If there should be anything that this movie should be praised for, it's pacing, but then again, it's Jun Robles Lana. A well-paced movie is The Standard. Interesting hook, mid-point sharp turn, and a heart-punding third act that got me hiding in my hoodie. This movie is riveting to say the least.
After getting over the hurdle of "is that jaundice a creative choice or a color grading issue (or maybe a me problem)", the slow and steady character exposition really grounds you into this world. A small town that we get to unravel day by day as Sisa does and as the town does Sisa. We see the people through her lens but we also get insight as to how they see her, perks of having a non-reactive character mask I guess.
A stand-out shot for me would be in the baile when Sisa, Nena, Leonor, and at one point Ms. Warren, stand at the table. The camera lingers on them for a few seconds and it clicks. These are the stories we are following, the outcasts of a town asked to submit and conform. The insane undercover spy, the mischievous translator, the AFAM-loving harlot, and the pseudo-bridge of civilization. They all connect separated sectors of the circles they belong to and yet they are all singled out at some point in the movie.
Sisa is definitely worth a watch. We've been beside men at war time and time again. It's refreshing to get to watch a women at war film right on Women's Month. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) several, if not all, of the women's struggles are still relevant and prevalent to this day. Submitting to patriarchal expectations, abuse, underage pregnancy, being an easy target for assumptions, and internalized misogyny to name some. The battle of a woman at war is not only a geographical fight but a psychosocial one as well.
The camera movements and lighting choices were highlights for me but that ending felt so anti-climactic and unsatisfactory. Even then, it's nice to have a movie that is not only woman-centered, but women-dominated. This is a war perspective I have not heard discussed before—of widows and reconcentrados—and I appreciate adding more knowledge to the already decorated Philippine History segment of my brain.
If there should be anything that this movie should be praised for, it's pacing, but then again, it's Jun Robles Lana. A well-paced movie is The Standard. Interesting hook, mid-point sharp turn, and a heart-punding third act that got me hiding in my hoodie. This movie is riveting to say the least.
After getting over the hurdle of "is that jaundice a creative choice or a color grading issue (or maybe a me problem)", the slow and steady character exposition really grounds you into this world. A small town that we get to unravel day by day as Sisa does and as the town does Sisa. We see the people through her lens but we also get insight as to how they see her, perks of having a non-reactive character mask I guess.
A stand-out shot for me would be in the baile when Sisa, Nena, Leonor, and at one point Ms. Warren, stand at the table. The camera lingers on them for a few seconds and it clicks. These are the stories we are following, the outcasts of a town asked to submit and conform. The insane undercover spy, the mischievous translator, the AFAM-loving harlot, and the pseudo-bridge of civilization. They all connect separated sectors of the circles they belong to and yet they are all singled out at some point in the movie.
Sisa is definitely worth a watch. We've been beside men at war time and time again. It's refreshing to get to watch a women at war film right on Women's Month. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) several, if not all, of the women's struggles are still relevant and prevalent to this day. Submitting to patriarchal expectations, abuse, underage pregnancy, being an easy target for assumptions, and internalized misogyny to name some. The battle of a woman at war is not only a geographical fight but a psychosocial one as well.
The camera movements and lighting choices were highlights for me but that ending felt so anti-climactic and unsatisfactory. Even then, it's nice to have a movie that is not only woman-centered, but women-dominated. This is a war perspective I have not heard discussed before—of widows and reconcentrados—and I appreciate adding more knowledge to the already decorated Philippine History segment of my brain.
