Halik sa Hangin is a bad movie. But to give it some credit: it is bad in pretty interesting ways. The film experiments with the romantic form, mashing it up with another genre of cinema. It feels like a chemistry experiment, the movie mixing and matching elements in hopes of getting some kind of reaction. Of course, when experiments are done haphazardly, the results can be dangerous. Halik sa Hangin fails in pretty spectacular fashion, creating an explosion of badness that leaves the whole laboratory in flames.
Mia (Julia Montes) is a recent arrival in Baguio, having just moved there to live with her mother (Ina Raymundo) and her Tito John (Edu Manzano), the man for which her mother left her recently deceased father. Mia doesn't feel entirely comfortable living under the roof of her new stepfather, who imposes all sorts of rules on her. Soon, she meets Gio (Gerald Anderson), a mysterious, intense young man with whom she instantly forms a connection. She begins to spend time with him, and she begins to fall in love. But Gio is hiding a major secret from her, and he eventually forces Mia to make a drastic choice.
To describe the plot would be to destroy it. It is a ridiculous picture that haphazardly makes an attempt at melding two inherently incompatible genres of film. It is grossly unsuccessful. What is meant to be endearing or emotional more often than not ends up being hilarious. It is bizarre and confused, the film quickly losing control of its tone and lapsing into strange, irredeemable farce. Every moment feels like a severe miscalculation, the scenes never quite evoking the emotions that the material seems to be aiming for.
The big broad strokes of the film really shouldn't be discussed, but anyone with half a brain will quickly figure out the big twist, unbelievable as it is. It is much easier to discuss the basic failures of the movie. There is a sequence, for example, that starts with the heroine arriving at a location on a Vespa. When we see her leaving later on, she's trying to catch a taxi. The vehicle simply disappears. Out of sight, out of mind. Later on, in the grand climax, parents seem to forget about the safety of their child, and a priest knowingly drags the same kid into a dangerous situation.
It is difficult to conceive what exactly the filmmakers were going for. The film just refuses to work, even on the most basic logical levels. There are scenes that end abruptly, the plot never settling into a workable rhythm. The actors, trapped within this awful milieu, are made to look like crazy people. Julia Montes comes off really badly in the film's big, melodramatic moments, the actress resorting to shrieking in the face of the movie's sheer illogic. Gerald Anderson reverts to TV acting as he plays out his character's bizarre motivation. A mannequin may as well have replaced JC de Vera, as his role calls for little more than showing up and smiling blankly.
Halik sa Hangin is honestly pretty baffling. I guess one should credit Star Cinema for trying something new. One certainly can’t accuse this film of sticking to the classic Star Cinema formula. Except what it does is just force together two different formulas, abandoning all logic as the film pursues a reaction that simply isn’t there. It often makes a naked bid for tears, piling on the tragedy as it reaches for a satisfying resolution. But it doesn’t work. It’s more likely to get laughs.
My Rating:
