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FILM CRITIQUES
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Everything Fleeting but Ceaseless
Digging Societal Realities through the Lenses of Regional Cinema WRITTEN BY MDPN. JOHN ROVIC LOPEZ FILM STILLS FROM LOOKING FOR RAFFLESIAS AND OTHER FLEETING THINGS BY JAMES FAJARDO
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his is not just a mere film of discovery. In a profound sense, there is more to this plot where characters seem to explore and unravel things that are both spoken and unspoken of. The quaint community is deemed weird per se. At least for people like Darren (Kevin Andrews) who sees the disappearances or murders linking to folktales as peculiar. The presence of rare flowers called Rafflesias, crimes left without a trace of the real killer (save the suspected horse demon), and things that are about to be confronted by a shape-shifting teenage boy, Gubat—all of them have one thing in common: corpses.
Several mysteries are familiar to the residents and some are not. There is magic about this film and some gruesome reality behind it. Lurking in the forests of the town, the film is indeed a Rafflesia— beautiful and awe-inspiring in its way but unpleasant in some ways. But aside from this are other fleeting things that leave the audience thinking what they really are and if they really are fleeting.
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The DOLPHIN | NOVEMBER 2021
