Small-town life has its banes and blessings. In a place where everyone knows everyone else, it is easy to keep track of one's coming and goings, with secrets only barely kept hidden before they are aired out to dry on the grapevine, perused, analyzed, embroidered, enlarged.
But even as it can be stifling, small-town life can also be affirming, giving one the assurance that there are family, friends and neighbors looking out for one's welfare, ready to lend a hand, offer wisdom and sympathy, or just the time to sit and listen.
For many, the best compromise has been to strike out on one's own, leave the small town behind to find one's luck and calling in the "bigger" world, and push the boundaries of one's life beyond even the most extravagant dreams woven in one's reveries. And then, when one has found success elsewhere and life has become too complicated, to return and revisit one's roots, dredging up memories and old friendships, remembering simpler times, simpler dreams.
The movie "Ploning" marks writer/director Dante Nico Garcia's return to his hometown and to his childhood. Even by Philippine standards, his hometown is smaller and more remote than usual, being the island of Cuyo in Palawan province. So isolated is the town that its people speak their own language, Cuyonon, which sounds like a mish-mash of Visayan and Tagalog, with a smattering of Ilocano.
At movie's close, the filmmakers dedicate "Ploning" to everyone who continues to speak Cuyonon, but most especially to the younger generation who are beginning to forget their unique tongue. I suspect it is Garcia talking to himself, his way of preserving the Cuyo he once knew, while appreciating the Cuyo that is changing before his eyes, and mainly because, having left Cuyo to establish himself in the entertainment business, he now sees the town with new eyes.
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But while "Ploning" is a homage to Cuyo, it is likewise a homage to the writer/director's close friend and collaborator, Judy Ann Santos, who among her generation of actors has established a career marked by both box-office success and critical acclaim.
"I have been listening to Ga [Garcia's nickname] talk about this story for years now," confides Carol, Judy Ann's mother, with whom we had hitched a ride from "Ploning's" preview to the site of a dinner that "Juday" herself had prepared. "But since he would begin talking about it only after some drinks, I thought it was just usapang lasing (drunken talk)." He'd been spinning this "movie in his mind" for so long, Garcia told the press, "that I felt I had to make something of it or my brain would just explode!"
"Ploning's" story, says Garcia, is "loosely based" on the stories of the most important women in his life: his mother and his grandmother, his surrogate mother on the island. It was also inspired by his friend Judy Ann, for whom he had vowed he would make a movie on her 30th birthday.
This embodiment of the women in his life Garcia has named "Ploning," which is also the title of a haunting Cuyonon folk song about a woman waiting for the man she loves.
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And that is where we find "Ploning" as the movie opens: standing on the shore of Cuyo, looking out to sea, clutching the dried seed of a local fruit, a talisman of hope and anticipation.
Ploning is the daughter of the town's biggest landowner who has started her own business making cashew brittle. Admired by her town-mates, Ploning is everyone's friend and adviser, ever-helpful, ever-reliable, and who has in fact assumed the duties of surrogate mother to Digo whose own mother is half-paralyzed and must spend her days in bed.
And yet, while always available and on-call to her friends and neighbors, Ploning remains something of a mystery. She has told no one about what has happened to Tomas, her boyfriend who left for Manila years before. And while she is warm and loving to Digo, she is strangely remote to her own aging father. Then one day, Digo overhears talk that Ploning is about to leave for Manila to search for Tomas. He tries everything to stop his "Nay Ploning" from leaving, and when on the day the rains come and it seems like Ploning has indeed left the island, Digo makes a move that triggers a tragedy whose repercussions will be felt even decades hence.
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As Ploning, Judy Ann Santos assumes the look and demeanor by which we first knew her. "It's back to her 'Esperanza' days," commented film critic Mario Hernando, referring to her first soap opera which made her famous.
But it is Esperanza with a difference, for while Judy Ann goes back to her simple dresses and long locks, she gives Ploning maturity and ripeness, a depth of character that hints at a life lived fully and well, and in certain shots, she appears as if she is actually glowing.
The cinematography, in fact, assumes a character of its own. I especially loved the flesh tones, especially in the fading afternoon sun. Charlie Peralta, I am told, enjoys quite a reputation in the business, and in "Ploning" he employs his gifts to create breathtaking sceneries of Cuyo and moving portraits of its people.
There is no leading man in the movie to lend it romantic buzz, but Judy Ann is supported by a most able cast, the royalty of Philippine indie cinema, in fact. In addition, Garcia tapped some local Cuyonon actors, whose naturalistic acting sets the tone for the rest of the actors, most notably Cedric Amit as Digo, and Boodge Fernandez as the mysterious visitor.
Moving, dazzling, and yet intimate and comforting, "Ploning" is a worthy tribute to small-town life and mores, to women of heart and bravery, and to filmmakers of courage and integrity. Judy Ann is lucky to have found a friend in "Ga," for no one could have gotten a better birthday gift.
