Week 1, QCinema International Film Festival 2020
QCinema 2020 Film Lineup — CLICK HERE

Death is such a strange concept, as it could mean either of two things: it could be in a literal sense, that the life source of someone or something has ceased to exist, or it could be in a metaphorical sense, that even though it’s still alive and kicking, its will to live is practically non-existent. Oda sa Wala, or Ode to Nothing, managed to depict that and more, in a way that it conveys an agitating message about loneliness and emptiness, and what it can do to people. The film is about Sonya, an old maid, whose existence is only known when death is looming…

It takes a while before any of the characters say a word. The opening minutes linger in the silence of this home, and in the details of that silence. Moths flock around an electric light. A woman listens to a Chinese song on a walkman in bed. If you are Chinese, or simply familiar with Chinese folk music, you might recognize the song as Mo Li Hua, a centuries old song about a beautiful flower that catches everyone's eye. If you are neither of those things, it still somehow stands as a piece of compelling incongruity. An older man switches off a light. The woman switches it back on. The tape gets unraveled inside the aging walkman. In the morning,…

My God, I'm so lonely
So I open the window
To hear sounds of people
To hear sounds of people


Venus, planet of love
Was destroyed by global warming
Did its people want too much too?
Did its people want too much?


And I don't want your pity
I just want somebody near me
Guess I'm a coward
I just want to feel alright


And I know no one will save me
I just need someone to kiss
Give me one good honest kiss
And I'll be alright


Nobody, nobody, nobody
Nobody, nobody
Ooh, nobody, nobody


I've been big and small and
Big and small and
Big and small again
And still nobody wants me
Still nobody wants me


And…

QCinema International Film Festival 2020 | QCinema Ranked

Tahimik. Nagmistulang aklatan ang tahanan mula nang  mapundi ang ilaw nito. Nakakabinging katahimikan. Binabalot ako nito at tinatalakbong ngunit hindi init kundi lamig ang aking nararamdaman. Ganito ba ang buhay kuwarenta’y kuwatro? Nakakapagod mabuhay. Pero mas nakakapagod kapag wala ka pang kasangga sa buhay, ‘yung tipong yayakapin ka bawat gabi sa tuwing ika’y giniginaw, sabay halik sa noo bilang pagpapaalala na hindi ka nag-iisa. Eh nag-iisa nga.

Habang buhay na lamang ako mangungulila sa pag-ibig na kaasam-asam. Ano ba ‘yan, bakit ba kasi ang dilim dito? Si Itay naman kasi, pinapatay pa ‘yung ilaw. Ayan. Hindi naman kami mapuputulan agad. Paulit-ulit na itong Intsik na kanta pero may kakaiba kasi dito kaya…

"...maybe it would be better if I just disappeared. Rather than physically be here, but feel invisible all the time."

Silence, loneliness, and death. Money, family, and affection. Taho, music, and cake. All these mundane things were brought to life in an unearthly, disturbing execution while it let us trance in melancholy. Oda sa Wala is a great piece of cinema in finding humanity in the macabre form. The bleakness transcends and resonated with me as I reach the ending, hence, the more I think about this film, the desolation becomes more real.

Marietta Subong's performance is close to home. During my break from Letterboxd, I was a total disaster and I started to feel/become non-existent in my own home.…

Sonya is searching for many things. She’s searching for the wealth that would allow her to keep her embalming business open; she’s searching for the love of the neighbourhood taho vendor; she’s searching for some way to make herself feel less invisible. “I’m afraid to be all alone,” she says. And this deep sense of loneliness and isolation is felt instantly.

Dwein Baltazar’s Ode to Nothing lets Sonya’s loneliness consume the viewer through its silence. Silence permeates the first half of the film. There’s very minimal dialogue, as we look through a window (literally) into the routine and life of the film’s lead. The only sounds heard are the ones that we barely notice because we’re so accustomed to them.…

There are so many great reviews of this film out in Letterboxd already, I think I'll take the personal route with this one.

When I was on the jury for the QCinema grant, we had to choose between Oda sa Wala and another film. We chose the other film. Don't get me wrong, we loved the Oda sa Wala script. It's just that at the time Dwein was already working on Gusto Kita With All My Hypothalamus and we wanted to give chance to others. Also, the script was around 40 pages long, so we had our reservations.

I'm glad we were wrong. And I'm glad the other film dropped out, so Oda sa Wala got the slot anyway.

For…

Magical-realist art-film from the Philippines, about an extremely lonely older woman who works as a mortician, whose life changes when a new corpse arrives that might still be alive (?). The central mystery is never explained, but, she and her father treat the corpse as though it is a living person, talking to it, serving it meals, etc. The "magical" part are scenes where the corpse moves....or is it all in their imagination?

Again: not the point. The point is the loneliness/despair/exploitation/atomization that leads her (and her father) to accept/need companionship of that sort. And the film illustrates this very well:

One of my least favorite aspects of modern art-films is the "set a stationary camera in the corner and…

I have never seen loneliness feel more quirky and miserable than the one expressed so carefully in Oda Sa Wala. It feels like a movie that effectively mixes the dry and dark humor of a Coen Brothers picture with the sentimental characters of a Yasujiro Ozu film. In being both ridiculously funny and sad, there is a sense of eerie loneliness that captures you at every step as you feel for the isolation of a mortician trying to make ends meet at a funeral parlor.

Pokwang's performance as Sonya the undertaker successfully brings this movie to a level that is near-perfect. Her ability to switch from one dramatic tone to another while emulating the insanities that flood her character is…

Have you ever felt the sense of nothingness and the depression of lacking a purpose except to survive? Marietta Subong delivers such an exceptional performance as Sonya, the 43-year old embalmer struggling to make ends meet. We see as Sonya overcame long days of nothing, no companionship, no family other than her indifferent father and no sense of purpose other than to pay off their family debt.

With the arrival of a mysterious corpse, Sonya and her father regained the color of their lives. The corpse is ultimately treated as their deceased matriarch, companion, friend and lucky charm to the father and daughter. Even with the morbid display, the audience could come to empathize with the characters as they use…