

In this context, this blog will be both my way of paying tribute to the dynamism of Asian cinema and my offering to non-Asians so they may partake of its opulent particularities that are often prone to be misunderstood and muddled into exoticism and xenophobia, which are mostly influenced by media representation. By highlighting a few of my favorite films that are not produced by Hollywood or the dream factories in Europe,  this blog is a testimony of pride and goodwill to people who look forward to seeing the common tie that binds us all, Asians or not. 


Below is a video showcase of the 10 Best Films of All Time from the Asia Pacific region honored by the CNN in 2008.