Last
August 14, 2015, the English Cluster and Teatre Phileo together with
Dakila, the Philippine collective for modern heroism composed of a
group of dedicated artists and activists, and Articulo Uno, the
production team behind Heneral Luna, organized the forum on Bayani Ba
To? Heroism for Millennials at Asia Pacific College.
While
I have known about the movie Heneral Luna for a while, it was my
first time to watch the trailer and the video clip on the original
theme song, Hanggang May Bukas.
Before
the forum, I researched a bit on General Luna who admittedly I hardly
knew anything about. I learned that he was an Ilocano, a pharmacist
and sibling to his equally famous brother, the painter Juan Luna.
My
interest in Heneral Luna is because of Director Jerrold Tarog. I am a
huge fan of his wonderful movie Sana Dati which I have seen five
times on the big screen. Two of these screenings were with my
sections AC132 and GD131 respectively.
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| John Arcilla during the Heroism for Millennials Forum at APC |
Heneral
Luna starring John Arcilla in the title role opened in cinemas nationwide on September 9, 2015. That was also
the last day of final exams for 1st term at APC. I
required my three sections of Phillit and one section of Worllit to
watch the movie on opening day.
Happily,
the movie has generated enough interest that it is now on its 4th
week in the cinemas. I have seen it three and a half times, the first
time at Power Plant Cinema the week it opened, the second time at
Glorietta cinema in Ayala with my AC132 students, the third time at
Waltermart cinema with my Phillit AC151 block section this term and
finally back to Power Plant cinema with my daughter and good friend
Jaffy from my CITEM days.
Of
the three cinemas, Power Plant cinema is the only one where there are
subtitles in English. I only watched half of the movie in Waltermart
cinema because I was called back to APC to attend a Ched meeting.
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| Director Jerrold Tarog during the Heroism for Millennials forum at APC |
Director
Jerrold told me during the forum that this movie is supposed to be
part of a trilogy but the next two movies will depend on how well
Heneral Luna is received by the public. Well, it looks like the
second movie on Gregorio del Pilar with Paulo Avelino in the title
role will materialize and hopefully the last of the trilogy on Manuel
L. Quezon.
My
friend Jaffy has already given me an early invite to watch the next
two movies with him.
I
was also happy to learn that Heneral Luna is the official entry of
the Philippines to the foreign language film category of the Oscars.
That is an honor indeed.
I
read that despite the success of the movie (now on its 4th
week, it has already earned P172M), life goes on for Director Jerrold
Tarog. In an interview in Inquirer last Sunday, he said he is still
busy writing but now he has a lot more emails to reply to...
To
my EEP students, please watch Heneral Luna in the cinema. This is the
topic of your next blog post.
Thanks, Ms Eliz
Thanks, Ms Eliz
There was so much publicity around Heneral Luna from a lot of my friends on social media. I felt left out because I hadnt watched it myself. A big reason for this was that I knew it was in tagalog and ofcourse my tagalog skills are not really sublime. However I have now learned from your blog post that Rockwell cinema has english subtitles. Thank-you for that, I shall watch it ASAP.
ReplyDeleteThank you for recommending such a wonderful movie to us Ms. Eliz. I just watched today from Power Plant mall with Mason. It was good to know more about the Philippines. And of course, movie itself was great indeed. I'm also really hoping for the next as seems like there is according to your post. Once again, thank you Ms. Eliz. See you soon at school.
ReplyDeleteThank you for recommending such a wonderful movie to us Ms. Eliz. I just watched today from Power Plant mall with Mason. It was good to know more about the Philippines. And of course, movie itself was great indeed. I'm also really hoping for the next as seems like there is according to your post. Once again, thank you Ms. Eliz. See you soon at school.
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ReplyDeleteThank you ms.elizabeth for making me watch this film i got to know more about the history of the philippines
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good movie Ms. Elizabeth.
