A Journey of Grief, Acceptance and Relationships with Cinemalaya's KONO BASHO

 

 

When I first looked at the entries for Cinemalaya this year, I took interest in this one. It was just fate when we had to take the trip down south to watch KONO BASHO, produced by Project8 and Mentorque Productions, written and Directed by Jaime Pacena II. One that talks about grief, acceptance, building or re-building relationships.

Kono Basho literally means "This Place". The story is about two sisters who met during their biological father's funeral in Rikuzentakata, a city in Northern Japan. For those who don't know, this city has been ravaged by the huge earthquake and tsunami that hit the Iwate prefecture in 2011. In a sense, they really haven't fully built things like how they were, but are now experiencing something even more tragic... plus the feeling of awkwardness because the sisters really didn't know much about each other.

Ella is Filipino via her Mom with her Japanese Father, whilst Reina is born to a Japanese mother (one that was kind and understanding). Friction between them was quite a lot, young women that were both damaged by their past, circumstances and distance. Rikuzentakata might have symbolized what they went through in the story, they both lost their Dad, with unequal memories of him because Ella never experienced life with him.

This starts their journey together, in a partly civil, kind, but definitely torn in a lot of ways. It's great how the director never forced the conversation in Filipino or Japanese. It felt natural, and fitting. You could feel their pain, their longing for love, and how much they wanted to find it from other people, and hopefully, with each other.

This has depression and all the things related to it. They also gave a glimpse of kintsugi, an art form of pottery where they use gold to put broken pieces together. It symbolized how fragile they were. They will take you in on that story, where you continue to hope if they'd be able to fix it. It shows their spirit, their community, and how you could move on from heartbreaking parts of your life. 

Gabby Padilla isn't new to the business, and she showed how one could carry intellectual and emotional conversations like a light switch. You could say much of the conversation revolved and evolved around her, but it was done with intricacy, understandable diction, as she played an educator in the film. We asked her about her experience shooting the film especially since there's a language difference the actors had to endure. Her previous films actually helped!

As for the level of distraught you'll get from the film, Director Jaime Pacena said that they actually had a different treatment. You'll learn more about it as you watch the film. Even if the topic was so serious, it still felt quite refreshing to the eyes because the views there, were all just amazing! This is also the comeback film of Dan Villegas, one of the finest cinematographers in the country. 

While the Japanese cast (especially the Mother and Reina) performed quite remarkably in this film (I've seen their previous projects and even shows on NHK), Gabby was up there with them. If you've got the opportunity to catch this film while Cinemalaya is still there, you should. I think they're planning to have this released internationally, and by the looks of it... they're certainly qualified. Those wide indoor and outdoor shots, photography alone, is crazy good.

Congratulations to the men and women who made this film, you should definitely have this be exhibited in festivals elsewhere!