A CHARACTER’S death scene will leave viewers heartbroken.
Ralston Jover’s “Hamog” merited a positive review from US trade paper Variety. In an Aug. 8 essay, film critic Richard Kuipers described the Cinema One Originals Special Jury Prize winner as a “sobering slice of life.”
Kuipers said that “Hamog” “carves out a distinct place in the large body of contemporary Filipino films about the struggle to survive in a society wracked by poverty, broken homes and barely functioning welfare services.”
He commended the film’s “unorthodox structure and detours into magical realism,” adding that Jover had crafted a “powerful essay on social inequity and child endangerment.”
“Hamog,” which won the Outstanding Artistic Achievement honor in Shanghai and best actress (for teen star Therese Malvar) in Moscow, shows the harshness of life in Manila “from the perspective of [four] youngsters whose [childhood has] been all but obliterated by the failure of adults to provide love and care.”
Kuipers singled out “a long and virtually wordless sequence [involving the burial of a major character] that will make viewers feel heartbroken for disadvantaged children everywhere.”
The reviewer pointed out that in spite of “a few minor lapses into sentimentality…
Jover maintains a detached, nonjudgmental approach that allows his messages to sink in slowly but surely with viewers.”
Kuipers remarked that a magical realist device, featuring a superhero, “isn’t developed as richly…Still, it’s an interesting and welcome point of difference from most Filipino features tackling similar subject matter.”
THERESE Malvar was a “knockout.”
High praise was accorded to the film’s “fine young cast,” particularly Malvar who delivered a “knockout” performance in a “demanding role.”
Kuipers likewise lauded Bryan Dumaguina’s “subtle score” and Pipo Domagas’ “appropriately unfussy photography.”
Jover told the Inquirer that the Variety review was “encouraging, especially because it captures my intentions for the film.”