I wrote this all on my tablet and kind of free-thought everything with minimal editing. My apologies.
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The proudly Philippine quality of taking things way too seriously manifests itself once again with the buzz surrounding new film DotA: Nakakabaliw. Being someone who has never played the Valve game Defense of the Ancients - which has become a hit among the Filipino youth whatever their social status is as long as they have access to a computer - perhaps I never know what it feels to have something you truly love massacred, and your image as a DotA-playing Filipino teenager stuffed with straw and caricatured negatively for the consumption of the same masses who are in part to thank for putting DotA on its current pedestal in our culture.
DotA, after all, has been revolutionary in connecting and bringing together people from across the board. It's so much more than just a video game - just watch Valve's own produced documentary, Free to Play, to see just how big it gets, beyond what conservative adults perceive as "wasting time" on the computer. The spawning of new terms such as "GG", "rak na itu", or "imba" in the local lexicon almost in the same cultural effect as bekinese (gay lingo) or jejenese, owes itself to DotA.
Hence, it comes as no surprise that the watered-down, less-than-impressive version of a "testament" to the DotA movement, paired with an amateurish poster and a cringe-worthy trailer, has brought so much backlash from fans not just of DotA, but also of "decent Philippine films".
Am I coming into defense of everything that DotA:Nakakabaliw is and the message stands for - the gasgas or overused "lesson" that video games make our poor, easily influenced children go mad, violently kill each other, and eat stolen bananas without taking off the peel (seriously, that was in the movie), therefore we should ban video games in the name of our most Holy, computer-hating Lord? Heck, naw.
I'm just saying, maybe, maybe this'll sound a little crazy, but bear with me: maybe Filipinos shouldn't take things so seriously.
Marguerite de Leon tackles the Filipino inability to recognize satire in her Rappler article (http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/43040-filipinos-satire-jinggoy), linking it to the lack of critical thinking bestowed upon us as a people. Only the educated can distinguish such "deep jokes" from the truth. I won't argue with her, mainly because I don't have a more concrete explanation for this, but I will tell you, as a nation of supposedly "happy" people, it's quite saddening to know that Pinoys can't tell a joke when it comes to hit them across the head with a keyboard (yes, that happens in the movies as well).
Instead, what I get from sharing things like the poster to DotA: Nakakabaliw, or, say, a poorly made fancast of someone's favorite anime with the industry's most "in-demand" but highly inappropriate actors for the role, are flaming comments of disapproval, of anger, of all-caps and gratuitous punctuation. Sigh. If only people felt the same way about those who are running this country into the gutter.
If you also think that I'm here to promote the movie, you are mistaken. In fact, I advise you to not support this movie. Do not watch it in theaters. Whatever you do, do not pay for this film. For the sake of this country, do not encourage this film at all.
But I'm not saying you shouldn't watch it, either. "Huh? But how will we not support it and at the same time not watch it?" Well, use your coconut. Wait for the pirated release. Watch it. Laugh. Cry - a lot. I know I will, when I watch it.
"But if you don't want us to encourage this film, why are you writing this sad excuse for a blog post?"
Let's just say I'm a connoisseur of so-bad-it's-good things - hello, trying hard but still terrible commercials; hello, "localized" posters we see in newspapers attempting to entice the Filipino into watching these lesser-known films with lame graphics and long, tiring, unnecessary explanations; and hello, Hotel Sogo's new campaign and like page (don't get me wrong, I really do love you, Hotel Sogo).
Learn how to take things the way some people eat their pineapples - with a grain of salt. Learn how to appreciate something so ugly that it becomes beautiful. Learn to take your hands away from your eyes for a while, and just laugh. Learn from other peoples' mistakes. Learn the phrase "It's so bad, it's good".
And, cinema enthusiasts, heard of the films "The Room", "Birdemic", or "Sharknado"? Before you poop your pants with rage at the trench-deep plunge Filipino cinema has taken, see what America has done, see the lesser abominations it has brought the world, and maybe you can appreciate too the local, beautiful, terrible cringe fest that is proudly our own.
Saddened as I was that rising talents like Joyce Ching had to be exploited for this film to take off, I was also kind of grateful. No, I wasn't grateful that a film like this was allowed to have a nationwide commercial release when films like "Grand Budapest Hotel", and some of our local greats like "Norte" or "Thy Womb" enjoy or enjoyed limited screenings.
I was grateful that indeed, something "so bad, it's good" was made. Finally! Here is the Category 5 Kaiju of bad films! The current unbeatable champion of bad films! The feature length equivalent of Hotel Sogo's new promotion campaign (I love you, Hotel Sogo) and gross, Colonial Mentality promoting whitening soaps! It's finally, thankfully here, and I am so darn happy!
DotA: Nakakabaliw is something that probably scraped the very bottom of the barrel for Filipinos everywhere, yes, especially you DotA fans, that they finally realize what it is to be "naaasar" (pissed off), to be insulted, to demand for something they deserve. It might seem like a far cry from something truly nationally relevant, but hey, it's a start. After all, it only takes something truly bad, truly terrible, for us to know what "good" really means, and at we still are aware of what quality means.
Did I have a point with all of this? Probably not. Perhaps, what I wanted to say, after so many words, is that I'm totally pushing through with that free DotA: Nakakabaliw viewing party, once the film comes out on Youtube, or torrent, or "dibidi-dibidi".
