This week, I hunted for someone to bring with me to the Cinema to watch Sonata. I am a Cherrie Gil fan, since the “You’re nothing but a trying hard copycat” days.
Sonata is directed by Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes and stars Cherrie Gil; and is only one of the 10 films in this year’s Sineng Pambansa National Film Festival: All Masters Edition (all of which I wish so much to watch).
The film is about an opera singer, Regina Cardena (Cherrie Gil), who loses her career after a medical procedure ruined her voice. Regina moves back to her hometown—Bacolod—and rediscovers life and love with the help of two young boys, Jonjon (Chino Jalandoni) and Ping (Joshua Pineda).
Regina’s favorite operas are the ones where the lead female character dies, mostly because of love in vain. This is reflective of even her personal relationship with Carlo (Richard Gomes) with whom she is having an illicit affair; and her love for her craft which she has lost. She therefore believes that love always comes with sadness, which to her, like the opera characters, is quite difficult to overcome.
Regina’s loss in career and in love brings her to the brink sanity. She finds comfort in isolation and a bottle of vodka. Everyone deemed her crazy, but Jonjon, after realizing that Regina is but only sad, comes up with ideas to make Regina happy, all with the help of Ping.
Successful indeed was Jonjon’s attempt for little by little Regina stabilizes her sanity. She starts coming out of her room and eats in the dining table, she even joins Jonjon and Ping in picnics off the grounds of her house.
Jonjon learned the art of music and language from Regina while the latter learns the true meaning of love from Jonjon.
The film dealt with various issues that most individuals encounter at one point in their lives: losing a job, losing a loved one, coping up with loss, surviving, and even choosing a language to use.
The use of Ilonggo in the film authenticated it and really puts it in context. All the characters were speaking in either Ilonggo or English, even Regina, who at first was speaking in Tagalog, later on spoke in Ilonggo having finally recognized again her relationships in her hometown.
I was just quite curious why Carlo speaks in Tagalog while apparently he is also Ilonggo.
In a scene where Regina was putting make-up on Jonjon, Regina expressed to Jonjon the value of music and language. She said that one should speak where his or her mouth was born. Jonjon was born in Manila, but speaks Ilonggo. This is because he — like his mother — does not want anything to do with his estranged father who is a Tagalog.
Over-all the film is very interesting except for one character which really bothered me a lot—the father of Jonjon.
I remember a someone ones told me that if you try and take off a character from a film and the film would not make complete sense, then that character is very important. I just couldn’t find the relevance of the father’s numerous phone calls. We can try and not include those phone calls and the film would still be great.
Yes, Sonata is a great film; especially the cinematography. This is one film that captured the beauty of nature without sacrificing the story.
The other films in this year’s Sineng Pambansa:
- Otso ni Elwood Perez
- Ang Tag-araw ni Twinkle by Gil M. Portes
- Tinik ni Romy V. Suzara
- Bamboo Flowers ni Mario J. Delos Reyes
- Lauriana ni Mel Chionglo
- Badil ni Chito S. Roño
- Lihis ni Joel Lamangan
- Ano ang Kulay ng Nakalimutang Pangarap ni Jose Javier Reyes
- Eman ni Tikoy Aguiluz
A special screening of Celso Ad Castillo’s last film: Bahay Lagim
Originally published in Rizalhenyo
