A Leap Forward

The Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) is surprisingly popular among Filipinos because every time we go to cinemas during Christmas breaks, the line for the ticket booth is unusually long compared to a typical day. Besides the fact that it is celebrated during Christmas, it has also become a way for families to bond and enjoy the rest of their break. From the recent MMFF, there were certainly many movies that people looked forward to watching, probably because their favorite stars were there or they simply wanted to watch something new.

Speaking of something new, one movie was definitely new from my eyes as an audience in a movie roster of MMFF. RPG Metanoia was the only animated film which was an entry for the MMFF. It was unfortunate of me that I wasn’t able to watch it because my family wanted to watch the most popular film among all which is Agimat at Enteng Kabisote. Apparently, it really was that popular because when we entered the cinema there were no more seats available and we had to endure watching the movie while sitting on the stairs.

I had to admit, the movie we watched was great in terms of visuals and effects. They were able to create a different world and still be consistent somehow with the previous installments of the movie. Although when I reassessed the movie after watching it, I couldn’t seem to find any storyline or a concrete plot. There wasn’t much motivation for the characters, and for the story itself, to progress. But hey, at least we did enjoy the two hours we spent inside the movie house.

After that movie, I wanted to watch the other ones, most especially RPG Metanoia. It was really different and I was so curious about it, probably because it is about gaming, and being a fan of role-playing games (RPGs) I was attracted to its concept. I wanted to make an opinion about the movie, but because I have not really watched it yet, I shall base my comments on its TV and online promotions and trailers.

After seeing the first teaser of RPG Metanoia, I was amazed and I thought at first that a new “foreign” movie was coming up. But after the other teasers, where you can obviously hear the characters speaking (or being dubbed) in Filipino, I was more inclined into watching it. Since I’m quite of an internet person, I’ve seen more of it through the internet. The images, which were 3-dimensional, and the video trailers were quite intriguing and I was captured by its very peculiarity. Learning that it is an entry for the MMFF, I instantly decided upon watching it with my friends. It was really disappointing that I wasn’t able to watch it after deciding to myself that it was supposedly the first MMFF entry I would watch when the break comes. But after hearing good commentaries from friends and classmates, I believe it does have created a big opportunity for Philippine cinema leap forward.

I think Filipino filmmakers really have the potential to create films that can be considered world-class especially the younger generation. After Urduja and Dayo – the first two animated Filipino films at least in my generation – I foresaw that Philippine cinema can also have a future in the world market with animation. Then RPG Metanoia came which was really a shock for me at first, but it made me reassess what I thought about animation in our film industry before. Now I think the future I was talking about then is already here. I am hoping that the government could sponsor, or at least not become of any hindrance to, the continuous and fast growth of the film industry. Seeing this potential, Filipinos really do have a shot at the world arena.

Maybe MMFF should encourage creation of innovative films like RPG Metanoia in their future celebrations. It is fun to watch films which are continuations of previous films, but is even more fun watching new and innovative films and seeing the progress that the film industry has reached for another year. If we get stuck on the traditional way of assessing what is worth watching in the movies, maybe we need to watch RPG Metanoia over and over again so that we can actually open up to new ideas that the new generation of filmmakers have in store for the Filipino audience.