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Wednesday, April 06, 2016

Flick Review: Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis

4/3/2016 9:03:57 PM
ten17p.com
Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to Sorrowful Mystery) will go down as one of the longest movie ever produced, and seen by the viewing public. Perhaps, one of the longest for Lav Diaz, too; considering the indie filmmaker creates longer-than-daily-life pictures.

Norte, Hangganan Ng Kasaysayan for instance, was four hours and 10 minutes long; Mula Sa Kung Ano Noon spawned close to six hours. Melancholia spans 7.5 hours, while Evolution of A Filipino Family was goddamned 593 minutes long! Either way, they're longer than the conventional type of film. Heck, they're even longer than WrestleMania!

Anyway, as the 490 minute film progress from start to finish, you already knew this is not just an ordinary film even if backed up by a big-time firm Star Cinema. It is produced with convergence of multiple film producers, something we might have yet to know unless we have seen the credits carefully or researched Wikipedia.

At this point, the actors and actresses in the other tale, specifically Susan Africa and Alessandra de Rossi stood among the rest. Heck, they even overshadowed the headliner thespians John Lloyd Cruz and Piolo Pascual at all. In addition, Hazel Orencio, Angel Aquino, and even Bernardo Bernardo were exceptionally-notable on doing their roles either.

It's tough to ponder on several questions; like on how Andres Bonifacio's remains still remained to be seem after 30 days of sojourned? How did it affected Oryang? How tough was Ceasaria to be a woman (more heroic than all of those revolutionary soldiers) and admit her participation at the Fall of Silang? How the Tikbalangs made fool of everyone about Bernardio Carpio, agimats, and even playing mind games with Oryang and co.? How Isagani shelved his temper against Simeoun?

And after a month of everything, we could only ask "Bakit Tiyo?"

But apart from that, Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis was the very example of showcasing the reflection we have in the country right now; all that despite combining the mixtures of fictional literature, historical controversies, religious fanaticism and those mythological creatures we used to be told by those ancient folklore.

There are lots of words and actions which can either be a slap of reality upon us, or a helping hand should we dare to face various criticisms such as: having a biased artifact, maligned customs, the “IDK” attitude, and a nation of unidentified souls.

And somehow, the entire length of this picture will show how dragging both our lives and film perspectives take place. Yes, it may be long; but it’s also challenging at the same time. How long can you take the instant gratification shit out of your eyes? How long can you travel with them for each and every scene? How long can you endure the prolonged agony with the characters?

How perfect or understanding can you be on spotting the flaws on executing this movie? 'Cause I've seen some, but it looked like normal and it's still a good thing.

How can you even interpret numerous symbolism elements shown in Hele?

'Cause they've shown for a lot of times, and their interjection somewhere in the movie had made me puzzled at some point, but at the same time, amused me. It made me think on their story. How Lav's magic worked with this two popular actors with a bunch of exceptionally-good performers—young and veterans alike.

It is quite clear that Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis is not just an eight-hour dragging picture. It is a graphical representation of our story in both past and present eras. It also depicts us asking more questions deep inside and answering them with such adventurousness.

The Verdict: 9

Author: slickmaster | (c) 2016 september twenty-eight productions

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