Wednesday, July 16, 2008

In Defense of Kambyo


When I wrote Kambyo, I wanted to reach out to the audience who could not appreciate materials like "Ang Lalake sa Parola" (The Man in the Lighthouse) and "Ang Lihim ni Antonio" (Antonio's Secret). I suppose these were the people who didn't like too much philosophy and too much narrative style. Hence, I wrote a material which is very accessible and light.

As of today, Kambyo posted stronger sales than "Ang Lihim ni Antonio" in its commercial run. And just for the record, I had so much fun writing and shooting "Kambyo".

I lifted the following comments in defense of Kambyo (coming from Lexuality and http://www.rddantes.com/):


i don't think these angry viewers got the point! i can't believe a few of them has the temerity (or brains) to even reduce indie films into two categories-- art or junk. personally, i think that's a reckless and stupid assumption. nakanood lang ng so-called art-house films, feeling art critics na mga ate! pwede ba?!!! SPARE US YOUR ARTISTIC PRETENSIONS!
FOREMOSTLY, it was NOT the creators' intentions to make AN ART MOVIE! It's supposed to be light and was not intended to give you some sort of, uhm, catharsis. (which is a word i assume these viewers would probably drop given their, uhm, "education" in, uhm, "art films."
You should get that in the beginning of the movie pa lang.
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i really don't know what's with these guys but i guess they were all expecting more nudity in the movie in the same mold as parola and antonio kaya nabitin sila nang husto...kaso hindi nga yun ang punto ng pelikula eh...it's like a thelma and louise thing...ewan ko, i really love road trip movies kaya hinihintay ko na din ang thank you girls na bagong indie...anyway, keep it up lex...itaas pa natin ang quality ng gay movies sa pinas...

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we agree that johnron was the selling point in this movie, but we also watched the movie because of kenjie of antonio fame, and we are curious how he fared in this movie. too bad, that he and johnron were not given meaty scenes to deliver... coz this is a light, romantic movie. all in all, we admire the movie, we were entertained, despite walang gaanong sex and frontal scenes. its a welcome relief that it a SRO crowd at the up film theater.kudos...
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KAMBYO IS NOT THAT BAD NAMAN. AT THE UP FILM CENTER BEFORE THE ACTUAL SCREENING, THE DIRECTOR TOLD HIS AUDIENCE THAT ITS A WELCOME RESPITE FROM HIS PREVIOUS MOVIES WITH TRAGIC ENDINGS...
THAT KAMBYO IS A LIGHT FILM. WE JOIN THOSE WHO APPLAUDED THE FILM IN AUDIENCE AFTER THE ENDING BECAUSE WE WERE ENTERTAINED DESPITE IT HAVING NO FRONTAL OR EXAGGERATED SEXUAL SCENES. AND KUMITA ANG PELIKULA EVEN IF THE SEX SCENES WERE MODESTLY DONE IN THE DARK... EVEN LINO BROCKA AND ISHMAEL BERNAL HAD THEIR SHARE OF LIGHT AND COMMERCIAL FILMS ALSO.
..THE FILM TACKLES ON FRIENDSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS AND EVEN AIDS IN A WAY THAT IT DOES NOT SOUND TOO MORAL. TAMA LANG.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi lex...i understand naman na your aim wasn't to make another "bigatin" na movie this time, that your intention was just to make a "light" movie... pero what's disappointing is, hindi pa rin siya at par with your previous 2 movies. kahit na light yung movie, i expected more because you wrote it. Just because it's light doesn't mean na pwede sya maging "wala lang", or "walang kwenta". I'm a big fan of movies, both local and foreign (not just from the US), and I've seen a lot of movies na light yung theme pero mataas naman yung quality. Sadly, I can't say the same for Kambyo. I guess we're foolish to always expect high quality films from you... tao ka rin naman like us, hindi ka rin perfect tulad naming lahat. :)

Anonymous said...

go for it lex...hayaan mo sila...tuloy mo lang ang mabuting ginagawa mo...

LoF said...

maybe i watched a different version of kambyo than everyone that is criticizing it.

it seemed to me kambyo was "lighter" in terms of plot complexity, but wasn't short on tragic imagery or affect/intensity.