"Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington" A Film Analysis by: Joanna Claire Miguel

                Months ago, I was first exposed to Indie Films through our school’s requirement of watching 1 Indie film in the Cinemalaya 2011 and it is there that I realized how Indie Films produced such masterpieces that tackles the social issues that Mainstream Films lacked of.  Such social issues that most people would prefer it to be locking in a box and should not be a topic that they should be concern of… But Indie Films tells us that social issues shouldn't be just an issue but something we all should have a deeper understanding of. And one of the social issues in our generation today is the Homosexuals.

Source: Google Images

                Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington is an Indie Film that also finds its place in Mainstream Cinemas, is about a guy named Remington who was cursed to be turn into a gay when the right time comes. This cursed was brought to him because of his continuous teasing of “Aaaay! Bakla! Bakla! Bakla! Bakla!” to every gay he sees when he was still a little boy. As Remington’s 21th birthday came near, he slowly becomes a gay. While Remington is transforming into a homosexual and his friends are looking for ways to uplift the curse, Remington’s mother is dealing with a case of countless murders of gay in their town. Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington, written by Raymond Lee and directed by Jade Castro, was first showed as the closing film in the Cinemalaya 2011.

                
                  Zombadings, for me, is a 2-in-1 film. I say 2-in-1 because we have the adventure of Remington, we see how he transformed into being a Man to being a Gay and the other story which is the haunt for the serial killer for murdering gays in their area. Both stories were compressed in one film; they may differ with the flow of the story but in the end meets with one great lesson of acceptance and equality.

                Indie Films, as I first know it, are films that have very low quality of the Cinematography, Sound Effects, and Story. But in today’s settings, Indie Films also have the same quality as of that in Mainstream.

Source: Google Images

                The Cinematography of the Zombadings does not differ than that in the Mainstream. I was expecting that there would be shaky capture of scenes because of the running away from the zombies… I did not see that in this film. Although, it was expected of a Pinoy Film that when it comes to costumes, we do not meet the same standard/quality of scary costumes of Korean Horror Films and the Japanese Horror Films… But I guess, that actually don’t matter since the people who acted as Zombadings were really good with their acting skill. Talking about acting skills, I really have to praise Martin Escudero and Kerbie Zamora with how they worked with their chemistry in the film which is at first the chemistry between them they should be seen as good buddies but as Remington (Martin Escudero) transforms into being a gay, the chemistry between him and Jiggs (Kerbie Zamora) should also transform as Remington develops a crash on his best buddy. The actors fit perfectly in their respective characters and the chemistry is seen which moved the audience to be kilig during the Jiggs & Remington’s scene. Little chemistry was seen between Hannah (Lauren Young) and Remington, which I don’t have the capacity to explain why because I really don’t know the reason behind it probably because the film is about gays that’s why by the end of the day, I’m a fan of Jiggs & Remington’s love team.

                Over-all, the story is 4.5 stars for me because I’m more of a viewer who pays more attention to the story that was portrayed in the film, the lesson and the purpose. One thing that I didn’t like about the film is just the Zombadings, amazing make-up and costumes but still not there, the ability can be seen but I know they can surpass the other countries when it comes to this aspect of filming.

                To end this critic, I must say, Indie Films should really be shown to the Mainstream and people should start investing their money in Indie Films because what they’ve been portraying are issues that are made open to the public and can be tackled openly to the public for us to have a deeper understanding and acceptance of the people who are involved in such social issues.

History of Film In The Philippines

History of Filipino Film

Filipinos have been movie lovers ever since the Spaniards settled, it’s no surprise that movies have been in Philippines for quite a long time since it has been the 2^nd Asian country to be introduced to film, India being 1^st. It was first introduced by the Spaniards who first used film to document natives and feature stories about Filipino culture. By the time Americans came, documentations still continued mostly to document war, the era was also a start for producing films based on Philippine history and on various Filipino cultures (not only in Manila). The subject for filmmaking changed when World War II began; it was anti-Japanese, it exposed violence and promoted national pride. When Philippines finally gained independence from colonizing countries, Filipino movies started to bloom, although others started to fall, but still more films were being produced making it more extravagant.

