Synopsis:
Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan is a full length digital picture that takes a realistic glimpse of the Filipino youth in the gulf of Manila's urban gullies. It tackles socially-related issues surrounding the intersecting lives of marginalized ordinary Manileños. Presented in a staggered vista of correlated events, the movie explores the day-to-day survival of the characters and their broken dreams, pent-up anger and abnormal sexuality. Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan conveys its message powerfully in a daring and unapologetic way-- using street lingo to it's fullest. The story unfolds one night when Rey, the docile and cowardly teenage student is mauled as he passes by a drinking spree of street toughies: Pogie, Jopet, Kahoy and Taba. The four release their sadistic energy on him, transforming his handsome face into a bloody mess. Braggart Pogi hates Rey for the simple reason that he secretly loves Rey's girlfriend, Angel, who has a clueless father. Jopet, a self-claimed police asset, finds Rey a convenient substitute for pouring out his hatred for his handler, Lakay, a sadistic cop. The vagrant baker/snatcher Kahoy and Taba, the bum, join in for the sake of camaraderie. While Rey lies unconscious on the pavement, the group continues drinking as if nothing happened. Some neighbors try to intervene, but reluctant to get involved. Rey regains consciousness and finds his tormentors drunk and asleep. What happens next is anybody's guess.
Review:
"Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan" is a fragmented story about the happenings in Manila's underbellies. But the main story was about this dorkish boy (played by Carlo Aquino) who got beat up by four guys who ganged up on him when the dorkish boy passes by them when they were drinking. Then several stories webbed from there. I do not want to get in the other stories.
I think the main flaw of the story was that the stories, when dissected, do not stand up on their own and they do not connect and mesh well with each other. Some are fare more interesting than the others and the other stories feel half baked. They were real stories however, about the grim and dirty side of Manila, but that said, it at times feels so melodramatic.
The performances were good at best. Ketchup Eusebio may get kudos for his role as an over cursing guy, but I think it was very over acted. I do not get the cursing. Every sentence has at least once curse word. I was not offended by the cursing, I curse a lot too. It did not feel very real. It felt fake and forced. That said, I still think that Eusebio was good. But for me the best of the bunch was Cholo Barretto, playing the thuggish and brutal guy who had issues with the head of the sort of cops. I wonder where he is right now. Hmmm. A performance this good deserves a follow up.
"Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan" is a solid film, but not as gritty as it claims to be. It pushed the envelope, but not quite, it felt lacking.
Information about the Movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0828445
Cast: Dong-gun Jang, So-young Ko, Jae-seok Han, Na-na Han, Jung-ki Kim
Director: Ato Bautista.
Year: 2005.
Genre: Drama.
Runtime: 94 minutes [ 1h 34m].
Also Known As: Yeonpung yeonga.
Country: Philippines.
Language: Filipino, Tagalog.
Subtitles: English (.sub, .idx format)
Technical Specification of the Movie:
QUOTE:
| General Complete name :Sa Aking Pagkakagising Mula Sa Kamulatan.avi Format : AVI Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave File size : 1.37 GiB Duration : 1h 34mn Overall bit rate : 2 075 Kbps Video Format : MPEG-4 Visual Format profile : Advanced Simple@L5 Format settings, BVOP : Yes Format settings, QPel : No Format settings, GMC : No warppoints Format settings, Matrix : Custom Codec ID : XVID Codec ID/Hint : XviD Duration : 1h 34mn Bit rate : 1 876 Kbps Width : 720 pixels Height : 416 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate : 23.976 fps Resolution : 8 bits Colorimetry : 4:2:0 Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.261 Stream size : 1.24 GiB (90%) Audio Format : AC-3 Format/Info : Audio Coding 3 Codec ID : 2000 Duration : 1h 34mn Bit rate mode : Constant Bit rate : 192 Kbps Channel(s) : 2 channels Channel positions : L R Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz Stream size : 130 MiB (9%) Alignment : Split accross interleaves Interleave, duration : 96 ms (2.30 video frames) Interleave, preload duration : 96 ms |
Stills from the Movie:
