Zombadings Night

THIS POST IS BRIMMING WITH SPOILERS. ADVANCE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

It's one of the longest Christmas break in recent years, so they say but I ended up spacing work across it and only sprinkling a bit of leisure here and there whenever time (and workaholic self) permits. Tonight, I decided to watch one of the few Filipino films that I have in my 'Movies' folder: 'Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington'. The movie title is reminiscent of the title of an early 90s horror film, 'Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara' but the former is far from being scary!

If I haven't Googled it, this movie might have passed as Cinemalaya
KNEW IT! IT''S A CINEMALAYA ENTRY  PREMIERED IN CINEMALAYA!
WHY DID I EVEN QUESTION IT?!

'Zombadings' is about Remington, once a kid whose sole purpose in life seems to point out homosexuals in a crowd and call out "Bakla! Bakla! Bakla! Bakla!" until her mother came running to shut his mouth. This went on until he crossed path with a middle-aged homosexual who gave him the ole' shut-the-fuck-up and 'cursed' Remington into being a gay someday himself. Fast forward 15 years later and Remington meets Hannah, a beautiful but quite love-naive girl who went home to accompany her grieving mother. The cloth of the love story starts to weave itself between the two. But remember, this is not a love story. A far cry from being one so now, mix in the 'curse'. Oh, add in your best bud Jigs telling you he's into members of the third sex when you became gay yourself and you get one messed-up love triangle. Then, let a guy on the loose armed with a gay-dar-slash-ray-gun-for-gays and extreme hate for homosexuals and you get the story running. Plus a last-minute wave of gay zombies (the title being a wordplay of 'zombies' and 'bading' - the latter being the vernacular term for homosexuals) during the town fiesta wouldn't hurt. 

This movie gave me a fresher view of Philippine cinema, but more on that later. Let's talk about the lighter side of the film. Eugene Domingo's character doesn't have much speaking lines but, damn, was she funnier when she said nothing at all! 

The brilliant Eugene Domingo. I don't know if the scenes are funny or I'm just lost in the haze of my fan-boying over her amazing acting skills.

Then there's the wide range of stars appearing as part of the main cast and cameo appearances. Tracing its roots to (possibly) indie Filipino films, it showcased new talents such as Kerbie Zamora who played the role of Jigs, Remington's best bud alongside 'mainstream' actor Martin Escudero playing the titular role of Remington. Definitely the 'Hagdan' scene has been one of the most unforgettable scenes for the actors and audience of all sexual orientations alike. It suddenly gave the movie that 'Cinemalaya Seal/Feel' that made it worthy to be premiered in the said film festival.

The HAGDAN scene. You have to watch the movie to know what's next.
Or YoutTube. 

And they got John Regala in a gay role doing a 'You go, girl!' high-five with his character's wife played by Janice de Belen just a few scenes before the closing credits rolled! How epic is that?!

THIS!

But all of these have been overshadowed by Roderick Paulate's character of an aging homosexual living with a page boy of a servant. He's the one who cursed Remington into a lifetime of homosexuality unless another guy ('tunay na lalaki na wala pang experience with gays', to be precise) would be willing to carry the curse, hence Regala's gay role by the end of the movie. Two scenes actually kicked the beejezus out of the laughing me: first is his ouija-esque scene and the other one's the revival scene. His revival scene where he was revived (along with the other zombadings) then ever so manly cursed his pageboy, "PUTANGINA! Ang init! GAGO NAMAN NITO O!" Then this scene:

Charoterang sprikitik, umappear ka vakler,

Magpafeel o magpasence ditey sa valer,

Witir shokoley ang utangchi ditey,

Sa fesla boomboomars na super kalurkey.

Thanks to divasjudge for the transcript of the 'chant'. 

Now my dear readers can say it aloud with the characters! HAHAHA

There are countless other scenes that I would love to share and laugh about but there is more about this movie than comedy which prompted me to download a copy: its use of comedy to attract people to watch it and the plot to let them stay on their seats and get their eyes glued to their screens. This has been premiered in Cinemalaya so don't expect ankle-deep plot bulleted with potholes. This is the bomb, so they say.

First, let's unite my previous part to this new part by re-introducing a familiar scene: the Hagdan scene. I said that it gave the film the 'Cinemalaya Seal/Feel' which meant that it gave the movie more depth, so to speak. The fact that it centers on the issues revolving homosexuality (social stigma, homophobia, crushing the status quo among others) puts it a notch higher among other mainstream 'mainstream' Filipino movies, but its use of comedy to keep it at bite-sized, manageable pieces makes it more wonderful. The use of the straight gay trope (according to tvtropes.org) in the movie in the character of Remington's best bud Jigs gave the movie a twist. This scene deepened their friendship beyond childhood friendship. Throw in Hannah in the bunch and you get some sort of Harry-Hermione-Ron trio, with Harry having had a fleeting love for Ron and Ron reciprocating the affection. Not the most pleasant of mental images but you get the idea. This picture seems to capture it all - post-curse relationship, that is:

Hannah's eyes shout with "Not on my watch, you don't!" while
Jigs' appear to  say, "Back off, bitch! He's STILL mine!" HAHAHA
Awkward trio is awkward.

Then there's the tackling of homosexuality and the issues surrounding it: stigma of the days of yore (and up to now, to some extent), 'crushing' the status quo, acceptance of homosexuality in society and carrying the burden with them. These issues have been wonderfully portrayed by the movie using different scenes, the last three being adjacent to one another to portray a hopeful timeline of the existence of homosexuality in our society.

I. Stigma of the Days of Yore (And up to Now, to some Extent)

"Bakla! Bakla! Bakla! Bakla!"

This is the opening scene of the movie, Remington around 5 years old, throwing insulting remarks to homosexuals. This was the way society reacted to the existence of homosexuals during the past. Discrimination, only once found between races, now  finds its way between genders. An apartheid between the sexes, you can say. Young Reminton echoes the ages past of outright declaration of disapproval for homosexuality. Older Remington's era parallels the present age wherein sparse chastisement against gays exists. One extreme form of this disapproval is homophobia to the extent of hating them, as portrayed by the character of Daniel Fernando, the famed gay assassin in town which uses some sort of ray gun that gives the victim a drag queen make-over before snuffing them. In reality, such thing exists. Take the Ugandan government for example and their use of the law to punish individuals found doing homosexual acts. Such extreme means have been made to achieve the 'end'. The 'end' they believe is ideal, but who are we to condemn them? They are but people like us. They might as well proclaim Shakespeare's Shylock's 'Hath not a Jew eyes' lines, except change 'Jew' to 'gays' and 'a Christian' to 'another person'.

More on homophobia is the theory that this is a mere defense mechanism for people who are actually closeted gays themselves. In psychology, defense mechanisms are innate ways of the mind to 'distort' reality for the protection of the ego from anxiety. One of these mechanisms is reaction formation which is basically the expression of the opposite emotion that a person really feels. "I am really sad but I am a jolly person to the eyes of other people" is a statement of reaction formation. Closeted gays, perhaps in fear of ridicule from others, do the opposite by being on the opposite end - doing the ridiculing to other gays and being macho and all to dissipate any hints of effeminate nature. In the movie, we can see how the gay assassin turned out to be a gay himself when the gay-dar found its target: him. 

What goes around comes around. What goes up must come down.

II. 'Crushing' the Status Quo

*STOMP*

The film showed a rather straightforward solution to stop this old line of thinking by crushing the gay-dar by the only straight male character (so far) in the movie. The instrument epitomizes and creates a tangible object which represents the disapproval, homophobic calls and other hate directed toward homosexuals. Its symbolic destruction by Remington's father - seemingly the only straight guy in the main cast - is befitting of the solution that Raymond Lee (producer and screenwriter), Michiko Yamamoto (screenwriter) and Jade Castro (director and screenwriter) present: that Man, everyone and preferably the straight ones, should accept the members of the third sex and 'crush' the illogical thinking of the yore. Which then leads us to Roman Number Three...

