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Bi-U-tiful!
The lady Gambit of the hour is played by a reel and real enchantress, Marian Rivera. She plays the dazzling Cara who has a tragic and mystifying past. The film starts with a flashback when Mount Pinatubo erupted and the young and naïve Cara has foreseen this in the tarot cards of her grandmother played by the legendary Gloria Romero. On New Year’s Eve, Cara feels she is being called by the whispery cards. As she lays it down, she manifests the knowledge that tragic events will happen.
The film is about fortunetelling. Ironically, the film cancels out the word fortune, and speaks. A few months back, I had my first tarot card reading session given by a lady who looks quite typical for her eerie profession. She introduces her craft more as psychotherapy. She prohibits questions that will be regarding health and death. I think it’s quite disreputable for her to tackle those things so it is really something to avoid. I am astounded that two films I have recently seen have tackled the misfortune. The other film is Ang Manghuhula by Paolo Herras. I could have bashed both films for their irregularities and being quite negligent with the repercussions it could get across to the viewers. But I assure you, both films have squeezed in other elements to make them realistic, imaginative and entertaining.
Years have passed; Cara decides to climb a mountain with his fiancé Miguel played by Dennis Trillo. They are lost in the forest side of the mountain and decide to stay in a cave for the night. When Cara wakes up, Miguel is nowhere to be found. Weeks have passed; there is no news of Miguel. Cara decides to get hold of the tarot cards of her grandmother to know where he is.
Cara seems to be highly intuitive with the things around her and this could be a great benefit on her part. I think, even without the tarot cards, you could see in her dazzling eyes the wisdom she has manifested. I think she might do a better acting foray in the horror genre like the role as Nieves in the Shake Rattle and Roll X than flaunting her comedic prowess in Desperadas 2 and even a hysterical drama stint in One True Love. But in Tarot, she has proven again that she shines. This could be a genre she is at home with and has saturated all the excesses of the melodramatic acting.
Tarot could be your next DVD purchase and could be relished for its worth especially if you crave for audience-oriented horror thrills. This film has been sprinkled with conflicts and twists, similiar to your well-liked flavored popcorn. But sometimes flavored writing needs some buffing up and polishing despite a contentment whether between the filmmaker and the studio or with the filmmaker himself. Still, it is every man to his taste. But my intuition says, Jun Lana’s writing is in best form in Sa Pusod ng Dagat by Marilou Diaz-Abaya. Charlie Koon's Rating: 
What a cute doll... :)
Mira (Judy Ann Santos) remarkably survives a car accident. But she suffers the loss of memory. Strange things start to happen at their house. Even her husband Paul (Dennis Trillo) seems unwary with Mira’s intuition that something eerie is going on. He believes that it is a result of the traumatic accident. It is also revealed that Mira is not close with her blind daughter Sophie (Sharlene San Pedro). She makes an effort to be close to her daughter but she is constantly distracted with the mysterious things recurring upon her. One day, she was visited by her business partner Dave (TJ Trinidad). Dave admitted that they had an affair in the past. He confessed a secret only the two of them knew. With his assertion to uncover Mira’s past, she discovers more than she must not be aware of her true being.
Kulam is a result of malevolent incantations by witches and sorcerers alike. Its fusion in Philippine Culture is undoubtedly good material for film exploration, dissection and even exploitation. However, Mag-ingat ka sa... Kulam only scratches the surface of this fascinating world of witchcraft and sorcery. It resorted to familiar chants in gibberish dialect, maladroit representations of warlocks, and unflattering undertones of native myths, customs and rituals. Even the depiction of the evil spirit is not justified. I am certain that even in the point of view of a writer and director; he must have achieved a vision that accurately illustrates the evil spirit. It certainly makes an effort to use prosthetics so it’s deliberated that the spirit must look horrible, but why? Are there clues for us audience to understand even on the basic level why on earth she appears like that? She looks like a leper, or did she acquire any skin disease of some sort? Or is it just for the sake of making a horror scenario creepier? An obvious prognosis for this delineation will entirely make an audience jump from their seats. Okay, for a horror film to sell, the wicked spirit has to be frightening. Evil usually equals scary ugly. It’s an interesting point though. Mag-ingat ka sa... Kulam makes the mistake of jejune characterization, especially for the horror persona they have shown. But for a writer-director, the sin is twofold.
Another thing, there are spooky circumstances in the film that is terrifying but has not hinted any just rationalization. A tuft of hair in blood is found in the cabinet. Is a person’s head bumped on that sturdy piece of furniture? The water in the bathtub boils and the evil spirit emerged. Even her hair is falling apart, implying that the spirit had cancer. It is spine-chilling but it has no purpose. It leaves empty scares. Even the suppose to be promising story in its essential level is made to clutter with the film’s strive to bring about horror and a disturbing atmosphere without giving thoughts of its intention. Witchcraft is so vague and films have no purpose to conceal a story’s progression. The film could be indicted of contriving the plot if found not adequate in its motivation of the characters.
