THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 6 Number 2 | NOVEMBER 2015
Western Union
goes to the movies
ENTERTAINMENT
15
Miss Philippines-Australia 2015
RICA SEY
RICA
Alido Sey, representing the
Visayan Association of Australia,
was crowned Miss Philippines
Australia 2015 at the Fiesta Kultura
held last month at the Fairfield
Showground.
IN conjunction with a Radio Pinoy promotion
(98.5 FM), Western Union, leaders in money
remittances, took a group of Filipinos to
watch the historical film, “Heneral Luna” at
Hoyts Theatres, Blacktown last October 30.
With matching yellow t-shirts blazened with “Bilib ako sa
Pinoy”, and patriotism pumping through their veins, the Western
union group marched through the Hoyts Theatres to watch a slice
of Philippine history.
Tickets were handed out to callers of Pinoy Radio for the last
couple of weeks. “We got a good response, said Ross Aguilar,
the anchor man for Pinoy Radio.
Unity for Purpose made it possible for the movie to be
screened in Australia. The movie was shown in Melbourne,
Sydney and is scheduled for screening in Brisbane and Perth in
the next few weeks. Proceeds from the movie go to “Tulong sa
Kapwa Kapatid” charity in the Philippines.
“It was a fun night for the Filipino community. And more
importantly, it was good to be reminded of History’s lessons.”
said Western Union spokesperson, Benjie de Ubago.
Rica, 19, also won Best
in Evening Gown, Miss
Photogenic and Best in
Swimwear.
She was the crowd
favourite and her supporters
from the VAA came out in
full force to cheer her at the
coronation night.
“I’m so overwhelmed,”
Rica said after the coronation.
“This crown also belongs to all
who supported me.”
Rica is from Lugarno in
Sydney south. She is currently
studying a bachelor’s degree in
teaching. She is the daughter
of Alex and Lita Sey.
Chit Serra, her manager and
the former manager of Glyssa
helped Rica in winning the
title.
The Charity Queen 2015
title was awarded to Susana
Downes who was also named
‘Miss Popularity’. Runnerup was Jerelyn Tabuan who
was also named Charity
Princess 2015 and Best in
Filipiniana. Gabby Escubio
(won the title of Miss
Friendship.
The Miss PhilippinesAustralia pageant has become
the traditional highlight of
the annual Fiesta Kultura,
“I’M SO OVERWHELMED,” RICA SAID
AFTER THE CORONATION. “THIS
CROWN ALSO BELONGS TO ALL
WHO SUPPORTED ME.”
It is the second year in a
row that a VAA beauty won
the pageant. Last year’s Miss
Phils-Australia, Glyssa Perez,
also represented the Visayans.
The support of Gabe
Amor to groom Miss Rica and
considered the biggest fiesta
gathering for the Pinoy
community in NSW.
The Fiesta Kultura is
organised by the Philippine
Australian Sports and Culture
Inc. [with Richard Ford]
THANKS to charity group
(Unity4Purpose) and community
volunteers, we finally got to see
the much talked about ‘Heneral
Luna’ at the Hoyts last month.
By TITUS FILIO
THE film, directed by Jerrold Tarog, is a biopic on General
Antonio Luna of the Fil-Am war era and we can only hope that
this gets into the shortlist of the Academy Awards for Best
Foreign Language Film.
Yet like all great films there are the highs and lows that go
with Heneral Luna. I was happy with the entirety of the movie
but I think there were some missed opportunities in what
could have been a real epic.
Two great things about this film: firstly, we get an
understanding of Heneral Luna (as portrayed so well by actor
John Arcilla) – his humanity, his romantic side and even his
good son nature despite his brash approach to leadership,
and his zeal to unify a splintered Filipino armed forces.
Secondly, it provides a front seat view to the encounters
of the great and not-so-great personalities caught in the
political marketplace during an important chapter in the
country’s history. The narrative (such as Heneral Luna’s clash
with the political heavyweights of his time) is engaging
complete with rather comic twists and surprises.
The lows? Well, it is always difficult to produce films that
mix a genre of historical fiction and action, of tragedy and
even comedy (yes, the dialogues were flavoured with Pinoy
humour – that’s us, really!) but the film has been laced, rather
too much, with rhetoric that made it appear more like a
propaganda reel than a simply great movie to enjoy.
Too straightforward. The film rightly served the fare (fried
patriotism in anger-powdered sauce) but the bombastic
clichés could spoil one’s appetite.
Now was there a disjoint somewhere in the plot? I had
that feeling that the emotion brewed in the movie’s entirety
was a bit one-sided. One ends up hating the Filipinos more
and the Americans less despite the fact that it was the
new colonisers who were doing the really badass job of
subjugating the archipelago.
At the start, the storyline showed the two sides of Heneral
Luna as a man fighting a foreign oppressor and a man
fighting his own people. The movie succeeded in showing
the latter but the general’s crusade against the new invaders
somehow got lost. Hardly did the movie make viewers
understand the dark side of American imperialism. After
all, General Luna’s relevance in our history was within that
backdrop. He resisted American occupation.
Heneral
Luna
A Review
My comments:
On the characters: John Arcilla was really great in
this one. He deserves a best actor award. The Americans:
where did they get those talents? Not too convincing, they
appeared like showmen from a Barnum Circus; the portrayal
of General Aguinaldo (Mon Confiado) in this film was just
too subdued.
On the battle scenes: War movies often show ‘borrowed’
battle scenes but this film shows just too many familiar scenes.
I swear some of the scenes were ‘Savin r&