RacsO Ledger

This Blogger has Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:33:00 +0000

The main reason I transferred is that I feel tumblr is simpler and easier to update. There are times that I can not open the blogger dashboard and I can not blog. Plus it is better I think that I do not use my "blogger" alter ego and use my real name instead. It is much fun that way. anyway. Here is the link of my new blog. Please do follow it. Thanks.

WHATEVER CARL, WHATEVER

P.S. I am planning to move the posts I had in here in my new blog. Thanks.

P.P.S. I am also planning to do a full website that features my blog. plans plans.

is planning to move to tumblr....

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 18:15:00 +0000

because i am too damn lazy to blog and i feel guilty....

RacsO Decade in Review: #35 Let the Right One In

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:57:00 +0000

Let the Right One In
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
2008

RacsO Decade in Review: #36 Confessional

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:51:00 +0000

Confessional
Directed by Jerrold Tarog and Ruel Dahis Antipuesto
2006

RacsO Decade in Review: #37 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:28:00 +0000

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Directed by Christian Mungui
2007

RacsO Decade in Review: #38 Syndromes and A Century

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:19:00 +0000

Syndromes and a Century
Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
2006

RacsO Decade in Review: #39 Inang Yaya

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:14:00 +0000

Inang Yaya
Directed by Pablo Biglang-awa, Veronica Velasco.
2006

This movie remains up to this day, one of the most honest, real, and heartfelt movies ever put to Filipino big screen, and it is sort of a shame that not that much saw it. This is my favorite Maricel Soriano performance of the decade as well. I think I have not said it but Maricel Soriano has got to be my favorite Filipino actress of all time. Now if she would just be given more roles to excel at. I love how her performance felt so natural, underplayed and subdued, but it is in her silent moments, and tiny smiles that she shone the most. Brilliant.

RacsO Decade in Review: #40 Requiem

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:39:00 +0000

Requiem
Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid
2006

RacsO Decade in Review: #41 Erin Brockovich

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:08:00 +0000

Erin Brockovich
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
2000

RacsO Decade in Review: #42 Endo

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:46:00 +0000

Endo
Directed by Jade Castro
2007

RacsO Decade in Review: #43 Daybreak

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:23:00 +0000

Daybreak
Directed by Adolf Alix Jr.
2008

RacsO Decade in Review: #44 I'm a Cyborg But That's OK

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:13:00 +0000

I'm a Cyborg But That's OK
Directed by Park Chan Wook
2007

RacsO Decade in Review: #45 Nobody Knows

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Nobody Knows
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda
2004

RacsO Decade in Review: #46 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 06:54:00 +0000

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Directed by Ang Lee
2000

Will add the write ups as soon as possible.

2010 Bucket List

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:54:00 +0000

Midway this year, I saw some of my co-workers doing a list. It got me curious. I had to see it. They were making a list of things that they oughta do before the year ends. Or at least do some of those in the list before the year ends. I was jealous. I had to make one for myself. It was kinda cute, setting short term, difficult but attainable goals. They may not be big but it gives you a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment, because at the very least, you have accomplished something that you normally would not be doing.

So I made my own list. It is shorter because I have only like six months left before the year ends. Here is what my list looked like, it is very FILM driven...

Submit a short film for Titus Brandsma (I submitted my work "Bahay-Bahayan")
Submit a FEATURE film for Cinemanila (I submitted my work "Hatid")
Submit a short film for Cinemanila (I submitted my work "Baby")
Make a poverty porn film (Baby)
Submit films to 22nd Gawad CCP (eMo, Bahay-Bahayan)
Make a video of me singing and post in youtube.

The biggest accomplishment for me here was that I was able to make a feature film with a very minimal budget. I made my first feature films, a cheat animation film, titled "Hatid", which chronicles the last day of a girl as her uncle made money of her. I only spent less than three thousand pesos just to get it done, but I had a really hard time editing it. With all my works, it for me was very personal, and also it for me I think was the film that it is really SO not like me at all, or it is something that I would not do. In a way, I think I stepped up. But I could not get it out of my head that the movie was kinda lazy. Anyway. At least I got to experience making a longer film. And a very serious one at that.

I am very happy to say though that I am able to finish everything that I promised to do. However, it got me looking like I was just making films for festivals sake. Honestly no. I got this advise from a really good adviser that I should not be making films just to please film festivals and that got stuck in my head and that is what I have been doing ever since. I make films because I love doing them. I do. And I will be doing it, hopefully, for a very long time.

