TITLE: Ploning
DIRECTOR: Dante Nico Garcia
WRITERS: Dante Nico Garcia (story); Dante Nico Garcia (screenplay) ...
CAST: Judy Ann Santos, Gina Pareño, Mylene Dizon, Meryll Soriano, Ces Quesada, Tony Mabesa

This movie changed my perception of Judy Ann Santos. I don’t remember liking or watching any of her films in the past. But thank God I watched Ploning. It’s remarkable, I enjoyed every bit of it.

Set in the 70s or around the time when the late President Marcos was still in power, the movie plays the simple life and culture of the people of Cuyo (Palawan) at that time.

It is not just a two-hour story-telling, it is a visual treat.

The shots are splendid. It was like watching a slide-show of sunsets, long beaches, and other still-lifes, which are not actually still. The film opens and finishes with a grand artwork: Cuyon’s bay area, slowly illuminated by gas lamps. So artistic!

If I had not read reviews of the film earlier, I would have thought the movie was shot elsewhere, like outside the country.

Director Dante Nico Garcia picked Cuyo, Palawan, for his fist full-length film, being a place where he spent most of his childhood.

He might be a neophyte filmmaker, but Garcia was really good. I don’t know how he did it, kept me focused to it even if I don’t normally enjoy movies with subtitles. Even if the story is so ordinary, not even catchy. it is in how it is delivered that makes it extraordinary.

The actors had to learn the Cuyunon dialect so they could say it with ease. In the movie, it seems they are natives of Cuyo.

Ploning is a nickname (a Cuyunon must have a nickie) of a lady (Judy Ann). She is admired by the people around her because of her strength. And this strength the people are drawn together like they are one big family, it constantly keeps the fervor in them to live their daily lives as happily as they can, even if they only have each other.

At the first half of the film, I was wondering when this Tomas would finally come out, if he would come out at all. Tomas is Ploning’s boyfriend, who had gone to Manila to work, and has not returned since.

For the many years that he was gone, Ploning has been telling to the people around her that she would go to where Tomas is to reunite with him. Everyone has been looking forward to that day. If Ploning has kept them happy, they would also like to see her happy.

In another of her dramatic moments, with knees bended to the muddy ground, Gina Pareno screams at God of how unfair He is to her. First he took Tomas and now He melts away all her salt with the rain, when all she wanted was to earn from it so she could take home the bones of her son, Tomas, who already died of some sickness years ago.

Everyone is shocked.

Ploning could only give them a half smile. She will not cry, as she does not want to burden her neighbors and the people she loves with her own sadness.

She is a friend to everyone, even to a 6-year-old Digo, who would then turn into a seaman and would then be looking for his “Nay Ploning” 25 years later.

Everyone loves her. And still talks about her even after her death.

One scene from the movie I can never forget is when the big brother is punishing Digo after the latter, while spoon-feeding their paralyzed mother, asked: “Nay, kailan ka mamamatay?”

The question earns the child a punishment, he is tied to a tree at their backyard, and while the big brother is pouring his anger to the wood he is chopping, the paralyzed mother, half lying to her bed, shouts to the latter to stop punishing the “bunso,” as he was only asking a question.

I loved how the mom repeatedly begs the big brother to forgive the little boy, even if the process is almost killing her. I wish I could quote the exact words she is saying there.

There are other remarkalbe scenes in this movie, scenes lifted from our very own culture.

Ploning is one of the few best movies we have.

Labels: drama, indie, romance