My first reaction after watching Ulan was that it was like the critically-acclaimed movie, Pan's Labyrinth. Both movies show the wedding between fantasy and reality within the gaze of a female character, amidst the backdrop of the prevailing social realities. But Ulan is even closer to the heart because it touches on Philippine realties.
Ulan's narrative intertwines Maya's real situation with the mythical world created by the imagination of the young Maya. It shows the innocence, imagination, and hopefulness of a child and the sadness, horrors, and hopelessness of reality as then realized by the older Maya. While the young Maya can easily solve her dilemmas with a simple work of imagination - just transforming those bullies into eggs - the older Maya has to struggle. She has to deal with small paychecks, a sexist superior, and a disastrous lovelife. The great cinematography and smooth transitions between these two narratives have helped in the realization of this poetic vision of the filmmaker. Even with two different narratives, the film is still so coherent that no scene is wasted apart.
What I really liked about the film is how it tackles Philippine social realities. It shows state neglect. It shows how the effects of natural disasters are aggravated by the lack of preventive actions and mitigating measures by the government . That beyond these concepts of forbidden love and tikbalangs, these current realities our the real hindrances in the fulfilment of our dreams and fantasies - just as how this torrential rain, brought about by anthropogenic climate disturbance as lamented by Ulan, the mythical creature, has shattered Maya's hope for a happy ever after. What I don't like though is that in the end, instead of teaching us the importance of volunteerism and collective pursuits is battling these realities, it has somehow disintegrated into mere self-love - see how Maya just held hands with her younger self in the end.
Overall, Ulan is sui generis, a class on its own. It is beyond a fairytale. It is a poem and a piece of art. It pushes the viewers to look beyond its narrative and ponder on the meaning of every scene. It encourages critical thinking, which mainstream films would normally not do in fear of loss of audience and profits. It shows us that our typical romantic movies can be turned into a piece of art where every detail has its symbol and every scene has its interpretation. Above all, it somehow teaches us that amidst the grimness of our reality, we should not give up especially on our ideals.
