Sa Ilalim ng Cogon Extended in Robinsons Galleria

SA ILALIM NG COGON
EXTENDED UNTIL DECEMBER 24, 2006
EXCLUSIVELY AT ROBINSONS GALLERIA

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon (Rico Maria Ilarde, 2005)
English Title: Beneath the Cogon
Movie Review by: Oggs Cruz

Rico Maria Ilarde's Sa Ilalim ng Cogon (Beneath the Cogon) feels like
four films feverishly stitched together into one. It starts out as a
heist pic. The film's hero ex-soldier Sam (Yul Servo) is the
designated driver for the film's initial heist sequence. While his
partners in crime are gathering their loot, he waits patiently in the
getaway car unaware that his prison pal Pepito (Raul Morit) (frequent
flashbacks make us aware that Sam was imprisoned for vagrancy --- the
prison pal explains the deficiencies of the law giving way to a
possible lifetime in prison) has shot his comrade in greed. The two
escape from the crime scene; makes a turn to a deserted road where
Pepito tries to shoot him unsuccessfully as Sam's military training
gives him the upper edge in gunslinging (Pepito dies; his final words
are as empty as his motivations) . Sam wanders aimlessly until he
reaches an estate (ominously gated with cement gargoyles adorning
such to keep out visitors).

Sam takes refuge in the abandoned manor of the estate. The manor by
itself looks ordinary; but as Sam explores the interiors of the
residence, the place slowly gathers a mysterious atmosphere and a
distinct personality. The unkept swimming pool has gathered several
years' crop of dead leaves and has become shelter for toads and other
aquatic lifeforms. The master bedroom reveals several pictures that
arouse further mysteries and questions; he also uncovers a laboratory
wherein forgotten experimentations are kept hidden. He notices
mysterious girl Katia (Julia Clarete) drop packages wrapped in banana
leaves just outside the fields covered with cogon grass --- doubling
the film's already very pregnant premise. While the nightmare-ish
storyline of barrio lass-in-distress mixed with science-gone- wrong
horror milieu is being developed by Ilarde and co-screenwriter Mammu
Chua, the heist/crime angle hasn't been forgotten and is kept
breathing for a combo climax that mixes the juggled genres in a not-
so-clean completion.

The genre-twisting done by Ilarde is actually a fascinating feat by
itself. Ilarde doesn't opt for seamless fusion but instead piles the
genre conventions upon each other; experimenting how characters and
situations delegated towards specific genres will survive in settings
and atmospheres of a botched experiment/horror plot. There's no
careful transformation; Sam starts out as misunderstood hero; his
entrance to the cogon forested estate doesn't change his status; he
is still the loveless ex-soldier who is ready to kick ass but is
bared by the arresting charms of Katia (a character who clearly does
not belong to the heist); his staying in the haunted estate forces
the genre-enclosed villains to invade the horror setting. These
uncomfortable genre meetings of these features are exhilerating:
muscle-for-hire suddenly makes an appearance after a fairy-tale
lovemaking conclusion; Ilarde exercises his action filmmaking
muscles; Katia interrupts the sudden savory kung-fu hiccup with a
mini-climax of sorts.

Ilarde directs like a mad scientist. Given twelve days of shooting,
with an almost non-existent budget, he creates scenes with a
seemingly undisciplined abandon and sews them together with perfect
timing and editing expertise. The careless direction (just in the
first actual scene, a supposed dead security guard suddenly moves),
the apt and instructed use of the digital medium, the well-entrenched
understanding of genre conventions turn Sa Ilalim ng Cogon into a
feature that quietly boggles yet surprisingly entertains. If Ilarde
has a directing style that is comparable to the rabid excitement of a
mad scientist, then Sa Ilalim ng Cogon may very well be his
Frankenstein' s monster. You can evidently see the stitches, the
hideous imperfections, the bumps and creases of an underperformed
surgery and the finished product is as unwieldly as the famed
monster. But with all its mistakes and misfires, one can't deny that
the film is indeed "alive" as compared to more polished features that
scare and shock, but drop dead when the gimmicks have run out.

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon
read this online at:
http://oggsmoggs.blogspot.com/

Sa Ilalim ng Cogon
view the trailer at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfcER5rYjdk