An unclassifiable but whimsically rewarding anti-neocolonialist travelogue that sees the director turn the camera onto himself as he leaves his poor village and discovers how ridiculously modern the Western world is.
The exploitation of religion in a poor village is the subject of Bernal’s best-known, and at times, shocking work, as word spreads about a woman who claims to have visions of the Virgin Mary.
Nuns join the local workers’ strike in De Leon’s most explicitly political work about the oppression of the working-class by brutal capitalists, shot with a universal audience in mind who are aligned with its fervent message of solidarity.
Quite a strong debut feature from De Leon as he explores the genre of horror in a disquieting atmospheric way while using the story of loss, fateful connection and religious rites to make implicit links with the trauma caused by the toxic political patriarchy.
De Leon’s madcap comedy is a delirious genre-bending piece that sees Japanese yakuza and Chinese gangsters cross paths with a group of Filipino youth caught up in a drug syndicate.
De Leon doesn’t hide his unabashedly dreamy approach to the coming-of-age romantic drama, as a college student becomes smitten by a woman, changing each other’s outlook in life.
A docu-fiction that explores the process of history’s becoming as De Leon boldly if cheekily subjects his country’s anti-colonialist national hero, Jose Rizal, to an artistic interrogation, yielding interesting takeaways on art’s discourse with the past.
A young woman gets married but her authoritarian father refuses to let her out of his sight in this grim and unnerving domestic drama with elements of horror, directed with vehemence by the great Mike De Leon.
This exceptional documentary deals with the threat of ugly eco-politics in the most personal and risk-taking way—by following a group of brave Filipinos who volunteer to be ‘land defenders’ trying to protect the environment despite facing death threats from corrupt authorities.
Not dull, but also not memorable, Ho’s debut feature sparkles at times but also disappoints.
Eternality Tan 