Jologs

At first, there was Tagalog, Gym Lumbera’s short and, to his mind, unfinished narrative about the infidelity that comes between a husband and wife in their twilight years, shot on film and reflecting his own real-life infidelity.. And then there was a storm, a real storm and not a metaphorical one, that flooded his house and submerged, and subsequently damaged, the only copy of Tagalog. This damaged version, entitled English, became the missing piece that completed the film. The new work is named after Taglish, the bastard hybrid, some say corruption, of Tagalog and English, and has become a meditation on love and language and the ways in which we betray and destroy them.

The film is very, very loosely based on the life of Arturo Porcuna (Jeorge Estregan). Once upon a time, he was known as Boy Anino, notorious leader of the Bahala Na gang. But rival gangster Tony Razon (John Estrada) attacked him in his home, leaving his entire gang and his family dead in the ruins. But Porcuna survived, and now he returns under a new alias, Boy Golden, and he seeks revenge against those that did him wrong. Along the way, he meets Marla D (KC Concepcion), a dancer who also has a bone to pick with Razon. Together, the two carry out a dangerous plan to take on Manila’s toughest gangsters.

On the eve of his 25th birthday, the day he’s set to receive money from his trust fund, Rocco parties, gets drunk and loses all his money on a poker match. His dilemma: He has to produce the amount, otherwise he will lose the client he needs to defeat his father’s TV commercial production company. Meanwhile, Rocky also needs money to pay the rent, otherwise her family will be homeless. There’s only one way for Rocco to be able to get money from his trust fund: Fulfill the conditions set by his grandmother and that is to get married. Rocky agrees to act as Rocco’s pseudo wife in exchange for a “talent fee.” They seal the deal. As they live like a married couple, Rocco and Rocky face one problem after another, forcing them with no alternative but to reconcile their differences and work with each other. Complication arises when they start to feel for each other, with their bond getting closer.

Ferry owner Benjamin has a regular passenger, Chedeng, who is studying to become a midwife. Chedeng has a friend and neighbour, Maria, and without either of them knowing about it they both have a relationship with Benjamin. When Mary finds out she’s pregnant, things get difficult.

A woman fell in love with a Japanese soldier, during the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines. The whole town turned against her.

Pandanggo has three stories with parallel themes converging in one event, the Kasilonawan Festival in Obando: a career woman learning to dance tango who is torn between her dance partner and live-in partner has to choose the man who will satisfy her dream of raising a family; a wife whose wish to conceive a baby boy to make her husband happy brings her feet to the festival, but fate has other plans of bringing the child into her life; and a modern woman who, amidst her medical condition that might render her childless for the rest of her life, finds connection with an ancient lore about fertility.

A journalist investigates a woman with the name of China Doll. Soon, he discovers his knowledge of her turns out to be dangerous.

The episodically connected lives of four college friends unfold throughout the incipient martial law years, as they struggle to define their sexual and professional desires and how best to attain them.

Two filmmakers try to create a film venturing on the life of Jose Rizal. Before they do that, they try to investigate on the heroism of the Philippine national hero. Of particular focus is his supposed retraction of his views against the Roman Catholic Church during the Spanish regime in the Philippines which he expressed primarily through his two novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The investigation was done mainly by "interviewing" key individuals in the life of Rizal such as his mother Teodora Alonso, his siblings Paciano, Trinidad, and Narcisa, his love interest and supposed wife Josephine Bracken, and the Jesuit priest who supposedly witnessed Rizal's retraction, Fr. Balaguer. Eventually, the two filmmakers would end up "interviewing" Rizal himself to get to the bottom of the issue.

In a time in the Philippines when the concept of divorce does not exist, a young woman has an affair with a married man. Eventually, they move in together, and that is when the problems start.

Five years after their break-up, ex-lovers turned friends Sam and Isa attempt to find their own selves in the realm of their respective romantic relationships. What they discover instead is pain and uncertainty as they come to terms with their feelings for each other and everyone around them.