OF EMPTY STREETS IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT

Seattle’s Best, Market! Market!

8:49PM

After watching a movie

 

JUST A STRANGER – That film was something. It took me to places, and I’m not even talking about Lisbon.

It took me to a place of pain, beyond the physical. It took me to solitude. To that dark, dingy place, where I invite no one but myself. Where nobody sees me, and yet I can observe everybody.

Sure, Anne & Marco were eye candies. But beyond that, Anne is simply transcendental here. She is not Anne as Mae. She is a woman, trapped, alone, in searing pain. And I am in such awe at how a bonkers noontime show host was able to show me layers and layers of complexities of a cheating woman.

She is married, surrounded, and yet she is detached. She is fragile, yet sturdy. And the film deliciously narrates how she endures her predicament.

The cherries-on-top:

• The costume design. 👌🏾
• The servings of historical goodies, from European old city trivia, to a walk down the annals of Central Luzon many decades back.
• The brushes of social issues, from Mindanao to Martial Law, local politics, renewable energy, …
• THE Cherie Gil.
• The comic relief from the cute noob priest. (How fresh is that?)

But personally, some of the best pieces of the film for me were the setting. They were so vivid, and beautifully taken, that I felt like I myself was riding that slow tram uphill somewhere in Portugal. That I was there with Mae & Jericho dancing the evening away in a nameless bar. That I was feeling my nakedness against the fluffy motel sheets, and then I stood up and walked to the balcony to bask in the balmy old town air. And that I was walking down the shabby alley during the most quiet time of the night, when all the world is sleeping, and you were still savoring that warm enchantment from the romantic evening you just had.

I felt all of that.

I dunno. It’s either the cinematographer was superb, or the sceneries were very personal to me.

In any case, I am very glad I defied what the coin told me, when I tossed it to seek advice on whether I should just go straight home from the office or I should have a date with myself and watch a movie tonight.

(Random Korean street) Not in the movie, but the closest image I could find to depict my favorite scene. 

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P.S. I’ve just read a so-so review by Cosmo saying the writing was sloppy because Anne’s Mae did not have any aspirations. I disagree. Perhaps she had the common aspirations in some other point in her life, not shown in the film. But in the story-telling, her aspiration was to try to make the most of her dull trapped life (hence, the traveling) without giving up her marriage, her lifestyle, and while at it, she was trying to survive her FMS. The moment that she chose Jericho and decided she can leave everything behind, was the ultimate reversal of her character. Fucking Cosmo writers don’t know shit about life. I don’t like all of Jason Paul Laxamana’s works, but this is definitely one of the good ones.