Santos still has the imperative charisma an actress must possess. It definitely shows in the jam-packed theatre, despite the fact that the ticket rates are costly (roughly two hundred bucks). She did very well in her portrayal even though some parts were inexcusably dubbed (Regal do it in their films on purpose). Trillo as her leading man is quite a relief and a surprise. They make a good pairing and I would love to see them again in future films, possibly in a drama feature. I have said it in the past that I am not a TV guy, but I am dumbfounded with Neil’s (Mart Escudero) role in the film. Is he the male evil spirit? Or is he the newest heartthrob sensation in showbiz? And yeah, I have been acquainted with Kris Bernal in her ‘tomboy’ role in Loving You. She might have done a delightful stint in that film so she had a role in this movie even though her character is uncalled for.
Mag-ingat ka sa... Kulam has been backed-up by a good production company that is why their output is nearly well-made technically. The film’s story is cleverly made on the very basic level. Its crucial element in fusing witchcraft rituals is delightful but it is clear that it only dwells on an atmosphere we are accustomed and supposed to believe in. Lana’s recent work has relied on sound cues to mangle our breath with scary enchantments. The story’s twists are quite fine; praising it exclusively on its own is well deserved by Lana. But I will not buy the evil spirit inspiration because it is merely a fixation for horrible things to look more horrible. The film also lacks good execution in elevating horror without being overshadowed by emotional cues from its musical scoring. Its subject matter on its own is creepy and only a clear vision is the tool to make this material work in a film’s standpoint.
Kulam is graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board
Charlie Koon's Rating: 
Boys Talk
.I would rather not get furious about the film as this would be a victory for the film. I suppose the film’s genre is not merely neo-noir style. Rather, a hybrid of neo-noir and neo-realism – a silly combination. I remember way back in college, we had the usual drinking sessions. We would mix up alcoholic drinks. We were curious of the experience. We weren’t after the delightful flavor. In place of such, we would concoct a monster mix of stupidity. Obviously it tastes awful. And the aftermath is sickening! Torotot has a similar effect.
Right after a few sequences of the film, its neo-noir style becomes evident. Usually in noir films, it has a convoluted storyline, dark contrast and mostly cynical characters. Torotot is told in flashbacks and flash-forwards, so I would rather convey the film in simple descriptions. Filled with existential bitterness, Gabby (Baron Geisler) is frantic on the sudden coldness his wife Marie (Maui Taylor) demonstrates. Marie occasionally resists having sex with him. Instead, she diverts all her time to work as a veterinarian, and caring for her pet dogs. Then we are introduced to Darwin (Andrew Schimmer), a dog trainer. Gabby is hastily jealous of him. One night, they had an argument which resulted to Marie leaving the house. She stayed at Darwin’s pad. Gabby turns to his best bud Leo (Yul Servo) to ease his frustration and temper. Fast-forward – when Leo informed Gabby that he saw Darwin and Marie together, he spied at Marie’s whereabouts and caught them having raunchy sex in Marie’s clinic. “Destierro” as its alternate title suggests its legal repercussion.
Leo on the other hand had a similar fate with Gabby. His spouse Rita (Precious Adona) is an ordinary housewife. Rita is despondent due to her husband’s stumpy libido. As Marie’s friend, she suggested Rita to do something exciting which she promptly ignores. Things changed after Marie’s death. Then, Leo notices that his wife is hooked with her prayer services. Rita is having smutty sexual encounters with Gaston (Anton Bernardo), a fellow brother in faith. Leo had known the whole thing from Gaston’s wife (Maricar de Mesa). He schemes on doing the same thing Gabby did.
The irony in the film is well presented - at least the idea of it. But when it tackled the legal system, the story becomes an entire mess. Legal system based on reality must be accurate up to the smallest detail. Even the disintegration of the Philippine Legal System was not credibly assessed in the film. The pessimistic view of the real legal system is not entirely chauvinistic as what the film has shown. If it is noirish, then it’s fine. But in reality, our legal system has other factors of its flawed conduct; it is also corrupt, biased and defensive. In the film, it is apparent that Marie came from a well-off family and yet there is no defense council on her behalf? The entire case just went through in a couple of days or weeks. If the film would not want to be indicted of imprecision then it might not have tackled the legalities of such a crime.
The characters Gabby and Leo were the total losers in this film. While Marie and Rita were having the usual girl-talk, they would counteract the previous claims of their husbands’ machismo; Gabby has a thumb size dick and Leo suffers from pre-mature ejaculation. It is also humorous that the guys have their freaky boy-talk while pampering in a facial salon and having a hair color treatment. Rita’s fetishes are riveting; she satisfies her sexual frustration by damping frozen bacon all over her body and sniffing salaciously on soiled briefs. These were just a few aspects of the film that is quite redeeming (if not utterly sick). The last part of the film entirely collapses. The plot was too manipulative. If it’s heading there, it will go smoothly. But it did not transcend in the film, to my dismay.
Sometimes, what men lack in actuality, they make up for in influence. Torotot is a story of incongruity that needs to be rehashed. It failed to neatly replicate the legalities being presented. It might consider that not all tabloid headlines are fascinating story material. Sometimes, it’s adequate to show the irony or demonstrate a synesthetic metaphor. Otherwise, it is simpler to go back to fiction.
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.Charlie Koon's Rating: 
Bi-U-tiful! 
