The most remarkable thing about Lee Meily’s “Pinta-Kasi” is its departure from the conventional  storytelling.

            I thought the film is perfect for children as it starts with an animation about someone’s foray to some forbidden place. The presence of hip-hop music will make it endearing to the young  but then it turned out the film is a journey to Lower Depths.

          But with hip-hop music all over the sensitive and violent scenes,  the old generation of moviegoers has no reason to complain.

            Watching this indie film is like following the transformation of an aspiring painter named DJ (Johne Wayne Sace) and many things about his  work-a-day world he tries to capture through his convass.



    But his latest destination is no Walt Disney or  a guarded subdivision.

It is an island where the denizens of the underworld live and let live: thieves, drug pushers, pimps, part-time prostitutes and full-time girlie-girlie performers.

The island is ruled by one Tikboy (BM de Guzman) who has since then been hardened by the harsh realities of life. He styles himself as the island’s “Asiong Salonga” and he thought that was the real good  life. With the arrival of DJ (John Wayne  Sace) in the island, Tikboy sees the new visitor as a threat to his fiefdom. But he befriends him, even initiates him into the rites of manhood through the island whore and even teaches him a thing or two about defying law and order. In the end, DJ became a rival in his conquest of  Josie (Erich Gonzalez), the fairest lady in the island.

The ways of life in this island is jarring but with animation scenes here and there, the violent sides of life in this Godforsaken place is somehow visually neutralized and thanks too for that hip-hop music. But one doesn’t forget the fact that this film is about the underbelly of Metro Manila where the likes of Asiong Salonga and Baby Ama once led defiant and bloody lives.

In this island, the kingpin is DJ played with startling blood-and-flesh realism by BM de Guzman. The truth is this film has a stable of Grade A actors  from de Guzman to John Wayne, Giselle Sanchez, Alwyn Uytingco and William Martinez, among others. With all the negative characters in the film, the presence  of Josie (Erich Gonzales) as the love interest in this film was most welcome presence You can see that this  lovely face represents hope in the island and the actress played  the part with highly spontaneous result.

The big surprise of the film is Boots Anson Roa playing a  “religious” sari-sari store owner and who turns out to be a closet drug dealer. Roa pulled off the part with realism,  doing away with her soft side in real life to really look “pious” but vicious in the inside. |Even her delivery of Tondo street language nearly made me fall off my chair with its amazing realism.

“Pinta-Kasi” deserved all the recognition it got in the last Metro Manila Film Festival and certainly BM de Guzman was deserving of the Best Actor trophy (in the New Wave category). I am no longer surprised that it is getting endless invitations from festival circuits all over  the world.

Behind this film is Gov. Imee Marcos who also was behind such cinematic gems as “Oro, Plata, Mata” and “Himala.”



With “Pinta-Kasi,” La Marcos shows she is in touch with the times, she is in touch with social reality ( the film is not about the “the good and the beautiful”) and she knows the pulse of the times.

There is a lot in her artistic foresight that many self-proclaimed saviors of Philippine cinema can learn from.

You can help promote fresh and invigorating ideas in the film industry by patronizing “Pinta-Kasi” when it opens in your favorite theaters this month.

 

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine