Boo Dencio's, Yay, Ploning!
Does this look like a P160.00 (plus 12% VAT) serving of sisig to you? This was one of the main reasons why I have decided never to go to Dencio's again. It was just a night of bad food, bad service, and people looking at you like you're trying to shake them down.
Dencio's was actually the second choice for our evening's repast, but our first choice, Hap Chang, was closed by order of the mayor. Anyone who knows the story behind that, please pipe up. Anyway, we crossed the street. Our choices were Teriyaki Boy (expensive and overrated), Super Bowl (recycled oil, so NO) and the aforementioned Dencio's. We sat ourselves down, gave our orders, and waited. And waited. About 15 minutes later - a long time, considering the place wasn't even packed and a lot of tables were free - we got our order. I was shocked at how little the portion was, but before I could complain, the waiter left. We barely had any time to ask him for calamansi. I decided to complain when he came back with the calamansi, but the bastard never came back. Ursula Lear decided to go to them for her calamansi after we realized the food was getting cold. She saw a bloodcurdling scene of bad hygeine, which I am leaving off for her to tell you. Anyway, I managed to give my complaint to the waiter who refilled my iced tea...and then he did nothing.
Thank God I was able to take this picture before we fainted from hunger. Yan lang talaga yung served portion. When it was time for us to pay our bill, we gave the manager (Thess, her name was) a laundry list of our complaints. She apologized profusely, but really - what would that have accomplished? When she gave us our change back, she offered to refund just the sisig. I refused because (a) You do this after you take our money? (b)You couldn't do anything after we complained? (c)What possible point would it have now? Aminin, you thought we just wanted a free meal.
Anyway, we both requested comment forms from the girl:
The form asked us where we were going after visiting Dencio's. We both wrote "Gerry's." Promise me you'll never go to Dencio's, people.
And on to Ploning, which is an uncommonly good film. By the numbers:
1. Bless Judy Ann Santos for putting her considerable clout behind this film, which, frankly, seems to have been tailor-made for her. While I wouldn't necessarily watch anything she does, I've always acknowledged her talent. Given the right material, I'd line her up among some of the best actresses in the world. The fact that the character Ploning - and this sentence is what happens when I really don't want to spoil people - is a cipher until she stops becoming one, and yet we still weirdly like her, is a testament to how freakishly good this girl is. I could even forgive her for obviously not being able to master the Cuyonon (tama ba?) dialect - it's not like she had much time to prepare. And she did acquit herself well - mabagal nga lang siya magsalita. Plus, and this really needs to be said, the girl never looked better.
2. As befitting a film directed by a production designer, Ploning is beautifully-appointed. Not a single frame jars. There is a scene in an abandoned home where Ursula and I debated over whether the location was really an abandoned house and the production team built it up to look nice for the flashbacks, or whether they used an actual home, and dressed it to look busted up for the scenes set in the present. That's quality work, people.
3. Couple that with beautiful, super-saturated cinematography from the acclaimed Charlie Peralta, and you have visual porn. Plus I'm pretty sure a lot of shots were done in natural light, which added to the versimilitude. Which would have actually satisfied me if not for...
4. The movie's second half, starting with a pivotal reunion that puts the rather episodic first hour of the movie sharply into focus. Again, being that I refuse to give out spoilers because I actually want you to watch this please be patient with the first hour. You'll be amazed at how wonderfully plotted this is by the end credits, trasmi.
4.5 ...Well, aside from one or two twinges, which could have been explained easily, but the movie keeps it tantalizingly unsaid. Which is a good, thing, because otherwise it would have been too exposition-y. It reminded me, strangely enough, of There Will Be Blood, where a lot of things were just alluded to but never esplained, which made the movie haunting, instead of frustrating. Like TWBB, I like Ploning more the more I think about it.
5. Speaking of plot, some sites say that director Dante Nico Garcia has been tinkering with this film for about seven years now. It shows. I cannot remember his cowriter's name, but in case you're reading this, this is a testament to how good we found your script to be: We had an awful dinner (see above), and the only thing that kept us amused and not grousing about Dencio's was asking each other about the plot and the timeline. We spent more than an hour talking about it, in fact.
6. The supporting cast is also ace, with Eugene Domingo, Mylene Dizon, Ketchup Eusebio, Gina Pareño (who got a big-ass monologue because her character was an idiot) and Spanky Manikan being complete standouts. A word on Mr. Manikan: whenever I see his name on the credits of something, I nearly always go "He was in this? Where?" The man is amazing. A character actor's character actor. And Eugene Domingo is possibly one of the best-kept secrets out there. Thank goodness she got re-introduced here.
7. A lot of former and current Feeble Empire people worked behind and in front of the screen for Ploning, which, I think, ties wierdly to, and gently rebuts Jessica Zafra's recent blog item that (as I inferred) seems to say that TV standards are not good enough for the big screen. It's not that, really. There are some insanely talented people working behind the scenes of your favorite craptacular soap or sitcom. It's just that the people who green-light the projects either have very limited ideas of what appeals to people, or have bad taste all around. Or they have good concepts that they can't develop because it's the same five people supervising the creatives, and that well gets really dry. Or it's a combination of all things. But it's not TV's aesthetics that's the problem, it's the taste of the people who control the gateway.
Basta, watch Ploning. I'm dragging my parents there as soon as I can.
PS. Ursula Lear, I found an email address! dfsi@dencios.biz
PPS: Happy and Hazel, in case you've read this far, Miracel's brother's place is this. Letsgoletsgoletsgo. I hope this shows up on Multiply.