Anyway. Here is the last video. I just recently finished the last entry. I do not know if I sounded good or anything. I think that there was a very sharp part in it. I don't care. Bucket List done!

Over and Out.

Douglas.

Unplanned Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:17:00 +0000

I have been very bad at keeping promises this year. I constantly promise and promise that I will be back to normal blogging gear for the past months but have been breaking my promises ever since. It has been a very rough months this past few months. I just quit my work, my work that I was in for more than three years already to pursue my dreams, something which I think was pretty vocal already on this blog. More so, lately I do not have the urge to blog about reviews. I just want to bitch about things, it may become annoying to my little audience/readers, but that was what was going in my head for months, which fully incapacitated me to write reviews or even finish my decade long canon.

And now I am blogging once again. I plan to change the blog up a bit. Make it more personal. Also, to make it more Filipino, which I am very proud to be. But then if I write things in Filipino, some readers may fail to understand what the hell I am saying. So I am sticking with English language but more Filipino in taste.

Quite recently, I have been very busy making my own short films and getting them seen. I will be blogging about those, since that is what made me really busy for the past few months. It was hard, making the films. But it is even harder getting your works across to be seen by people. But never the hardships, film makes me happy. Making films, watching films or whatever. Film for me is equal to happiness. And just being around it, day in day out, makes my day. Film is my passion and I do not wish to not do it or at least partake in it. I enjoy writing about films. Even though I am not much of a writer. I enjoy watching films and could not survive a day without watching one, or survive a week without buying a DVD/VCD for my collection. But what I LOVE the most is making my own films. Be it something that people would hate or love, I really don't care. Every work I do, I love, and it makes me really happy. So I guess, even if film people here in the Philippines hate me, I will still be around, haunting.. hehe.

Anyway. Here is my very recent work.

It is my longest short film to date and it is also the most talky. It was shot using a relatively old Sony hdd Camera. It was shot in Sta. Ana Manila, where the mother of the baby in the film (who played the vendor) lives.

Some directors have their muses or their favorite actors to work with mine has got to be working with my colleague Irene Dare. She is very natural at what she does and I never have a hard time working with her. And you guys will be seeing more of her in my works to come.

Well, that's all for now. I will not make any promises this time. But I sure do hope to blog more soon.

RacsO Decade in Review: #47 Beau Travail

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:53:00 +0000

Beau Travail
Directed by Claire Denis
2000

No one makes movies like Claire Denis does. She who draws out beauty from the things that you often see anywhere. This time she drew beauty from barren landscapes and she also put emotions to rugged men. Thing about the film, despite the glaring beauty, is that it is not everyone's cup of tea, but no one can deny the fact that it is very expertly made, and methinks that there is no movie around that is quite like "Beau Travail". It is a definite must see.

RacsO Decade in Review: #48 Nymph

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:37:00 +0000

Nymph
Directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
2009

This is one of those movies that I am extremely envious about, I wish I could have made it. "Nymph" is very intriguing, mind boggling at times. I love the balanced fusion of Lynchian oddity. culture and local mythology all enough to bring intrigue, questions. It was a mystery, but not really a mindfuck, everything was answered however in the end. "Nymph" is a silent beauty, scant words but a superb story to tell.

RacsO Decade in Review: #49 Sa North Diversion Road

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:09:00 +0000

Sa North Diversion Road
Directed by Dennis Marasigan
2005

If there is one movie that would make Irma Adlawan a star, "Sa North Diversion Road" would be it (if only more people got the chance to see it). With a resume of superb performances, Adlawan's best performance to date has got to be in this movie, she was just divinely perfect. The same could be said to John Arcilla as Adlawan's cheating husband. But this is Adlawan's show, there is no denying that. Dennis Marasigan sure does know how to bring the best out of his actors and created one of the best indie Filipino ever put to screen in the last decade.

RacsO Decade in Review: #50 Dancer in the Dark

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 06:58:00 +0000

Dancer in the Dark
Directed by Lars Von Trier
2000

You have got to be made of stone if you have not at least teared after watching "Dacner in the Dark". This movie is one of those big time pulse raising movies that I have seen, not because there were any big action or thrills or whatever but because of the emotion and the somber that you feel coming from the actors and whatever is transpiring in the movie. Who would have thought that Bjork could act, and methinks now that her work is one of the best acting performances of the decade.

Me and You and Everyone We Know... JOLOGS

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:32:00 +0000

This entry marks my return to my normal blogging routine. I really have not that much excuse as to why I was not able to blog for the past couple of weeks. I just got a little too busy. I created one new short film, 2 of my works got exhibited elsewhere, which is major fun. Met new friends, personally and facebookally which got me to writing this review.

