Ugat sa Pinas I'm grateful to Cesar Montano and his crew in reviving the once-moribund Visayan film understorey. "Panaghoy" is hopefully the forerunner of a resurgence in this vernacular (that claims more speakers than Tagalog). The dialect and lifestyle details are accurately reminiscent of this region of the Philippines. Downside: the corny and stilted acting of the American antagonist. The other item that I didn't appreciate was the lack of authenticity in the "period" costume of the same character, and above all, his bright red kit-car that I suppose was meant to pass for a 1930s roadster. Without those small yet glaring details, "Panaghoy" would've been at least a 9 out of 10 on my rating--daghang salamat, Manoy Cesar! Addendum: this film sure beats Peque Gallaga's "Oro, Plata, Mata", which provided a different view of the Visayas during the Second World War. Alos, there are some parts where the cinematography harks back to Spielberg's "The Color Purple" and the storyline begins to become reminiscent of "Noli Me Tangere".

Scorching Well it's been a long year and I'm down to reviewing the final film for 2004. Panaghoy Sa Suba (Call of The River) placed second in the recent Metro Manila Film Festival. As expected, it didn't do so well at the box office as it was too artsy for the common moviegoers especially since MMFF is the season where a lot of families go out to see movies.It was quite intriguing to see a movie that was not in Filipino or English play out in the screen. I thought Cesar Montano did a good job both as a star and director. His great vision and creativity really helped this film. He was also very effective as the lead star and was able to express a wide range of emotions that was required for the film. Also performing well was young actress Rebecca Lusterio. She did a great job portraying Bikay, the younger sister of Duroy. I hope to see her in many more film projects in the future perhaps venturing into other genres. I think that the fact that this film was in her local dialect really helped her.Some of the camera shots in the film were done very well. The scenery was made breathtaking even though I feel that if a lesser effort would have looked completely different.In terms of the story I feel that the writers could have delved further into the lives of the lesser characters in the film. I certainly won't be raving about the story of this film.

valdaph Panaghoy speaks of patriotism, of loving, of living...If people in Manila cannot appreciate the movie in its entirety, then I would say they don't know what's a good movie.The movie serves as inspirational kinda thing for those who have deep appreciation of nature, history. It can appeal to symbols, to metaphors triggering many down to earth creations of mankind.The scenery does not only speak of Bohol, a virgin place to behold, but it also allows us to see the Philippines in its entirety.Behold the mountains, and the nature that adds to the local color of the scenes.The characters are magnitude in themselves because they portrayed a reason of living life and continue to go on amidst difficulties. But this situation speaks of simplicity and humility, of grace of character of candidness....One should see Panaghoy. You will not only appreciate the artists as performers, you will also appreciate the artist as creators.Thank you Cesar for making sense in producing movies that are worthwhile.

Andrei For this year's Metro Manila Film Festival, I was only interested in two films. One was Sigaw, since it was made by the very artistic Yam Laranas. And next would be Panaghoy sa Suba, since it was considered the winner in the festival and seemed a promising project. I was never interested in any of Joel Lamangan's works because I think he makes terrible films; his drama films are only good for acting awards, and the only good Lamangan movie that I saw was Hubog. I saw the second half of the movie Filipinas sometime ago and thought it was a complete mess. The movie tried to be everything but ended up a silver screen disaster.Now back to the movie. I never had any idea of the movie Panaghoy sa Suba except that it was done in Bisaya. After seeing the poster, another Filipino movie immediately came to mind: Boatman. First, because the main character was a boatman, or was at least riding a boat, and second, because it had Ronnie Lazaro in it. I thought maybe the film has something to do or was inspired by the Tikoy Aguiluz film. But after watching I learned the movie actually had nothing to do with the 1984 film.I saw the film as a narrative of this town in Bohol during the American and Japanese invasion. Like most period films, the personal lives of the characters were used as indirect analogy to the historical backdrop of the story. And for that purpose, I think the film was successful. Moreover, as a Bisaya speaking individual, I thought the movie was a brave act for Mr. Montano to make such film. Ceasar Montano did a good directing job, and the cast did an excellent acting job.One thing I noticed about the movie though was its inconsistency. The historical accounts of the plot seemed trivial, and the characters, especially the foreign ones, seem a bit unbelievable. There were lots of great cinematic shots, but there were also mediocre ones. Some takes of the river were done in excellent taste, but then some scenes were inserted out of place and somehow needed a little more editing. I also noticed that most award winning shots had Ceasar in them, especially the part where his character's brother was about to kill the American, while he was rowing fast to try to stop him. The scene was so Hollywood, and it was very effective. The experimentation of the director was obvious all throughout the film since I noticed lots of shots seldom or never used in local movies. If I'm not mistaken, there were more than two shadow scenes in the film, that somehow I felt the style was overdone. The dramatic scenes were also really good, and not just because of the talented actors, but also because of the direction and well done script. Personally though, I thought some words they used were a bit untimely for a 1940's setting, but then I may be wrong since I'm no expert in the evolution of our language.So the ultimate question, is it a good movie? Less the hype, and hypothetically less the language used, I think it is a good film, but not exactly exceptional. Of course it's definitely far better than other historical films, especially those done by Carlo Caparas. (Remember the joke that was the Tirad Pass movie? Hahaha!) The movie is worth watching, and indeed it is a revolutionary work in Philippine film-making. After a few more films and more brave/risky material, Ceasar Montano can be a really great director. When that time comes, Joel Lamangan and Mother Lily should finally retire.(postscript: I realized weeks after watching the film that the actor who played Ceasar's dad is a distant relative!)