Firefly (2023)

 

Before I retire tonight, I feel I should write something about the last movie I saw in the movie theater as a kind of appreciation and celebration for the year that is now ending. This has been a rather hectic and revelatory year (blog wise) for me and let's just close it with a happy note with the hopes of more positivity in the coming year.

Yesterday, after my early morning gym visit plus a side-trip to Burger King on the way home as a rare breakfast treat, I noticed there was an absence of the usual traffic particularly perennial in the streets of Manila so I rushed back to the mall to perhaps watch (another) foreign movie but I was faced with the ongoing Metro Manila Film Festival's fare of Filipino movies presented this time of the year while deciding and planning on what to watch from my connected home computer.

Since it was the only one with a preview clip from my clickthecity movie tab website which I equated with a proper promotion or send off, I decided to watch Firefly. I read its description and thought I liked it. Also, I felt I wanted to watch something not demanding of mental analysis like a historical drama or something stress-inducing like a horror movie or even romance. These are not my genres anyway. As it turns out, my serendipitous nature always prevails in the end. No Wonka, I thought? No problem. I Wanna watch Tagalog this time!

First of all, what can you expect from a Filipino film anyway? From a nation who tries to make ends meet on a daily basis and a dwindling movie industry (because if you're a starving nation, who cares about art, right?), the answer is nothing! Not that I'm conditioning my brain for "lowered expectations = higher happiness", I am simply prepared for reality...the good kind.

All throughout the year and beyond, I felt I have mentally focused on lifting myself from the daily peril of living in my own town and country. This after all is a very perilous, very dangerous way to live: simply surviving, you know?

This movie as in all movies, has its strengths and weaknesses. From a general perspective, this was well-shot (aka good cinematography); and although not intellectual in any way, was well-written; well-casted and finally, well-acted as expected from local talent. If I were to imagine this was a story of my life (as I try to put myself in the shoes of the principal characters while watching movies anyway), then the featured boy appears to be more photogenic than me. Since it's basically about a boy's particular adventure set in motion by his devotion to his mother and a bedtime story told to him he couldn't dissuade from his memory as it is his only source of comfort esp when his mother suddenly dies; the movie takes us on a journey to the distant province of Sorsogon, to a mythical stone island where we are set to believe they will reunite and it was shot as a kind of travelogue to the countryside with a bunch of strange bedfellows he meets along the way, leading to the secluded island that nobody even knows exists. Lovely but it wasn't entirely just a travelogue!

After reading previous reviews from other co-watchers on clickthecity, I noticed the common negative comment for local movies is the objectionable use of CGI, and this film also had its own. It wasn't perfect but it wasn't all that bad either. It is what it is. It's a pitfall but for me, it doesn't take away from the other good features this movie as many Filipino films, had to offer and I happily focused on that. If you want to be happy in life, try to appreciate the good stuff and this film had plenty...if you only knew where to look. The Philippines was not presented as a hopeless economic failure or even disaster as most people (from here and abroad) would consider it to be and that includes me. It was escapist for sure but since it was set in my own backyard so to speak, what's so bad about that? I thought that's just perfect, for me at least!

So fuck the international critics! I'm in this for the literal ride of my life. There's something sublime in nature, in simplicity, in good old-fashioned values and I hope the rest of the modern world gets it finally!

Congratulations to the movie for winning Best Picture , btw

and you're all welcome for my good review!