Almost a decade ago, I remember I was in High School, before there were "Jejemons" there were "JOLOGS". However "Jologs" don't have SMS message creation super capabilities. "Jologs", if I remember things correctly are the same as "baduy" or "corny". The term was so much abused and so much used back then that it got a movie release of that title.

At first I was kind of aloof to the movie, being a Star Cinema produced movie after all. I was not really that in to mainstream Filipino films (not even now), but I still managed muster enough confidence to life me butt and go out and see it in cinema. Reservations aside, I am glad that I did see it, I even own a copy of the movie.

Gilbert Perez masterfully crafted a web of stories, all jologs, and see how the several stories intertwine and mesh with each other. Poised also with a superb ensemble cast, you really can not deny the charm that made the movie all the more successful. The pacing of the movie was spot on and there really never was a dull moment. It was a jumpy, fast, and interesting that made me glued to my seat.

Without a doubt the star of the movie was the finely written script. It was exaggerated at times, but the exaggeration never went overboard, they were there to put more emphasis or oomph to the humor, or the drama that it was telling. Rarely has a Filipino movie with such a big ensemble, all have their stories to tell, work perfectly as much as it worked with "Jologs".

I think that if the movie did anything to our history, I think that it immortalized the song "Alive Alive Forevermore" (or whatever the title is) and also is brought back to life the song "Next In Line".

In the end, I was a big sucker of the movie and ended up watching the movie several times again. It was a breath of fresh air. A sort of deviation from the usual soapiness that Star Cinema offers. Maybe watching the movie made me Jologs in a way, but I really don't care, we are Jologs anyway.

Dancer in the Dark

noreply@blogger.com (Camiele) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:14:00 +0000

When you turn out the lights to dream of far away places, when all is darkness and stillness, what is it that runs through your mind? Believe it or not, there‘s something very visceral to the dreamscapes that we produce when eyes are shut and all is quiet. When everything is still, we have the ability to imagine and create beauty that we never even imagined possible. We can escape or stay in one place. What is reality is that we are no longer the same once the dream takes over our minds.

One of the most brilliant films to ever give credence to the palpability of dreaming came in the form of a gritty fairytale about a young factory worker attempting to save enough money to get her son the surgery he would need to keep from going blind. The funniest thing: it’s the blindness that allows her to see the true elegance of the living circus.

Dancer in the Dark was Björk’s film début and also served as the platform to the next level of her creative grace from the industrial kaleidoscope that was Homogenic --but more about that later.

The beauty intrinsic in Dancer in the Dark is this idea that we create our own universes. What we choose to see, hear, touch, smell, and think are all predicated on the elaborate nature of our dreams. Selma is a young mother with a hereditary disease that causes the eyesight to gradually diminish over time. However, given that her education level is not exactly going to make her the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, she works in an old factory (a job in which she cheated on an eye exam to procure) and in her off hours, she puts hair pins on cardboard backings to be sold in the prissy shops in which her affluent neighbour’s wife would shop. She’s been saving the extra money from his tedium to afford a life changing (and saving) operation for her son.

The two things in her world that bring her relief from the monotony that runs her day are her son and the community centre rendition of The Sound of Music, in which she plays the leading role of Maria. It’s this obsession with film musicals that shows Selma at her most ebullient. As an expat from Czechoslovakia, Selma is quiet, introverted, and exceptionally shy --until she’s working around the machines. Around the machines, she hears the most incredible sounds --intricate rhythms, beats like the heart dancing, exceptional musical landscapes. She’s completely at ease with the work, though she does manage at times to muck it up, becoming a catalyst to the eventual demise of our quiet heroine.

Her landlord, Bill, a local policeman with an allegedly grand inheritance, has allowed Selma and her son to live on his land in a small mobile home. He walks in one night and wails in her arms that he has no more money --his prissy wife continues to ask for money and he continues to give it to her. This series of events leads to the most devastating film to come out of the early 2000s. Through her desire to help her son, Selma is torn from her happy world of music and forcibly made to interact with aspects of her life that lead to her being on trial for murder. Eventually Bill begs for Selma to kill him (after he’s stolen all the money she’s saved for her son’s operation and told his wife that it was, in fact, Selma who stole the money from him). Her lack of sight hinders her from shooting him, so she pummels his face with the metal safety box that he was using to stash her money.

What helps her cope with the realisation that she’s taken another human’s life: music.

