written and directed by Khavn de la Cruz
Up until last Wednesday night, I had never sat through a movie thinking that I was experiencing "The Emperor's New Clothes." Watching Khavn de la Cruz's political-satire-cum-musical-cum-comedy EDSA XXX, I sincerely couldn't help but wonder if the filmmaker was sitting the corner snickering and waiting for someone in the audience to holler "this film is terrible!" the same way the child in that fairy tale pointed out the emperor's obvious nakedness.
EDSA XXX is billed as an "absurdist" look at the EDSA phenomenon. In this "alternate universe" the fictionalized Philippines, here dubbed the Republic of "Ek-Ek-Ek" has had thirty EDSA uprisings in all, and as presidents as a result, but for reasons no one can understand, life doesn't seem to have improved at all for its citizens. The film begins as yet another President, "Kulog Negro" (translated rather viciously as "Thunder Nigger" rather than "Black Thunder"), about to be deposed via another uprising, is found dead in his house. He is promptly replaced with "Three Eyes" (Epy Quizon) a president supposedly divinely preordained for the position. Unfortunately, things seem just as bad as they were before, and soon Three Eyes, actually a simpleton named Kulas, must discover the truth behind why nothing good has happened even after thirty "EDSA" revolutions, something he can only do with the help of a prostitute and his constant companion (Sheree).
The synopsis really doesn't quite capture the utter strangeness of this experience. The film is loaded from beginning to end with inside jokes and references to Filipino history and pop culture, but given that there does seem to be some intent to sell this film to an international audience, I think de la Cruz might have laid the "absurdity" on a little too thick.
Also, I have never seen a film more deliberately wear its nano-budget heritage so proudly on its sleeve. From the consistently horrible looping (or the dubbing of the dialogue), which could only have been deliberate and a likely reference to the awful looping of most Filipino films of the 80s, to the special effects, in particular fake digital blood, that look like they were hatched in a smartphone, this film just seems to scream: "hey, look at how deliberately schlocky I am. I could have been better, if the filmmakers had an actual budget for things like locations, costumes and that sort of thing." There are even two scenes of characters defecating, replete with farting sounds, another possible reference to the low-budget Filipino comedies that were en vogue in the dying days of martial law. The thing is, as deliberate as it is, I still don't know if that's a good thing. Yes, most Filipinos familiar with films of the era will probably get the references, but few other viewers will. It's a bit too much of an inside joke.
The good news, though, is that the film does have its heart in the right place, so to speak, as Khavn peppers the entire affair with archival footage from the three actual uprisings dubbed "EDSA," the first in 1986, the second and third in 2001, as if to remind people what this film is really about. The problem to me, though is that the filmmakers are so meticulously dedicated to making the film as off-the-wall goofy as possible that it ultimately dilutes whatever advocacy they're pushing, which is really a shame because I think they have something really important to say here.
5/10
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