Poignant & entertaining film on campus life

Film Review: ABNKKBSNPLAKo?!

MANILA, Philippines - Director Mark Meily’s Aba, Nakakabasa Na Pala Ako?! (ABNKKBSNPLAKo?!) based on Bob Ong’s book of the same title has many things going for it.

For one, it is one big nostalgia trip on anyone’s school life, particularly those who went to public schools.

In the film, you re-encounter the typical public school teachers and students, the sorry state of the classrooms and of course, the first signs of sexual awakenings.

The scene where a young student asks her classmate that they do their assignment in a shopping mall was the loudest howler at the UP Film Center where the film had its premiere screening. As it turns out, the classmates end up in the movie theater where she gingerly tries to touch the hands of her classmate. She is discouraged, of course, and in the long run, she turns into lesbian.

Jericho Rosales as Roberto has a winning role here and his transition from high school to college life is surprisingly credible. His supporting cast in the persons of Meg Imperial and Vandolph Quizon are just as excellent. Up to the very end of the film, it was super ensemble acting at its best.

Direk Mark is in touch with the generation of Bob Ong’s Roberto and you get all the signposts of the ’70s and ’80s. The result is a poignant and highly-entertaining film on campus life.

The director has been an assiduous student and teacher of filmmaking that he can now share what it was like to be a student and what he now enjoys as a teacher.

What many don’t realize is that teachers learn from students as well. “You get many inputs from them when you interact in the classroom. In the same manner that I learned a lot from (the late) direk Marilou Diaz-Abaya by just listening to her in our daily conversation. Truth is, you learn a lot not just in the classroom but by listening to people outside the classroom.”

For this reason, direk Mark can relate a lot to his latest film which is about the ups and downs of school life and the life beyond the campus.

“This film is a big challenge for any director because it is based on a book which has a wide fan base,” he confides. “In this business, book readers are the most critical and if they see the film and don’t find anything closely associated with the book, you will be in big trouble. The book is made up of vignettes of a student’s life and what we did was to make the narrator the central character. So, we reveal his student life from high school to college up to the time he started teaching himself. In the middle of schooling, he falls in love or merely has a crush. We had to make extra scenes outside the book to make for a smooth transition.”

Indeed, the director can also relate to the film inside and out. â€œI was a student, too, and what Roberto goes through is almost a slice of what I went through myself. He is a student from the ’70s to the ’80s and I have to make sure I get the landmarks and the cultural figures of those decades. Those were the years they were hooked on the Menudo, they were into song hits and Jingle Magazine and familiar with the Nutribun snacks. I am just a few years older than the character so I know what his generation is all about.”

Mark has logged some 10 years in showbiz and he considers them his fruitful decade. “I think my advertising background helped a lot in my foray into filmmaking. The thing is I just don’t accept any project. I only do films that I personally want to do and I always want to start with a totally new perspective.”

He thinks that when you have a good cast, it’s almost half of the film is done. “Even if your production design and cinematography are not that outstanding, you get things done well with good actors. On the whole, I always look for intelligent actors and I do believe Jericho is one of them. In general, I usually talk to them before a shoot; I give them references to give them an idea of what I want to project in the film. I like actors who prepare ahead of time. But even if some you’d find wanting, I am still a reasonable director. I don’t believe in throwing tantrums to get what I want.”

From his experience, it only takes a few good things to make a mark as a director.

“You have to be grounded on psychology. You should have the power to observe people closely, how they smoke, how gays behave and talk, what goes on in the mind of a kidnapper. I think I got a lot from watching Dead Poets Society. Sometimes, people have the same stories to tell but your own point of view will make a lot of difference .It is the only way you come up with something totally different.”

(Mark Meily’s Aba, Nakakabasa Na Pala Ako?! starring Jericho Rosales, Andi Eigenmann,  Meg Imperial and Vandolph Quizon, among others, opens on Feb. 19.)