III. Acceptance of Homosexuality in Society

"Remington, papunta ka pa lang pabalik na ako. Gusto kong maging maligaya ka."

Such sweet words of acceptance from said Man realize the dreams of acceptance of homosexuals. Very direct-to-the-point such as the previous issue of demolishing the status quo of disapproval against gays. Before going to Issue Number Four, more of this acceptance can be seen by the seemingly indifference of people around Remington regarding his being 'sensitive' and attributing his use of bekimon or gay-speak to incoherent words that they meet with 'Huh?' and 'Ano yun?'. This is one form of acceptance by not separating them from the rest of the society. Except, of course, through the eyes of the gay assassin-slash-his godfather (saw it in Tumblr). Some even went as far as to explain the godfather's hate towards the LGBT community as his expressed frustrations of going out of the closet himself. Moving now to Roman Number Four...

IV. Carrying the Burden with Them

Ako! Si Eduardo Filimon Martinez! Pumapayag maging bakla habambuhay! ARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!
Scenes shown during the end credits. Just epic.

There will always be those words of disapproval. Years never got to erase them and more years probably won't do any better than the previous ones. As the ones who accepted them wholly in the society, Man must accept the burden (not necessarily turn into gay himself; but hey, we won't get a dancing John Regala by the closing credits! Haha) that the homosexuals have been carrying for quite a long time. Like Percy and Annabeth in Riordan's 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' taking the burden of Atlas in one the books in the series. Man will suffer alongside gays from the criticisms of the remaining disapproved ones. But with this shared burden, they will learn to work together to get through it. 

V. Other Symbolisms
Aside from the issues discussed, the movie has other elements that still tackle homosexuality. One of this is the brilliant censoring of the godfather's nonsensical speech regarding the destruction of society due to the presence of homosexuals by the marching band. Touché, Direk. Touché.

God bless that marching  band for sparing us the non-sense.

Another is the scene wherein Remington told about his secrets to their gay cook who openly accepted for what he is. This can be contrasted to the infamous staircase scenes wherein Jigs told Remington about his feelings towards Remington knowing about his fancy escapades with other gays. Funnily enough, he throws back these very same lines to Remington when he said that he already knows the truth about the latter having feelings for him.

J: Di totoo na di ako pumapatol sa bakla.
R: Ooooh. Bakit ngayon mo lang sinabi yan sa akin?
J: Ikaw pa. Baka magiba tingin mo sa akin.
....
J:Gaano ka na katagal may gusto sa akin?
R: *stutters*
J: Bakit di mo sinasabi? Sa tingin mo mandidiri ako? Pagtatawaan kita? Iiwasan kita?

This only shows how homosexuals seek people who they think can understand them, oftentimes to other homosexuals. Or in Jigs' case, with a little help of alcohol in the system and the knowledge of reciprocation for his feelings.

If others (who would be, I don't know) may view it as an anti-gay film because of the gross portrayal of homosexuals (in both zombie and non-zombie forms, perhaps), I believe they have been blinded from the true message of the film by mere production effects. The message is actually opposite to what they believe. The previous issue determines the need for such a film to be produced: empathy towards the homosexuals. From discussing the said issues and portraying them in the film as well as giving us a lesson on bekimon, the film has immersed the viewers in the world of our brothers and sisters (no offense meant) of the third sex and helped us understand their current situation and the solutions and ideal world that they want; the latter being beautifully portrayed by the last scene, which is in stark contrast to young Remington's dastardly remarks:

*sees gay stepping out of the tricycle*  Nay, o, bakla oh....Ang gandaaah.

Here's a little something to end this post (the scenes from where they got the video clips are enough to get you literally rolling in the floor laughing, in my case, in my bed). I hope you enjoyed reading, gained newfound respect for homosexuals (I did, for sure) and start scouring video rental stores for a copy of 'Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington'. Support the Filipino film industry, says the torrent-leacher. 

And this of course! AWARD! Hahaha!