For someone who loves watching rom-com movies, I'm really skeptical when it comes to indie films. I always feel like in the latter, the take on the subject of love has always been more realistic, raw, and to a certain extent - ambiguous. It's a good thing, really. However, when I feel like I want to be happy or feel a little "kilig", indie films would probably be my last resort. Mainly because I love happy endings and I like the certainty of how things are going to end. Anyway, while I didn't exactly like the whole mythical creatures and cartoons in the movie, I think the lesson of the movie is quite promising. I believe that the movie was able to show the realities of life and love. It showed us that while we can be hopeless romantic in our younger years, we all eventually grow up and our notions and beliefs about love changes. Our views expand and we realize that not everything revolves around love. That in our search for it, sometimes we end up finding ourselves and loving ourselves more.
That being said, I think there are actually a lot of "Maya" (Nadine Lustre) in this world. One who believes that one day, she'll find that certain someone who will love her for who she is and who will finally complete her. However, after many encounters with life's crashing realities, Maya eventually learns that the ending that she hopes for isn't probably the ending that she'll get. But despite knowing this reality, she still continued to love and took a risk. I mean, who doesn't want to love and be loved? This, I think, is what the movie showed us. It started with showing us Maya's optimistic views on love (based on the tikbalang story) but later on detesting it after several heartbreaks. What's ironic is that after she tried to gave up on love, she finally meets Peter (Carlo Aquino), without any expectations, who actually accepted her for who she is. She finally found someone who understands her and appreciate her only to end up encountering a different dilemma. Anyway, while I didn't exactly like the ending, I appreciate it and again, it showed us the realities of life.
Worth noting is the film's continuous analogy of Maya's life in her younger years and in the present day. Whenever something tragic or memorable happens to Maya in the present day (and in her younger years), it always rains, and there's always a flashback of an almost similar occurrence in her childhood. I think this technique is very interesting. It gave the viewers an understanding why Maya felt that way in the present day and we get to understand where she's coming from. Because of this, we were also able to compare the change in her reaction after experiencing the same event. I think it's smart and it engages the viewers to think about the purpose of the flashback and the symbolisms in the movie.
However, although the lesson and purpose of Ulan is quite promising, some parts of it were kinda confusing and I feel like there were unnecessary scenes. Some scenes were overdramatic, which made me cringe a bit. I appreciate the attempt to adopt folklore elements in the movie, and I like folklore in general, however, I think that it wasn't utilized well? Or maybe that's just me.
Nevertheless, I think the movie is good. Nadine, as always, is flawless. She's such a versatile actress and she performed really well here. The other actors were great too. Josef Elizalde was so funny and I think his character suit him well!
P.S. I think I finally get why they said that this movie isn't exactly a love story. It's not. It's a story about life and love, and all the complexities surrounding it which makes it more meaningful and interesting.
That being said, I think there are actually a lot of "Maya" (Nadine Lustre) in this world. One who believes that one day, she'll find that certain someone who will love her for who she is and who will finally complete her. However, after many encounters with life's crashing realities, Maya eventually learns that the ending that she hopes for isn't probably the ending that she'll get. But despite knowing this reality, she still continued to love and took a risk. I mean, who doesn't want to love and be loved? This, I think, is what the movie showed us. It started with showing us Maya's optimistic views on love (based on the tikbalang story) but later on detesting it after several heartbreaks. What's ironic is that after she tried to gave up on love, she finally meets Peter (Carlo Aquino), without any expectations, who actually accepted her for who she is. She finally found someone who understands her and appreciate her only to end up encountering a different dilemma. Anyway, while I didn't exactly like the ending, I appreciate it and again, it showed us the realities of life.
Worth noting is the film's continuous analogy of Maya's life in her younger years and in the present day. Whenever something tragic or memorable happens to Maya in the present day (and in her younger years), it always rains, and there's always a flashback of an almost similar occurrence in her childhood. I think this technique is very interesting. It gave the viewers an understanding why Maya felt that way in the present day and we get to understand where she's coming from. Because of this, we were also able to compare the change in her reaction after experiencing the same event. I think it's smart and it engages the viewers to think about the purpose of the flashback and the symbolisms in the movie.
However, although the lesson and purpose of Ulan is quite promising, some parts of it were kinda confusing and I feel like there were unnecessary scenes. Some scenes were overdramatic, which made me cringe a bit. I appreciate the attempt to adopt folklore elements in the movie, and I like folklore in general, however, I think that it wasn't utilized well? Or maybe that's just me.
Nevertheless, I think the movie is good. Nadine, as always, is flawless. She's such a versatile actress and she performed really well here. The other actors were great too. Josef Elizalde was so funny and I think his character suit him well!
P.S. I think I finally get why they said that this movie isn't exactly a love story. It's not. It's a story about life and love, and all the complexities surrounding it which makes it more meaningful and interesting.