Film Review: Mga Mumunting Lihim

Mga Mumutning Lihim by Director Jose Javier Reyes,
an entry in the 8th Cinemalaya Film Festival, Director's Showcase Category

Of the four films I’ve watched in Cinemalaya this year, this film gets my “Best in Making Everybody Laugh Award” next to REquieme! Yes, Mga Mumunting Lihim gave me a good laugh (more like of guffaws!).  

Plot:

The story revolved around 4 friends, Mariel (played by Judy Ann Santos), Carla (Iza Calzado), Sandra (Agot Isidro) and Olive (Janice de Belen).  The dilemma started when Mariel died and left her diaries to Carla, her best friend in the barkada.  

Left: childhood picture of Carla and Mariel; Right: Mariel's Urn)

Carla then started reading the diaries, which were enclosed with the different stories about Mariel’s life, but what are disturbing about the writings are her views about her three friends, including issues about Carla, herself, with whom she left the diaries to. These writings later on ruined the friendship, most especially their trust and peace of mind. 

Upper photo, from left to right: Sandra, Olive, Carla and Mariel;
Lower photo: The barkada having their usual bonding time in a restaurant.
(Photos from www.google.com.ph/imgres)

Mise-en-scene:

Since the movie pretty much rolled along because of the barkada issues, I must say that the symbol used here were Mariel’s diaries. If it weren’t for the diaries, the story wouldn’t have transpired. The diaries spoke of the issues and secrets of a friend who has practically back-stabbed her other friends through writing. These diaries then were the symbols used by the director to convey a story. 

Mariel's Diaries

Movie Review:

This movie is superb. I shed tears because of too much laughter! The story wasn’t that hard to understand, we all can easily relate to it and was very much entertaining, really.

However, it was too typical: the actresses were all famous. Actually, the story wasn’t much of an Indie film; I really thought that it was produced by Star Cinema. The only thing film that fitted the category of being an indie film, for me, is the dialogues. No censorship of words, vulgar words were pretty much delivered in the movie and most of their topics were a product of “green-minds”.

Nevertheless, I would like to give my congratulations to Direk Jose Javier Reyes for a very hilarious film, I really enjoyed watching.

Director Jose Javier Reyes poses with his film's poster.
(Photo from www.pusangkalye.net)

 - Klara Martinez, 202C