Death meets derision, Pinoy style

Film review: Ded na si Lolo

MANILA, Philippines - When German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann wrote that a man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own, he must be thinking of Bobet’s family and every Filipino family for that matter, who tries to cope with the inevitable in their inimitable way in the much acclaimed independent film Ded na si Lolo.

There were six siblings and one wife (the first and original) in the story, who tries to deal with the loss of the pater familia the best way their hybrid occidental-oriental culture has taught them—fainting, ranting and raving, bawling and brawling, wrapped up in a convoluted tapestry of superstitions with one cathartic outcome: self deprecating laughter.

Written and directed by Socrates “Soxie” Topacio, the movie internationally released by Tony Tuviera’s APT Entertainment as Grandpa is Dead has made it as official Philippine entry to the 82nd Academy Awards’s shortlist, and is now doing the rounds of Filipino communities in the US, hoping for a statuette in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It is also being re-shown at Metro Manila theaters.

“People have such high expectations for this Oscar, and I’m apprehensive,” Soxie shared on his night of PETA’s C Mo si Direk trilogy. He has come a long way from the turbulent ‘70s when the performing art was a dangerous game of dodge with the martial law dogs. In his Macliing-Dulag days, the enemy was a palpable outside reality but with Ded na si Lolo, the enemy is an inside nemesis, the self. His film is thus a tribute to Filipino fortitude— that he can vanquish this enemy from within with the potent weapon of laughter.

“That is the way Pinoys deal with even the most cruel fate,” Soxie winks at my husband, who trained under him in PETA soon after college. That is the way his own maternal relatives exorcised the grimness of bereavement, based on his recollection of his own childhood. Thus, we follow the narrative in the eyes of the young Bobet (ably played by BJ “Tolits” Forbes), who is overwhelmed by the myriad pamahiin to be propitiated by his elders, lest the grim reaper comes back to add to his harvest of souls.

There were a host of pagan prohibitions anchored on the buenas/malas dichotomy: not to sweep, not to take a bath, not to partake of soupy food— mixed with Christianized superstitions: severing the rosary links entwined in the dead’s hands, inserting peso bills in the corpse’s palm for business luck, assigning chicks to peck on the glass-covered coffin to prick the conscience of the departed’s assailant (though here, the grandfather died of a natural cause). 

The adult cast consists of veterans headed by Perla Bautista (the first wife), Dick Israel, Elizabeth Oropesa, Gina Alajar, Manilyn Reynes, Deborah Sun and Roderick Paulate. The latter’s character was an addition to the autobiographical ensemble, ensuring the comic latitude in a society where any plot is unexciting without a screaming faggot of the parlorista kind.

Imagine the scene: Joonee (ironically, the junior of the dead Juanito) dressed in a shimmering bareback red gown, coming home in the wee hours of the morning from his job as comedy bar impersonator, not realizing that the noisy throng in the esquinita was there for his father’s wake. He collapses in his siblings’ arms after ensuring that people will see his “moment,” markado to the max.

Then, there are the skeletons rattling in the dead man’s closet, a frequent cause of tension during the long wake and elaborate burial. Frequently, it is another family, safely hidden from society’s prying eyes. But in the throes of mourning, the Pinoy will take the high ground, forgiving the dead for past indiscretions, and remembering the good he has done while alive. Unresolved conflicts and harbored resentments find closure at last, as the casket is sealed in the tomb. Then, laughter follows the tears as the living tries to move on.

Like all indie films, Ded na si Lolo was megged with a shoestring budget, with the cast waiving their fees as they knew their services would have been paid for by the camaraderie on the set. Production designer, the indefatigable Edel Templonuevo, even played the part of a priest, all for the fun of it.

In a culture where death and derision walk hand in hand, the Pinoy simply has no time for despair.