A love story of missed chances

Rated A by the Cinema Evaluation Board, Ploning’s initial drum-beating had much to do with Judy Ann Santos taking on the title role in a film touted to be this year’s most lyrical and poetic filmmaking effort. There’s even a coffee table book that was launched recently at M Café, Ayala Museum, something we’ve seen highly artistic Hollywood films like Moulin Rouge also have. So with all the noise, critical thumbs up and marketing hoopla, the question left burning in my mind was whether the film’s viewing would actually live up to all the fanfare.

Some drum-beaters will make it sound like watching the film is as easy to take as the tiniest of pills, that it will go down effortlessly and hit the spot. I’d rather take the tack that the film is not of your common-garden variety, and is definitely not your regular boffo box-office formula movie. Rather, like a great classical music opus, it is a dense work of art, one that requires one’s full attention and patience, but one that ultimately rewards the viewer who makes the effort. At its heart, it is a love story, one of destiny, missed chances, frustration and commitment. And then,   there’s the layer of the film that treats the Cuyo village in Palawan as a living organism, giving the film character and texture, subtly acting as a force in its own, directing events and destiny. There are instances when the ritual and ceremony of the community makes the film act like a ethnographic testimony to the Cuyo life — and I say that as a compliment because it renders the film educational and informative beyond the emotive storytelling that drives the plotlines. Also challenging is the fact that much of the film’s dialogue is in the local dialect, with Filipino subtitles helping understand what’s going on.

Written and directed by Dante Nico Garcia (a production designer, this is his first feature film), Ploning employs an impressive number of established thespians and first-time actors, all ably giving service to Garcia’s vision. In terms of feel and atmosphere, the film had me thinking Il Postino and Corelli’s Mandolin, with that unique mix of love story, a relatively isolated seaside community, events of the world-at-large impinging on the community and the role fate plays in our everyday lives — how cosmic/tragic jokes are made at the expense of everyman. In the ensemble cast, I especially liked the work of Mylene Dizon as social worker/nurse Celeste, Tessie Tomas as the older Celeste, Joel Torre as the town mayor, Ketchup Eusebio, Eugene Domingo and the young boy who plays one of the central characters, Digo, the sidekick of Judy Ann’s Ploning.

The title character, Ploning, is Judy Ann masterfully setting her stamp on the film’s narrative flow, acting both as observer and participant to the undercurrents of village life. At times, she almost seems like the patroness saint or living conscience of the village. In her, reside the dreams, aspirations, frustrations, simple happiness and despair of the whole village at that juncture of time. And speaking of time, this is another unique proposition of Garcia’s vision, how the concept of a village in flux is mirrored in the double helix narrative employed. One narrative strand has a seemingly ordinary seaman returning to the village to trace his roots and identity, while the second strand consists of flashbacks to the days when Ploning walked the streets of the village as a mature young woman. The double narrative device allows us to see what happens to a community over time, how things change and remain the same — how that seeming contradiction has more truth in it than we could ever discern.

The cinematography also deserves comment. The blue of the sea has never seemed bluer than in the film. There’s a vivid, hyper-real quality to the manner in which the film has been shot. Whether green vegetation, the preparation of local food delicacies, or underwater scenes, Garcia loves to linger and intensely observe, sharing with us his love for all his eye can see. It’s this kind of devotion to his story and visual imagery that makes us, as audience, sit up and notice. Ploning is one quality film all those involved can be very proud about. That it  finds a wide audience is still up in the air, but I hope it does.