ReplyDeleteThankyou for the recommendation, Ma'am! I've watched it with my family about 3 weeks ago. It was a very good movie, well, not being biased but I've seen some of Tarog's films and they are quite good therefore this is no exception. The casting of John Arcilla as Antonio Luna is definitely excellent. I couldn't think of anyone else playing his role. He did a very good job of representing Luna in the movie, from his character, to his emotions, and to his way of thinking, Arcilla did a very good job.
ReplyDeletethe movie ended with as lot of questions, in spite of that, I do not agree that it is an open ended movie. If one would analyze, they would find that Aguinaldo seems to be the most fitting suspect to the crime. First, everybody knew that he had Bonifacio assasinated due to fear of being replaced in power. Then, he was this ignorant president who knows not what is good for the country but merely listens to hearsay and rumors from businessmen, advisers, etc. Third, the coward that he is, he fled from the Americans leaving his forces led by Gregorio Del Pilar to cover his evacuation, also left his personal soldiers (Presidential Security Guard nowadays) to stay where "he" was expecting Luna. Lastly, if he did not kill Luna, it was in his bloody power to have people or at least a person to investigate on Luna's assasination and put a price on the culprit's head, but unsurprisingly, he didn't.
I Would like to acknowledge Ms. Elizabeth for the recommendation of the movie Heneral Luna. It was a great movie to watch and I've learned many lessons from it . It's good that this kind of movie was made especially for the students who wants to know more the history of the Philippines. I know that this is part of the trilogy of Gregorio Del Pilar and Manuel L. Quezon and I'm looking forward to it hoping it will be as good or much better than Heneral Luna . Of course I would also express my gratitude to Direct. Jerrol Tarog who directed the said movie I'm happy that there's someone like him who cares about the life of our heroes.
ReplyDeleteWhat a very beautiful film it is mam and you're beautiful also there <3
ReplyDeleteThis movie teach us a lesson. Very inspiring movie. Thank you Ma'am for this. We like it so much.
ReplyDeleteThank you ma'am for letting us watch Heneral Luna in your time. We learned a lot we had fun watching it.
ReplyDeleteThank you ma'am for letting us watch such a wonderful movie. All of us had fun and enjoyed watching it and we also learned a lot. For me, it inspired me to become more patriotic about my country and to never give up on your country. It was also educational because it reminded me so much about my history lessons back when I was still in grade school. Thanks again ma'am and I hope we can have another fun activity like that again.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought that this movie will be so boring. but just like what people say, dont judge a book by its cover. By the time I had watched this movie, it never left my mind. I enjoyed watching it, because of it, I became more curious about the past. thanks for the opportunity given by Ms. Eliz.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ma'am Eliz for letting us watch Heneral Luna. It was such a amazing movie and those scenes are still fresh in my mind. It makes me think that the government before is like the government nowadays. It also makes me more interested about history of our country. Heneral Luna died because he fought for what is right. Still hoping that there will be a movie about Gregorio Del Pilar and Manuel L. Quezon. Congratulations to the staffs, artists, and of course Direct. Jerold Tarrog.
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ReplyDeleteThank you Miss Eliz for recommending such a wonderful movie to us... this movie I thought it would be boring to watch but when I watched this movie, oh I just was amazed...
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most inspirational movie, i like it! This movie tells on how did Heneral Luna fight for our country.
ReplyDeleteIt was inspiring movie and thank you Ms. Eliz for convincing me to watch this film.
ReplyDeletethis has many lessons that we can get with this movie. but for me, the most lesson I've learned is that, i realize that it's not about we are afraid of the foreigner coming from our country who wants to lead with us but it's our true self that we are afraid of ! our attitude!
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting us watch this movie Mrs Eliz
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting us watch this movie Mrs Eliz
ReplyDeleteThank you Ms. Elizabeth for the recommendation of the movie Heneral Luna. It was a great movie and I've learned many lessons from it .
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