Movie No. 52 (2016): DAGSIN
Dagsin (2016)
Director: Atom Magadia
Cast: Tommy Abuel, Lotlot De Leon, Benjamin Alves, Janine Gutierrez, Sue Prado, Marita Zobel, Rolando Inocencio
In Tagalog and English, with English subtitles
This is the story of a Justino, retired judge, now a PWD, who became an atheist after the sufferings he experienced as POW during the Japanese occupation. The events that directly affected him as a practicing judge during the Martial Law also resulted in additional scars. At the start of the movie, he is shown grieving over the recent death of his wife. It appears that he just lives by the day, trying to kill himself by relying to luck (by point a gun loaded only with one bullet to his head, and clicking it). Taking care of him is Mercy who was adopted by Justino's wife (Corazon) during the early days of Martial Law regime.
Director: Atom Magadia
Cast: Tommy Abuel, Lotlot De Leon, Benjamin Alves, Janine Gutierrez, Sue Prado, Marita Zobel, Rolando Inocencio
In Tagalog and English, with English subtitles
This is the story of a Justino, retired judge, now a PWD, who became an atheist after the sufferings he experienced as POW during the Japanese occupation. The events that directly affected him as a practicing judge during the Martial Law also resulted in additional scars. At the start of the movie, he is shown grieving over the recent death of his wife. It appears that he just lives by the day, trying to kill himself by relying to luck (by point a gun loaded only with one bullet to his head, and clicking it). Taking care of him is Mercy who was adopted by Justino's wife (Corazon) during the early days of Martial Law regime.
The movie bounces back and forth from the present to the past. This way we movie tries to explain to the audience the love story between Justino and Corazon and the events that lead to what has become of Justino at present. The technique works. But, why does it always have to be that a diary is used as a Pandora's box of secrets? This, of course, is not wrong. For me, even some brief scenes in which Justino is shown reading the diary is boring.
There are scenes in which the young Corazon character seems to care more about writing an entry to the diary (hurriedly) than worrying about what is happening to her relatives and to the country in the midst of chaos. I would have liked the movie better had it ended in the suicide scene because the scenes after that dilute the movie's mystery. Despite this, however, the movie still appears good overall.
Rating: 3.0/4.0
Date seen: August 6, 2016
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