I haven’t been able to catch many of the world cinema entries in this year’s festival, but I specifically made time to catch Hong Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then. Like most of the director’s movies, it is a deceptively simple, dialogue heavy story built around a narrative experiment. Here, a film director visits Suwon for a screening of one of his films at a festival. He visits a temple and encounters a beautiful young painter. He falls in love with her, and spends the whole day hanging out with her. The film shows two versions of their encounter, which stays mostly identical until a key scene. And then the stories move is sort of different directions.
And it’s wonderful. Hong Sang-soo is a master of the small story. His movies are rarely ever more than people talking to each other, but the depth of conversation is just enthralling. And in this film, he shows how little it takes to change the outcome of an encounter; how a little bit of honesty can turn something sour into something quite beautiful.
The festival is also the venue for the premiere of the restored version of Ishmael Bernal’s 1978 film Ikaw ay Akin. The film stars Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos as two women fighting for the attentions of one man. Before the screening, writer Jose Carreon talked about how the film was ahead of its time. And he’s right. It’s almost hard to imagine to film coming out in 1978. Its sensibilities are thoroughly modern.
The big story behind this film, of course, is that it stars both Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos. And the film really uses their contrasting images to its advantage. What’s most interesting is how long the film keeps them apart. They share maybe five minutes of screen time together, and say maybe about two lines of dialogue to each other. It’s all part of a grand design that builds up to maybe the greatest confrontation scene in all of our cinema. The final scene of this movie is incredible. It is a sequence that is almost entirely reliant on the context of who these two people are. Bernal eschews words as he orchestrates a tense standoff between the two stars, expressing everything through three minutes of silent gestures.
There are a few weird choices in the middle of this film that make it feel longer than it probably should. But these choices are also what make it so beautiful. Bernal was never afraid to get weird, to stay in a moment for maybe a little too long. It all adds up to something far greater than one can ever expect.
Also making its world premiere in the festival is Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s Salvage. Jessy Mendiola stars as a TV news producer on location with her crew in Cagayan de Oro to do a story on murders rumored to be related to aswang. They get lost along the way, and end up in the clutches of a truly monstrous threat. This is a found footage film, but there is much more at play than it might first seem.
The film gets off to a fun start, and starts to sag in the middle as the found footage aesthetic becomes more of a hindrance than an advantage. But then the film takes a turn. I don’t really want to give away what happens, but suffice it to say that this film was never going to be satisfied by staying within the realm of the standard found footage horror movie. It is tough to explain, but the film subverts the aesthetic and finds something much more interesting along the way. This a deeply subversive film that I would recommend more to art house aficionados than mainstream horror fans.
The festival held its awards night last night, and here are the winners:
Best Film: Manang Biring
Jury Prize: Hamog
Audience Choice: Baka Siguro Yata
Champion Bughaw Award: Manang Biring
Best Director: Bor Ocampo, Dayang Asu
Best Screenplay: Ara Chawdhury, Miss Bulalacao
Best Actor: Dino Pastrano, Baka Siguro Yata
Best Actress: Therese Malvar, Hamog
Best Supporting Actor: Bor Lentejas, Hamog
Best Cinematography: Albert Banzon, Dayang Asu
Best Editing: Charliebebs Gohetia, Hamog
Best Music: Dino Christopher Parafina, Manang Biring
Best Production Design: Harley Alcasid: Bukod Kang Pinagpala
Best Sound: Jess Carlos, Bukod Kang Pinagpala
