Cinemalaya 2011: GAYUMA Review
Gayuma (Pilgrim Lovers) is a film borne out of love and sheer dedication.
Armed with a budget that is minuscule even if pitted against other independent
productions, director Alvin Yapan and producer Alemberg Ang ventured on to
mount a film based on one of Yapan's oldest stories, a concept developed and
evolved from an exercise among literary comrades in college who dared each
other to come up with a story that ends with the sentence "I love you." The result
is evidently imperfect. However, despite its obvious imperfections, the film
perseveres with the strength of its story, making it a testament to Yapan's
boundless imagination.
In
a parochial Bicol town, a statue of the Sto Niño suddenly started talking and dancing,
prompting the town's parish priest to visit to investigate and to exorcise from
the statue whatever spirit that is haunting it. With him is Delfin (Kalil
Almonte), his sacristan and assistant, who is advised by the verbose Sto Niño
statue to concoct a love potion so that he can easily woo Carla (Mercedes
Cabral), a rich girl who is already in love with another man, into leaving her
man for him.
The
film is divided into two parts. The first half focuses on Delfin who is
enveloped by his longing for unreachable Carla and therefore takes the Sto Niño
statue's advice to easily win the affections of the girl. The second half focuses
on Carla. Carla, under the spell of Delfin's love potion, carries Delfin, who
mysteriously fell in a coma, through fields, mountains and forests, to a pond
that will cure Delfin of his affliction. The two parts are differentiated by
mood and feel. With steady visuals, the first half establishes the traditionally
masculine conviction and determination of Delfin in his pursuit for Carla's
undivided attention. The second half, characterized by markedly jerky camera
movements, visualizes Carla's stereotypically feminine confusion and
uncertainty as she carries Delfin, inspired either by the sure effects of the
love potion or true love.
Gayuma is ridden with
details that pertain to certain agendas Yapan may or may not be that successful
in fleshing out, like a certain extended scene with the gay beautician who fancies
Delfin and an extraneous scene with certain rebels who rescue Carla from
rapists in the forest (Yapan's commentaries as to how homosexuals and communist
rebels, respectively, are being used in Philippine cinema). It also suffers
from lacking polish that could have added a little bit more of dread in the
earlier part or dreaminess in the middle part or danger in the latter part.
However,
despite the immense gap between what Yapan wanted to say and his budgetary
limitations, the film still manages to communicate the harsh complexities of
love and loving within a story that is simple yet brimming with color and
flourish. There is poignancy in Delfin's succumbing to ease of romance, and
wickedness in Carla's torturous trek towards the healing pond to rescue the man
he may or may not actually love. There are no blacks or whites, just damning
greys in Yapan's peculiar love story. That "I love you" that was whispered in
the film's final second trumps all the "I love you's" carelessly and emptily spoken,
shouted, and written in other films I've seen before. (Cross-published in Lessons from the School of Inattention)