Mitzi Ilagan | YoManila.com
This is not a surfing film.
And in case you’re worrying that you’d just get to waste a 200-peso movie ticket, a bucket of popcorn and your precious time, here’s an assurance that your 95 minutes and 23 seconds would be worth it.
A mainstream moviegoer would always think about indie films as ones with indescribable plots, mysterious characters and impossible acts. But in reality, these are the most rational, only telling the truth in a different way.
And that, is one thing that you should expect from Apocalypse Child.
Hailed as 2015 QCinema Film Festival’s Best Film and given the Best Director, Excellence in Artistic Achievement and Best Supporting Actress awards (and a lot more from other award-giving bodies), this film surely is one of the bests that the local industry is to be proud of. As it goes mainstream, it goes to show how any other film should be made–a realistic one, minus the pretentious drama, fabricated romance and excessive dialogues.
The story’s about Ford (Sid Lucero), allegedly the son of Francis Ford Coppola, who is the director of Apocalypse Now. If you’ve never heard about it, Apocalypse Now is an American epic war film shot in Baler. The production team left a surfboard, that was recovered by a fisherman and then bought by five boys. It was then believed that surfing was popularized in the Philippines from that time on. (Apocalypse Now is a real film.) Ford’s mother, Chona (Ana Abad Santos), had been trying to make herself and the people around her convinced that Coppola was really his father. And then there’s this 19-year old Fil-Am, Fiona (Annicka Dolonius), who came back from the States to visit her dying grandmother. Ford and Fiona basically started a relationship, turning every ordinary summer day into surfing dates.
There’s also Jordan (Archie Alemania), the kind of friend that you don’t want to lose, neither wouldn’t want to mess up with. Rich (RK Bagatsing), Ford’s childhood best friend, also comes back together with her fiancée, Serena (Gwen Zamora). The moment Serena and Ford meets, an attraction happens which, suspiciously, Rich just allows to pass by. Rich and Ford tells that they’ve had a pretty bad misunderstanding in the past, but no one really knows, even I, what happened. The film does not spoon-feed you with the details that you want to hear, but only gives you an idea, making you realize that those things aren’t really necessary if they’d narrate it. It makes your brain work as you watch, making you want more, making you curious, making your heart overflow with questions that the characters do not bother answering.
What’s more interesting is how genuinely all five characters move and act around each other, ruining the idea of what most of us have been used to. If you’re someone who’s been hurt by somebody you love, you’d probably still go back, even when you know things have changed. But in Apocalypse Child, you would notice how the characters slips away from the stereotype roles.
Here’s another thing that makes it great: Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down did the musical scoring of the film, which magically gave a chill but at the same time, heavy vibe throughout.
As the movie comes to an end, you will surely realize that it’s been more than an hour and a half, but you still want more. You may not have gotten all the information about every experience that they’ve had but you would understand them. They’re there in Baler, paddling their surfboards, crashing against the waves, falling down, but then again, they all learn to ride with it.
So simple yet evocative.
Apocalypse Child is directed by Mario Cornejo, written by Mario Cornejo & Monster Jimenez, and edited by Lawrence S. Ang. Props to these guys, and the whole production team.
Apocalypse Child opens on October 26. For more information, visit the Apocalypse website or their Facebook page.
