It\u2019s no exaggeration to say that every carefully crafted image in Rafael Manuel\u2019s stunning debut feature \u201cFilipi\u00f1ana\u201d is like an exclusive, disturbing world unto itself, telling its own story. At the same time, each frame builds upon the last to create a gripping, caustically funny narrative about patriarchy, disempowerment and compliance. In other words, everything a day at a golf resort should bring to mind.<\/p>\n
Before Manuel escorts us into the lavish links getaway that is his central metaphor for a rapidly changing Philippines, we\u2019re in a bus \u2014 full of middle-aged, white-clad tourists \u2014 that cuts through a sweltering central Manila where parched citizens scrabble for water. Cut to our beatific destination, where vast private tracts of perfectly manicured green are getting plenty of water, busy sprinklers in rhythmic harmony. That applies to the uniformed resort staff, too, as they prepare, like choreographed musical extras, for a day serving wealthy men\u2019s recreational needs.<\/p>\n
With what seems like little embellishment to real locations (including a genuine culture of female-only caddies sporting bright colors), the movie captures a languid, top-down strangeness. This could be sci-fi, fantasy or an adult cartoon. But it also suggests that if golf resorts didn\u2019t already exist, Dr. Seuss or Jacques Tati might have had to invent them.<\/p>\n
Early on, we meet the characters who will ground us in this social satire\u2019s absurd environment: 17-year-old Isabel (Jorrybell Agoto), a driving range \u201ctee girl\u201d \u2014 look cute, set up ball, don\u2019t get hit \u2014 whose spare time is spent exploring the grounds like a waif in an alien wilderness; and bored New York transplant Clara (Carmen Castellanos), who\u2019s visiting her rich, connected Uncle Renato (a perfectly oily Carlitos Siguion-Reyna) and getting an earful all day long about moving back to enjoy a cushier life. \u201cMore comfortable doesn\u2019t always mean happier,\u201d she responds.<\/p>\n
Isabel can sometimes be found softly singing under a mango tree, as if trying to invoke something lost. She\u2019s low-key obsessed with the club\u2019s president, the powerful, married Dr. Palanca (Teroy Guzman), so when his caddie Charlie (Elle Velasco) asks her to return a stray golf club to him personally, Isabel begins an eccentric quest. But across this setting\u2019s liminal, glistening affluence, something consequential emerges about the meaning behind her presence there.<\/p>\n
In certain ways \u201cFilipi\u00f1ana,\u201d which was developed from a short film, is a tweaked, post-colonial revising of Dorothy\u2019s Oz awakening. But despite a mischievous style, where an iron gleams like a talisman and a pine tree can look forlorn, it\u2019s savagely serious about what\u2019s in store globally \u2014 not just in the Philippines. It isn\u2019t surprising to learn that Manuel was mentored by Jia Zhangke (\u201cStill Life,\u201d \u201cCaught by the Tides\u201d<\/a>), the great Chinese chronicler of generational transformation, also an executive producer here. Like Jia, Manuel has a masterful eye for layered image-making, but he\u2019s forged his own singular blend of humor and atmosphere. He\u2019s building worlds and dissecting them at the same time.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also thinking about how films start and stop. That water usage juxtaposition at the beginning is pointedly funny, but Manuel bookends it in his closing moments with another ironic contrast in moneyed, rarefied bubbles that stings and saddens. \u201cFilipi\u00f1ana\u201d may be set on a golf course sculpted to perfection, but all you\u2019ll see are the traps.<\/p>\n ‘Filipi\u00f1ana’<\/p>\n In Filipino, English and Ilokano, with subtitles<\/p>\n Not rated<\/p>\n Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes<\/p>\n Playing: Opens Friday, Sept. 4 at Laemmle Monica Film Center and Laemmle Glendale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s no exaggeration to say that every carefully crafted image in Rafael Manuel\u2019s stunning debut feature \u201cFilipi\u00f1ana\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22883,2265,22889,21405,44,747,9191,22885,22887,22884,21406,3347,22886,22888,4025,1082],"class_list":["post-61426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-17-year-old-isabel","tag-day","tag-disempowerment","tag-filipinana","tag-golf","tag-golf-course","tag-golf-resort","tag-jia-zhangke","tag-philippines","tag-power-game","tag-rafael-manuel","tag-review","tag-same-time","tag-short-film","tag-water","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}