Filipino movies to watch

The armed conflict between the Philippine military and the communist resistance at the beginning of the 1990s forms the backdrop to this study of three individuals who, for different reasons, are trying to resolve an untenable situation.

Led by the country's first ever female, non-Caucasian president, the United States of America launches a Green Card video contest to attract new immigrants. Four applicants, from Japan, China and the Philippines, each desperate for a change of scenery, pour their hearts out in front of a video camera on the eve of the contest deadline.

Mimicking early silent films, Independencia creates a lush metaphor that plays with cinematic illusions and the cultural and mythical history of the Philippines.

Waves is a romantic drama about the intimate relationship between Ross & Sofia - two old friends passionately in love yet life's cultural, geographical, and emotional obstacles get in the way.

Michelle has a strange love story with her house by the bamboo grove, with which she developed a language, with things functioning as words only she could understand.

The dead come alive as an ambulance driver and a nurse try to keep awake recounting road ghost stories on a Good Friday, the day of Christ's death.

Amidst the chaos of Martial Law in this Third World country in the 1980s, six teenagers in the top high school for the sciences discover themselves as they go through the joys and pains of adolescence. They were the top two hundred students from all over the Philippines who passed the examination for the Philippine Science High School, which was created for the purpose of giving an education highly enriched in the Sciences to exceptionally gifted Filipino children. Selected from the best and brightest from all over the country, they endure college-level courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics from their sophomore year onwards. Those who can make it are hailed as the future science and technology leaders of the New Republic, those who don't are deemed unfortunate victims of natural selection. They all learn however that they are neither isolated from the real world, nor are they exempted from living real lives. They find the world outside, erupting into the People Power revolution in 1986 against the Marcos dictatorship, being replicated within the school as they struggle to graduate, contend with teachers, classmates, family, school officials, and a new classification to segregate students meeting the high standards of excellence from those who do not.

Jose Rizal is exiled to Dapitan by Spanish authorities. While he attempts to adapt to his surroundings, he helps a few local residents and provides free education to the children.

A series of mysterious hand-illustrated postcards take a young woman on a journey throughout the Philippines in search of its anonymous writer.

The routine of the quaint rural town of Matangtubig is broken with the discovery of a girl's remains, defiled in an open grass field, another girl, missing. Claims for justice and a search ensues, the national media turns its attention, as the town is put on trial for the secrets it keeps, a local fisherman struggles with his conscience to admitting as witness. The townsfolk become entities for decency and sham, attempting to divert attention, the town put up its yearly festival by the lake, unknowing of a sleeping evil that has come to claim them.

A grandfather on the brink of bankruptcy brings his grandchildren back to the community that made and shaped him, only to find out the place is no longer the same.

Hassan, the son of a tribe chief of the Badjaos, a pagan, sea-dwelling Filipino tribe, meets and falls for Bala-amai, the niece of the chief of the Tausugs, an Islamic, land-dwelling tribe. Although the Hassan is willing to give up his lifestyle for Bala-amai and vice versa, the Moros plot to break up the union of the happy couple.

Milagros is a prostitute who becomes the maid of a family of four men. With them, she finds the family she never had. With her, each man finds the salvation he needs. Together, they begin to tear each other apart.

During a return to his provincial home, a young man gets involved with a woman who is ultimately possessed by her sister's spirit, paving the way to revealing the painful truth about her unsolved disappearance.

Set in WWII Philippines during the Japanese occupation. This is the story of Pilar, a young woman who is both a loving wife and a wet nurse for the enemy's child. In the course of the war, her true devotion is put to the test.

Ploning, is a story of one mans search for the enigmatic woman who has deeply wounded him in the past. Having grown up in an illegal Taiwanese fishing vessel, Rodrigo (30 years old) returns to the beautiful island of Cuyo and is given from sunrise to sunset to look for his Ploning. In his search, he discovers that the woman he loved and adored as a boy is not the woman he thought he knew. Ploning has displayed her maternal love for Digo ( the 6-year old Rodrigo) but is shrouded in her mysterious love and devotion for Tomas, her childhood sweetheart who left her when she was 16. This 30-year-old spinster who has held a special place amongst the people as a dutiful daughter, a devoted friend, a caring sister and a loving maternal figure is slowly unveiled through Rodrigos memory and an emotional meeting with Plonings confidante, Seling. Through his search, Ploning will be revealed as the islands most bittersweet source of selfless love.

About two lonely people who met during the whaleshark watching season in Donsol, Sorsogon.

When a young Filipino hotel worker schemes to attain a U.S. visa put the lives of his loved ones in danger, he is forced to question the extremity of his actions and re-evaluate the cost of fulfilling his dreams.

When Kana, a young T'boli woman, becomes a dreamweaver, she has the chance to weave together her village's warring clans. But, will she give up true love to do so?

The story of Bechayda, a two-months-pregnant wardrobe assistant . In the fear of losing her Japanese lover and her dreams of a better life, she embarks on a plan that will get herself out of her predicament. Or so she thinks.

A young girl named Onang became a part of a choir which will represent their town for a competition in Manila. Her Tatang disapproves this. She ran away and reached the city of Manila. For her, the only thing more impossible than leaving is staying.

Rekorder is the story of Maven, a tragic drifter who with his old camcorder records movies currently showing in theaters to sell the footage to pirates. The parting image shows Ronnie in the movie theater without his camcorder in hand. For the first time, he isn't asleep while the movie is playing. He is just there, sitting alone and motionless, completely engrossed by the movie he is watching. As it turns out, the movie is not the commercial features he has been recording throughout the years for the enterprising pirates, but security camera footage of a robbery that culminates in violence.

A taxi dancer (Rita Gomez) and taxi driver (Vic Vargas) are fished out of poverty and anonymity by a commercial film director (Eddie Garcia). The obsession with success forces them to affect images as movie stars, which suppress and eventually destroy them as persons and lovers.

A tale about the rise, fall and resurection of the "Katipunan" and its Supremo. A semi-biography of Philippine hero Andres Bonifacio.