“Asintado” is his first Cinemalaya entry. It is the story of a single mom, Julia, and her two sons, Tonio and Etok. Julia is beautifully played by Aiko Melendez, totally deglamorized as a 42-year old tomato farmer. Tonio is Jake Vargas and Etok, played by Miggs Cuaderno, is an autistic boy whose singular talent is target shooting objects using his slingshot or tirador. Conflict ensues when Jake gets involved with the town’s local crime lord, Carias, played by Gabby Eigenmann.
Gabby threatens to kill Jake after a drug deal that went wrong because of Etok. Aiko now has to do something drastic to protect her family and also their whole town against Gabby. The acting of Aiko, Jake and Miggs are all praise worthy. Gabby is also properly menacing as Carias. The film opens with a voice over telling us how the Taong Putik originated during World War II when farmers saved their lives from murderous Japanese soldiers by burying and hiding themselves in the mud. We’re also shown how participants in the annual festival re-live this ritual in the present day, especially at the tense climax of the film in the river, where there is rebirth and redemption with relevant spiritual overtones.
Technical work is superb, especially the cinematography, the production design, the clean and crisp Dolby sound, the music by Maestro Danny Tan and vocals by Jonalyn Viray. We just wish they could still trim the film to make its pacing much faster. Definitely one of the must see films in the coming Cinemalaya Filmfest.
Also a painter, Direk Louie raffled off some of his paintings after the preview held at Sampaguita’s Wild Sound Studio. “Asintado” will have it gala premiere at the CCP tomorrow, Saturday, at 3:30 PM.