"Birdwatching" and Gaming: Jun Urbano's "Ibong Adarna: The Pinoy Adventure" and Lucky Chinatown's Free Board Game Festival

- October 4, 2014, Saturday.

- OK, OK. I didn't reaaaaally go birdwatching today, rather, I went to SM North EDSA this morning to watch Jun Urbano's "Ibong Adarna: The Pinoy Adventure." (Jun Urbano is known by most Filipinos as "Mr. Shooli;" Urbano is the son of the late and lauded filmmaker, Michael Conde, aka Juan Urbano.) After months of waiting, I was finally able to watch the film. I had to watch alone because I could not find anyone to go with, and SM North EDSA was the only accessible mall that had an earlier screening for the movie. (The film is shown in selected theaters nationwide, and will run until October 6 or 7, depending on the cinema.) This was one special Filipino movie that I did not want to miss, because it was one of the rare films that promoted the indigenous Filipino cultures - both in good and not-so-good-but-efforts-understood ways. (See the awesome trailer below!!)

- Before anything else, I should mention that there were only 8 of us inside the theater. Today's a weekend, and the screening was around noon; other more popular movies would normally have a long line of moviegoers around this time, and it was also what I saw earlier - the more popular films had long lines of moviegoers outside the entrances while waiting for the ticket people to let them in. I was not too surprised that only a handful of us bothered to watch the film, since "Ibong Adarna: The Pinoy Adventure" was not heavily promoted, even though the cast was comprised of well-known mainstream actors and actresses. I don't understand why it did not promote itself a lot, especially after knowing that the film was endorsed by both the Department of Education (DepEd) and the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA.) (I read somewhere that Jun Urbano wishes to not only show the movie commercially, but also to bring this movie to schools and universities, and so he received the endorsements from these government offices.) I have seen some promotions through articles, theatrical trailers, and I can't remember if I saw the trailer on TV or not, but no one but a handful seemed to know about the existence of this movie. I felt sad that movies like these are promoted way less than crappy mainstream Filipino movies. Yes, most mainstream Filipino movies in the recent years have been very crappy (and crappy is an understatement; I was just being polite.) The worse part? These crappy, easy-to-predict, and formulaic films are earning. The Philippines has a long list of amazing classical films (that were considered mainstream back in the days,) and I don't know what has happened to recent mainstream filmmakers. Yes, I am challenging this country's filmmakers to make good films - for the country's people, and for the local film industry's reputation.

The movie poster in SM North EDSA.

- Now, for the film itself. Ibong Adarna is a story quite familiar to most (if not all) Filipinos, especially those who have gone through freshmen-high-school Filipino language and literature; it's often a required reading that usually takes one semester to discuss. The main plot of this 18th-century corrido (like a narrative song,) written by Jose dela Cruz, is about three princes who were tasked to retrieve a magical bird that can heal the sickness of their father, the King of Berbanya. The youngest, the only good-natured prince among the brothers, was able to retrieve the bird and heal the king. The novel has many subsequent events that are quite bizarre and honestly, quite confusing. Some movies (both classic and adaptations) have also been done, but Jun Urbano's version was quite unique. Jun Urbano promoted the Philippine indigenous groups through the film. He envisioned the story as being set in precolonial Philippines, and so he exhibited some indigenous cultures and values in the film. In line with this, the original story had to be reimagined to adapt to the precolonial setting. The prince (Rocco Nacino as Sigasig) was the only child of the king (Joel Torre as Sultan Mabait) and queen (Sultana Mabunyi,) and he was in charge of getting the singing bird (Karen Gallman as the Adarna) from the moutnains in a faraway mountainous kingdom led by a dictator (Ronnie Lazaro as Dulangkaw.) Prince Sigasig's journey was accompanied by his secretly-evil uncle (Leo Martinez as Datu Maimbot) and Maimbot's personal assistant (Benjie Paras as Sipsipayo;) Datu Maimbot was the one responsible for making the king sick, and thus giving the story conflict. The names of most of the characters are Filipino words that show character traits, so it's not really hard to tell who's good and who's bad (or secretly bad.) (More information can be found in the movie's official webstie: click here.) 

- I highly-applaud this move, since I have long ranted to friends, classmates, and professors, about the lack of promotion of the Philippines' indigenous cultures in television, film and even our educational system!! Most detailed accounts and portrayals in history books, period dramas (except, perhaps, for Amaya,) and period films, are usually set in the colonial-era - this is also one reason why many lay Filipinos think that there was no civilization to be proud of prior to the arrival of the colonizers who, according to what is frequently taught in the usual history textbooks, were the ones tasked to "civilize" the native Filipinos. Urbano seemed to want to challenge this, but showing the ancient Philippine civilizations and cultures. Despite Urbano's great efforts, I found it problematic that Urbano presented the secondary antagonists as Ifugaos, and presented the slaves as Aetas; the protagonists/royal family, as well as the movie's primary antagonist (Martinez were exhibited as T'bolis. The problem with this is that, the movie's seems to give a subliminal message that the Ifugaos are bad, or that the Aetas are destined to be slaves (worse, the slaves of the Ifugaos!!) The fighting scenes also portray one Filipino ethnic group fighting against another Filipino ethnic group. While adult film audience members like me may understand the efforts of the film, let me remind that the film is to be shown in schools. The film is also targeted to a younger audience (it's labeled "general patronage" by the way,) which means that there is a good chance that the children may have a skewed understanding of the Filipinos' indigenous groups; this also gives the teachers an extra task to repeatedly remind the students that not all Ifugaos are bad, and that Aetas are not slaves, or that not all T'bolis are royalty, just to name a few.