During the Spanish era, documentaries were being made about the ways of The Philippine people; its culture and its war with revolution. During the Spanish times, there were still a lot of restrictions and censorship being made during the conservative times.

Censorship didn’t change much during the colonization by Americans, as my summary of Ordinance No. 166 (Manila 1912), it is illegal to show murder, theft, divorce, adultery, seduction, double life. Documentaries about Philippine culture still continues, and same goes about war, both Spanish-American and Philippine-American. Battles about war in the Philippines were first shot in California, having African Americans play the role of Filipinos. Movies were then introduced to Filipinos by the Americans, military men would build movie houses, the first modern movie being built by Albert Yearsely in 1909, named “The Majestic”. Yearsley soon became a producer and made his own film manufacturing company. A competing company of Yearsley, Zarzuela Company, owned by Edward Meyer Gross, made the country’s first full-length film in 1912, which was entitled “La Vida Dr. Jose Rizal”.

More and more Filipino films popped up and expanded, it produced various props, posters, songbooks, newspapers and magazines. Movies were also featured later as stories and vice versa. When World War II began, films were focused on the brutality of the Japanese, although not so many were made since it was prohibited during the invasion.

By the end of World War II, Filipino films continued to flourish, more films were made and genres were starting to expand. Action, romance and drama seemed to be the favourite, and then comes comedy
and horror.

Zombadings Review By Rose Sevilla

“Zombadings: Patayin Sa Shokot Si Remington” is an indie film selected for Cinemalay 2011, directed by Jade Castro, featuring Roderick Paulate, Janice De Belen, Eugene Domingo, John Regala, Lauren Young, Kerbie Zamora and Martin Escudero.

The film was inspired by an event when one of the screenwriters was on a trip and encountered a boy who made fun of his homosexuality, thus the story revolves about a boy who taunted a witchdoctor for being gay and was cursed by the time of his coming of age. At the same time when the boy started showing signs of homosexuality (smooth skin, change in language, attraction to men, etc.), an anti-gay murderer was on the loose. One unfaithful day the murderer attacked the gay witchdoctor whose assistant revived all the murderer’s victims, hence the title “Zombadings”. Zombies ran havoc around their once peaceful town and the only way to reverse the spell (and the boys curse) was to convince a full fledge man to turn gay.

The movie is pretty new, in a way that it doesn’t really follow the usual Filipino movies, especially indie films, which are usually centred on poverty, homosexuality or just pure seriousness. The genre of the film is comedy, I would say that I had lots of laughs watching the film, but I was expecting more pain around my cheeks and ribs since I’ve been hearing a lot about this movie, it’s filled with top comedians and screenwriters, and we rarely get this much excitement for Filipino films these days. I do like the message of the film; it portrays the mixing of religion, macho men and homosexuals, in a funny entertaining way.

Zombadings Review: One Step to Equality By: Myra Burgos

Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington is an independent film directed by Jade Castro that reached main stream. The story was about a boy named Remington, 6 years old, who bullies all gay people living in his Barangay then one day; he encountered a gay “mangkukulam” in a cemetery. Because of his anger, he cursed Remington that when he grew older, he will be gay. Fifteen years later, the curse finally happened. Remington started to act like a homosexual that he used gay languages and wore tight shirts and short shorts just like what other gays do.  There were crimes about a killing that their main victims were gay people. Remington got scared and started to look for the gay mangkukulam to help him turn back to his real self again. The revenge of the dead gay people arose and became zombies. To end the curse and the attack of the gay zombies, a man must exchange and accept to be gay forever. The requirement was that he must be willing to be gay and never had an intercourse with the same sex. That turned out to be his father. The mastermind was his uncle that turned out to be gay also. In the end, his uncle died and everything went well again.

If we look at the brief summary of the story, it doesn’t make any sense at all but if we look deeper to the theme of the story, it’s massage is very emphasized; equality, no discrimination and accept the freedom of people. That was my understanding of the movie’s theme.  We all know that most of the people would prefer to be with straight people that with homosexuals because they do not like being with them. Most of the people also judge them as if they are not people like us. This movie helps us to realize that they are humans like us not some alien ore whatever. They have the right to be respected by us and not treat them as outcasts. We need to respect their decision to be who they are right now. That is my reaction on the film and it really made me agree on it.

Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington is indeed a great movie. They did a great job in making the audience laugh and in giving its message. The actors also did very well and they really fit their characters. The movie, I should say, is a hard 10/10 in every way, every angle I could think of.  Independent films are rising! Go INDIE FILMS!

ZOMBADINGS by Carla Basa

We watched Zombadings at Gateway with my blockmates and professor. The movie started at around 5pm. We were seated with our groupmates. We were able to eat dinner in the movie theater. The movie was funny and exciting because we get to know how gays live.
There was this kid named Remington who loves teasing gay people everytime he sees them around. Suddenly they visited the cemetery and he saw this gay who was crying. He teased him saying "Ay, Bakla. Bakla! Bakla!" which annoyed the gay and started like curse him. Years passed and in their place, gay people were killed. They were shot dead and could not figure out who the suspect is. They were warning the gay people to be careful and try to change. As Remington grew older, everything changed. Everytime he wakes up, he finds something new about him. He started to speak in gay language and his physical appearance changed. He was physically gay but he was trying to impress this girl played by Lauren Young. He was also starting to have a gay heart and was like falling for his bestfriend which I found disgusting. They tried to make love but realized that it will bring harm to Remington because the suspect will know that he is gay so they decided to stop. Remington dreamt about the suspect every night and started to be afraid because the suspect might know that he is gay. He was trying to look for the one who cursed him. His friends helped him and they found the gay who cursed him. They talked to him and asked how to remove the curse from Remington but he does not want to tell them how until Remington got pissed off and tried to hurt him. The gay who cursed Remington could not do anything but to help them out. They called the souls of the gay people and asked how the curse will be removed from Remington. They figured out that Remington needs to find a real guy to take his place and who is willing to be gay. They tried to find someone and it was a big challenge for them because they could not convince anyone to take Remington's place. He was about to give up until the zombadings came up and tried to invade their place. The zombadings were killed and they figured out that the killer was Remington's uncle. Remington's father took place and realized that Remington has more time to live and he wants his son to enjoy it as a real man and not as a gay. He took over his son's place and they lived life normally.

Zombading Review By Abbie Irigon

Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington is the first ever zombie comedy film. Director Jade Castro together with the other staffs has conceptualized a different kind of film. It is about a boy who is under a bekimon curse or a curse of being a gay. The curse is from a gay man (Roderick Paulate) at the cemetery who was insulted by Remington (Martin Escudero). A shawl in an old rose represents the curse. It appears every time the curse occurs. Remington slowly changes. First with his gestures, followed by his language and then his sexual preference. He fell in love with a girl named Hannah (Lauren Young) but as the curse gets worse, he also slowly fallen in love with his best friend, Jigs (Kerbie Zamora), it is a love triangle then.

Cases of gay murder rise in their town, Quezon. There’s this guys (Daniel Fernando and Leandro Baldemor) who wants all gays gone from their town, so they stole this gun, a gun formulated by a genius to identify if an animal is a gay or not. The gun can only kill human gays as it identifies them. The case is handled by Remington’s mother (Janice De Belen) and her assistant ( Mailes Kanapi) who were cops of their town.

The killers and Remington’s father (John Regala) are good friends. When the killer was about to kill Remington because he found out that he is a gay, the gay man came in the way so he was the one shot but a certain spell was stated. He was later awake and the same as the zombies. Zombies were all over the town. Remington, Jigs, and Hannah soon found out that the only way to break the curse is to sacrifice, sacrifice of a man who has no experience with a gay love. It soon ended up that the father was the one who sacrificed for his son. He rather becomes gay than his son who has still a lot to experience in the future. It was like their soul interchanged and everything is done and backs to normal.

It was a happy ending for Hannah and Remington who is now a true man, inside and out. The film ended when a boy saw a gay and said: “Bakla!…… Ganda J”.

This is a film that says “No to gender discrimination!”. Everyone deserves equality and respect, whatever they are in the society. A film full of laughter and reality as well.