Movie Review - New Breed and Director's Choice

            
           
           New Breed - Ang Katiwala

           Ruben (Dennis Trillo) is a carpenter in a small town who lost his job to someone else. Desperate to make money for the necessities of his family, he goes to Manila to be a caretaker. Soon he finds out that the previous owner of the house was Manuel L. Quezon, former the President of the Philippines.

 Shortly after his stay, he was interviewed by a TV reporter if he knew anything about Manuel Quezon. Ruben was ashamed to admit that he knows little to nothing about the former president. He was disturbed by this fact so he started reading a book he found in the attic about the life of Quezon. With nothing much to do except clean and look after the house, Ruben inevitably starts to be captivated by the life and accomplishments of Manuel Quezon. All he talked about was Quezon’s life and accomplishments to his only friend in the house Gimo, the night-shift security guard.    

Due to the massacre that occurred in the house he was housekeeping, he had lost his job and had no choice but to return to his family in Zambales. Unluckily, his family also lost the right to the farm. “Ang Katiwala” showed how hard life is especially to those who lacked education. The quote that was repeated several times in the movie is, “I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans, because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it.” — Manuel Luis Quezon. 

Director's Choice

       The main theme of the movie is “friendship”. The death of Mariel left such a crushing blow to her three closest friends. She left a box full of her diaries for her best friend Carla. Despite the many warnings Carla received from their closest friends Sandra and Olive, she still read Mariel’s diaries thinking there was a reason why Mariel left them for her.

         There are things that you don’t talk about but it’s still there and sometimes it rears its ugly head. There are those things that should remain a secret. When Carla started reading the diaries about her and their friends, she was completely shell-shocked and insisted that they also read it. There were comments and things kept from one another. The film is about accepting who your friends are even though you don’t like their actions, attitudes, and decisions in life. In the end, it’s all about forgiving your friends despite the differences you have with one another because they stay by your side when you need them the most.

         Before Mariel died, she asked Carla if she was happy with her life and it seemed that it wasn’t contented. As quoted from the film, “there are friends that you became your friends since they 

are already there so they are almost by 
default without any choice your friends (friends of friends) while there are some friends whom you have chosen to become friends with that is why your are friends”.