Year-Ender

Spent Christmas season with surgery, two tooth extractions, and multiple visits to the hospital. I won't bother with the details, since I've already told the story a thousand times to many people and now it just bores me.

Now another year is nearly over, and as I fondly look back at all the wonderful-- oh, fuck it.

This year was pretty blah in general (with some exceptions, of course), plagued by multiple hell weeks, personal confusion with life, and creepy people. On the other hand, there were some good movies (Iron Man, The Dark Knight, etc.), and I think I managed to straighten out some priorities somewhere along the way.

For the lulz, more notable events towards the end of the year:

1. BlueREP productions and everything attached, and Hairspray by Atlantis! Admittedly not my favorite musical, but I occasionally find myself listening to the original cast recording because of this.

2. Son of DAR Chief and bodyguards beat up a 56-year old father and 14-year old son at a golf course (original post here). Though I can only do so much by reposting what has already been circulating since last week, let this stand for my hope that justice will be served here. Admittedly, this is only one side of the story, but everyone should know that shit like this is completely unacceptable under any circumstance.

3. And before I forget, an overdue mini-review:

It's strange that the first (and only) MMFF entry I watched this year was a cartoon, but Dayo was actually not all bad, although it hasn't done too well at the box office. Dayo is about a young boy who travels to Elementalia, an enchanted parallel world, in search of his grandparents who were abducted by an evil magic tree. Along the way, he is aided by a number of creatures from the stuff of Philippine folklore and horror stories. (Telling us from the start that manananggals are friendly and nature isn't? Maybe.)

First, putting aside some cringeworthy things: there were about a hundred ad placements evenly distributed throughout the whole goddamn movie, even though most of the plot takes place in a fantasy setting. These include plugs for Philippine Airlines, Tender Juicy Hotdogs, Mister Donut, Frootees, Crispy Fry Breading Mix, Celeen Ascorbic Acid, Enchanted Kingdom, SM Mall of Asia, among many others.

Visual quality was inconsistent for the most part, alternating many times between awkward and "oooh, pretty." The most uncomfortable was when the characters looked like goddamn cardboard cut-outs in a 3D environment, especially in the aerial shots early in the film. The animation was decent enough, I guess, although the voices don't seem to sync that well with the characters' lips.

The script, though generally funny, treads a fine line between being innocently makulit and plain irritating, especially with all the nuances derived from the speech patterns of Filipino youth nowadays. On the one hand, they reflect some aspects of contemporary Filipino culture. On the other, these are aspects we want to get rid of.

Putting aside these details, Dayo, at its core, is actually no less than a warm and fuzzy story, made alive especially by its cast of interesting characters. Narsi, the cleverly named narcissistic tikbalang, was especially hilarious. This character alone is enough reason to see this movie, which, even if a long way from being perfect, says something about the efforts to steer the local animation industry in the right direction. Support Filipino animators!