Movie No. 54 (2018): SIGNAL ROCK

Signal Rock (2018)
Director: Chito Rono
Cast: Christian Bables, Daria Ramirez, Arnold Reyes, Nanding Josef, Judy Ann Santos (voice)
In Tagalog, with English subtitles

We see Intoy finding good phone signal on a wind-beaten huge rock formation in a remote island in Samar. His phone is a Nokia 6110. This tells us about the period, must be late 1990s. We always see Intoy on the rock formation whenever he talks to his older sister (Vicky), who's in Finland. We never see the Vicky, but we know her story through the phone conversations on the rock. Her story is at the center of the narrative because the whole island community practically become involved when she gets in trouble. This is another face of the bayanihan culture. 

The movie is also a commentary to what seems to be the reality about women of the island leaving the island at certain age to find greener pasture in big cities, mostly working as bar girls in hope of finding foreigners who will take them abroad. Vicky is a living example of this diaspora. 

Christian Bables, playing Intoy, is a revelation in this movie. It's true that he already has an Urian acting trophy, but his performance in Signal Rock is probably one of the best (by any actor) in the last so many years. He completely becomes Intoy, the island boy. He is so good in projecting the rural island boy naivete in several scenes showing him getting lost in the bureaucracy of government offices in the city. 

The movie is, in my opinion, one of the best Filipino movies of the last five or ten years. Almost a masterpiece, this may even land on the list of the best Filipinos ever made. 

Rating: 4.0/4.0

Date seen: August 19, 2018