Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  House of Sayuri 2024

  ★★★★ Watched 18 Feb 2025

  Takes a lot of finesse to design a narrative with such absurd tonal shifts and still end up with something cohesive and affecting. Koji Shiraishi is a gem.

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  Love Child 2024

  ★★★ Watched 16 Feb 2025

  Suggests that good parenthood lies in finding the right balance between idealism and practicality, which captures the Filipino working class millennial sentiment on ambition vis-a-vis traditional family values. Finds poignancy mostly in the dialogues although admittedly the film still ends up being too verbose for my liking. The meta-romcom references were unnecessary, imo.

Popular reviews

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  Bar Boys 2017

  ★★★ Watched 10 Jul 2018 4

  Siguro 'yung problema ko rito ay hindi naging malinaw kung bakit law. Tingin ko kahit palitan ng medicine, engineering, or almost any other course 'yung subject ng film, walang magbabago sa overall narrative nito. The only way it could've worked is if it inserted some sort of crititique to the country's legal system, pero reduced ito sa isang argument scene between Erik-Chris-Torran and Josh (na nag-end sa gag, so yeah). Para sa isang film about law school, wala siyang pangil…

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  John Denver Trending 2019

  ★★★★ Rewatched 03 Aug 2019

  I've said it before and I'll say it again: John Denver Trending is, without a doubt, the most important film of the year so far. Manages to be an advocacy film without being preachy and succumbing to phony sentimentalism. Jansen Magpusao and Meryll Soriano's mother-and-son dynamics provide the film its emotional depth, credited primarily to the actors' raw and heartfelt performances. Brilliant directorial debut, and an even braver critique on the post-truth culture espoused by the Duterte administration.