teruterubouzu Reviews

Hip hip hora! (2004)

generally enjoyable and not stupid at all

[18 July 2004]

This is a generally enjoyable film, funny, quite romantic, and socially relevant too. It's great that this movie is objective at addressing the problem of a mislead group of adolescents, and definitely does not generalize all teenagers as shallow, or wild. And it's certainly not your typical Hollywood teen movie where it all gravitates around some dance/winter ball/prom at the end.

I certainly enjoyed this film, and there were many funny scenes (watch out for the "ketchup" scene) and relevant themes.

However there was a little bit of inconsistency with the plot, and just some minor problems. ***SPOILERS might be ahead...*** Like how Sebbe said that Mouse was having some family problems that's why he was cruel to some of his peers- why didn't they explore that further to resolve the issue between him and Sofie? And even though it was made to understand that Sofie was being discriminated in school for being like a slut/whore, it seemed like it was only Mouse's and Beatrice's group of friends who insulted and made fun of Sofie. The feeling of being discriminated by the whole school wasn't exactly there because it was the same people who terrorized Sofie. The film did succeed however in portraying her all alone and betrayed by her friends. ***END***

I recommend that if you plan on watching this, look at the other comments for this movie to get an objective view of whether you should watch it or not. But all in all you should just watch it for yourself and judge whether your money was worth it or not =)

Mano po (2002)

stereotypical, boring and repetitive plot

[18 July 2004]

Never have I seen such a film that had to enforce the fact that the characters are Chinese, as if they didn't already establish that by making the characters' eyes chinky through the magic of make-up or giving them surnames like Go or Lau. Of all the restaurants they had to dine in, it had to be a Chinese restaurant, and they wear red all the time. This was just too stereotypical that it could be labeled quite insulting to the Filipino-Chinese community.

To add to the over dramatic film (and having characters cry in movies does not always qualify it as a drama!), they had to have some suspense and so they had two of the daughters kidnapped. They are under the assumption that all Chinese-Filipinos are wealthy, and all their children are always being kidnapped, which of course is complete bull. Though it happens it doesn't happen to every Chinese-Filipino.

You would have thought that this movie would focus on the real customs and familial and day-to-day problems of Filipino-Chinese families and how it is different from Filipino families. But it was still your same telenovela with overused themes and over dramatic scenes, just using characters of a Filipino-Chinese background.

It's references and research must totally be weak because it even portrayed passe Chinese cultural practices such as having a concubine in the present time (which has long been unpracticed by many Chinese-Filipinos, and Chinese for that matter), which can be very misleading for the viewer.

What I'm trying to say is, for the moviegoer who was expecting something new, and not your typical drama with overused themes and over the top crying scenes, this is definitely the cheesiest and stereotypical movie I've ever seen. What made it successful was the hype over never having released a movie about Filipino-Chinese people, and the fact that it had popular stars (I prefer not to call them actors because they can't even act to save their lives, if you ask me) like Richard Gomez, Maricel Soriano and Kris Aquino in it.

And for the last time, we live in the modern times, so not all Filipino-Chinese OR Chinese for that matter go about wearing Chinese costumes everyday!

Radyo (2001)

good for comedy, not suspense

[14 August 2002]

This movie was actually pretty funny, and compared to a lot of crappy porn films, or slapstick comedies coming out, this is pretty exceptional _in some way_. Though it's supposed to strike you as this suspense movie, with some comedy thrown in (thanks to Quinto), the suspense really failed to sink in. Well... maybe in a few scenes there were some moments when you'd wonder what happened next, but pretty much it's all a comedy. Jeffrey Quizon's a great actor, don't get me wrong, but he _might_ be the worse serial killer I have ever seen in all the suspense movies I've seen. If I were to kill or attack someone, why would I do it with a lot of noise, and a lot "aaaargh!" like I was a monster under some kid's bed? I mean I'm supposed to attack her and not let her know I was right behind her. Duh.