recently saw joey gosiengfiao‘s Katorse on a local movie cable channel. its easy to regard the campy aesthetics as its only saving grace, but i’ll mention a couple of other things.
one: photogtaphy. the credits didnt roll, but i guess its safe to assume it was shot in Ilocos. giant sunflowers and water lilies, huge abandoned churches dwarfs everyone
two: honest-to-goodness smart dialogue. sorry, i cant get over ‘huwag kang shit ng shit. wala namang tae dito.‘.
three: great direction. with lesser knowledge of cinema, shots wouldnt be as delicately composed. gosiengfiao knew how to use space very well. (lav diaz does this a lot; this technique was pioneered and fully-utilized by the soviet masters e.g.andrei tarkvosky, of course).
four: dina bonnevie and gabby concepcion. the former for the obvious, the latter for his brat-acting. no, it wasnt commendable, just amusing.