The sultana and her son; image taken from http://itsmegracee.blogspot.com/2014/09/ibong-adarna-pinoy-adventure-now.html. (I couldn't take photos of the film inside the theater, so I had to rely on other sources.)

- Apart from these major concerns, I also felt that there were a few scenes that lacked explanation. The best example of this is is a brief scene after the antagonists' leader (the leader of the "Ifugaos," please mind the quotation marks) died after not being able to have a sip of his elixir of life; it was not clear if his subordinates were happy that their leader/dictator passed on, or if they were just doing an elaborate funeral ritual. It was not also established that the leader's "Ifugao" subordinates were against him as they were portrayed to be loyal to their leader, unlike the "Aetas" who told the prince (Nacino) about their bitter history with the dictator (Lazaro.)

Dulangkaw camptures Sigasig; photo taken from http://madhousemnl.com/magazine/videos/ibong-adarna-film-coming-soon/.

-  I would also like to have some minor comments on some miscellaneous things about the movie. First, the Adarna's human costume. The bird turns into a human at the end of the film, as foreshadowed and expected in the film, and the Adarna's costume looked like she was going to a Santacruzan with her headdress taken from a Brazilian mardi gras dancer. I felt that the costume designer could have given the human Adarna a more ethnic costume (probably a shiny Maranao costume could be an appropriate choice, in my opinion.) Second, the CGI could use a lot of improvement. The best special effects that I saw was the way the forest fairy (played by Patricia Fernandez) popped in and out as a way to teleport herself. Third, the language used in the film was not "pure" Filipino, but there were instances when Spanish-loan Filipino words were used. I would normally cringe with this inconsistency (language use vis-a-vis context/era of the period film or series,) but I will shrug it off this time since lightly peppering the film with these more familiar words instead of their "pure" Filipino counterparts would give the target audience an easier time to understand the film. Fourth, the whole movie reminded me of the Maranao epic "Maharadia Lawana" (the Philippine version of the Hindu epic, "Ramayana.") Fifth, the costumes and accessories used reminded me of my trip to The Manila Collectible Co (read about my trip to TMCC here.)

- While I seemed to have given many negative comments against the film, I still am trying to promote the film, at least to more understanding adults (i.e. those who fully understand that not all Ifugaos are bad and etc., and that the film was only trying to show the Philippines' rich indigenous cultures,) because after all, "Ibong Adarna: The Pinoy Adventure" is still a one-of-a-kind Filipino movie. It still does show bits and pieces of the country's culture, making more Filipinos aware of the country's pluralism and the existence of these rich cultures.



Epilogue:

- I went to Lucky Chinatown after my half-good-half-bad experience with the movie, and I saw that Lucky Chinatown was holding a Board Game Festival, hosted and sponsored by Gaming Library. Gaming Library is a board game store that holds board game events once in a while.

- I ignored the event at first, and went around the mall, only to see my high school batchmate Harold. He invited me to have some food and a chat in UCC Cafe, and we were later met by Sherlaine and Byron, who repeatedly asked us to play board games with them.

With Byron, Harold, and Sherlaine. Long long long long time no see.

- Byron, Sherlaine, and I, left Harold in UCC for a while since he needed to finish some urgent stuff. While playing, we got to see other high school batchmates, and made us wonder if we were having an unofficial high school reunion in Lucky Chinatown Mall. For me, it's common to see one to two batchmates (or even none,) wheneber I go to Lucky Chinatown, but not around 10 batchmates or so.

Playing "Walk the Plank."

- The event reminded me of Ludo Boardgame Cafe a cafe near Timog and Tomas Morato that allowed customers to play board games as long as customers would buy as least a dish or a drink. The table behind us was also playing Avalon, a game my friends and I played during our trip to Ludo last week (click here.) The Board Game Festival did not serve food or drinks, but I think that only allowed us to focus more on the games that we were playing.

The game I excelled in.

The game I sucked at.

Thank you for bringing this fun event to Lucky Chinatown Mall!!

- At quarter to 8pm, I had to rush home, especially since the heavy rain had just stopped. I had to say my quick see-you-soons to my long-time-no-see friends. Getting to hang out with them was the biggest surprise of the day; they made my day a whole lot better, despite the film, and despite the rain.