Love it or hate it, we have a Filipino winner at film festival of all film festivals.
At Cannes, director Brillante Mendoza was awarded best director for his dark dark movie, Kinatay.
Kinatay, which translates from Tagalog, into “butchered” is a severely graphic depiction delving into societal corruption.
Mendoza is no rookie to Cannes. Last year, he served us, Serbis, a ground-level look into a family run adult cinema house. That movie polarized audiences last year. It appears, Mendoza turned up a notch this year.
Tony visits the Philippines where he takes a stroll down “food street”, sampling chicken balls dipped in vinegar and spicy sauce. New episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations air Monday nights at 10PM ET, only on the Travel Channel.
I was recently forwarded a joke email containing the following YouTube video. If it made my mom laugh, maybe it’ll make you laugh too.
After doing a little research, I learned that this clip comes from the 1994 Filipino sitcom/movie Ober Da Bakod (Over the Fence). According to what someone wrote on its Wikipedia page:
The poor brothers Mokong and Bubuli (sons of Lucring Dayukdok) have emotions for the rich sisters Honey Grace and Barbie Doll (daughters of Don Robert Dinero), Mokong for Honey Grace and Bubuli for Barbie Doll. Don Robert doesn’t want the brothers for his daughters, because they are poor. In order to be free to court Honey Grace and Barbie Doll, Mokong and Bubuli climb over the fence.
Don Robert always makes various plans to prevent Mokong and Bubuli to get closer to his daughters. But he always fails due to the intervention of his mortal enemy and former girlfriend, Aling Lucring who happens to Mokong and Bubuli’s overprotective mother. As a result, total mayhem ensues between the two families living a class apart.
A running gag of the series is at the end of every episode, two policemen, Officer Tedera and Officer Ginto, arrest and charge Don Robert of a crime based on whatever scheme he had concocted whether directly or indirectly involved he was. As Don Robert tries to explain his way out of this arrest, the police officers always tell him, “Sa presinto ka na lang magpaliwanag.” (“Explain everything at the precinct.”) Those words have now become a common Filipino catchphrase.
The Troy Philippines Culture Blog 