Selma sees everything as a symphony, an elaborate musical sequence. Even when she eventually goes completely blind, she proclaims she’s seen it all, there’s nothing else to see. She has her ears, after all, and that’s all that she needs to make it through her life. Eventually, with circumstantial evidence that she’s unable to refute, she’s convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to be hung from the neck until dead. It’s this last scene that remains burned in my mind. Not because of the cruelty of hanging someone (an act that will always cause me to shiver). No, it’s the music. Taking the 107 steps to the gallows, Selma, again, envisions a musical sequence that allows her mind to take in the harsh reality that she’s, indeed, going to die. As she makes her way to the rope, she is informed that the money stolen from her was recovered and her son’s operation was a success. With that, she sings the pivotal song in The Sound of Music (and the first song we hear Selma sing in the opening scene), “A Few of my Favourite Things.” Before she can finish, the executioner pulls the lever and Selma dangles from the deathly necktie that strangles her.

It can be said that Lars von Trier was overambitious, even overindulgent. Many have even noted that any other director from America would’ve been laughed out of Hollywood. The truth is, with its many plot holes and at times off-putting cinematography, there’s nothing but pure feeling in this film. It’s frightening, depressing, heartbreaking, and elaborately beautiful. The gritty nature of the camera work is nothing original, but it’s certainly that much more grating to the flesh, it gets so close to you.

Of course, one can’t forget to mention Selma’s music, aptly titled Selmasongs. The soundtrack was completely conceived by Björk and managed to be a convincing bridge between the industrial simplicity of Homogenic and the bare complexity of Médulla. The songs harkened to the grandiosity of the musicals of the early 50s, yet managed to warp the ears with the machine-funk that saturated much of Björk’s earlier albums (á la Post). If there’s something that critics and fans alike can agree on, Björk brought more soul to this part than any trained actress could have. Because it was her first foray into acting, you could believe her coquettish naivety. Because she has a penchant for the musically grand and sonically eloquent, you understood Selma as a specimen of the degradation through which humans are put.

Dancer in the Dark appealed to me much in the same way that watching scenes from the Holocaust or the graphic lynch mob scenes from Rosewood, FL: palpably honest, too close for comfort, forcing you to question your own humanity. With an aching heart, I can’t help but feel as though Dancer in the Dark is a cinematic feat that may not be repeated in a lifetime. The right amount of newness and ingenuity created a moment in time that was at once graphic and beautiful.

As unexpected as her path was to loving all things weird, more unexpected is her ability to get attention for writing about the stuff. From Japanese horror and Korean melodrama, to the acid soaked animation of the 70s, Camiele White loves to talk about, debate, and watch film that teases, pleases, and fucks with the senses. Right now, she gets her jabberjaw jollies writing about Halloween costumes. If you want to give her a buzz, she can be reached at cmlewhite at gmail [dot] com.

RacsO Decade in Review: #51 In the City of Sylvia

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:09:00 +0000

In the City of Sylvia
Directed by Jose Luis Guerin
2007/2008

This movie could easily be dismissed as lazy storytelling, I somewhat agree, but it has a main story that it builds on and it need not have multiple story lines to work, and I think that is where the charm of the movie lies. "In the City of Sylvia" follows a stalker-ish guy as he looks for Sylvia, a woman she met before and now she is looking for her desperately. Devoid of much dialogue, like "Samson and Delilah" methinks that the movie would still have worked magically with or without dialogue. Looking for a woman never looked this beautiful.

RacsO Decade in Review: #52 Tropical Malady

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:55:00 +0000

Tropical Malady
Directed by Apichatphong Weerasethakul
2005

I have nothing but undying love to everything that Apichatpong Weerasethankul has made in the past decade. "Tropical Malady" is somewhat a little deviation from what he normally does, it is a perfect mix of oddity, culture, romanticism in it and he concocted what could be placed beside the works of David Lynch. But he is in a whole new league of his own, and he seems to be the only one doing this kinds of films. It was a beautiful mystery, endearing, hypnotic and downright masterful.

RacsO Decade in Review: #53 Amores Perros

noreply@blogger.com (Douglas Racso) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 06:42:00 +0000

Amores Perros
Directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
2000/2001

This is one of the films that awaken me to global cinema, because back then I was just so fixated in Hollywood films. I saw this one in 2004, I bought the DVD and I was just so amazed with it. The grand storytelling, many stories intertwined into one, formed one cohesive whole, but all stories stands firmly on their own. Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu is still in his prime (not that he really lost it) in this movie. The movie felt so fresh and gritty and it was stunning to behold. This also is the movie that I think launched Gael Garcia Bernal into major stardom.