Kun maupay man it panahon

For someone who experienced being hit by a chaotic disaster myself, I went inside the cinema expecting this critically-acclaimed film to be a medium to explore a story of family and drama while facing a catastrophic event that once filled all the headlines and brought in an international attention. But upon seeing the first few shots, accompanied by a very bizarre music compared to the visuals, I already felt what the film is trying to achieve.

Kun Maupay It Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine) - a debut film of Carlo Francisco Manatad - is a tale about three people; Miguel (Daniel Padilla), Norma (Charo Santos), and Andrea (Rans Rifol); while they cruise through the ruins of Tacloban, Leyte after the devastating supertyphoon Yolanda.

The film's composition of wide shots and very detailed production design gives a sense of immersiveness to the viewers to feel with the main characters. The ambiguity of the characters while they interact with the surroundings blends well with how they slowly walk towards their own different goals. And it's very evident how the treatment of Manatad plays not with the outward interaction of the characters with their environment, but with their inner emotions and perception of their current reality. I also like the film's satirical critique of the Filipino resiliency and the subtlety of how they tried to show it.

Overall, the absurdism of the film worked really well on portraying the stories of the characters. It's a storytelling that gives a firm social voice on how things usually unfolds on casastrophes outside and within ourselves. And it's truly devastating, whether the weather is fine - or not.

Whether the Weather Is Fine is a marvelous representation of surreal experiences meets real life events. In this film we find ourselves scraping at the bottom of the barrel when all has been lost due to the Typhoon, an occurrence almost deemed as anticipated in the Filipino life. Moments of hardship such as finding your loved one among the wreckage, exchanging rations for own personal desires, and finding ways to get off the island. Through this hardship the characters contemplate on future paths they ought to take which brings on the message of the film: having hope despite and in spite of challenges in life.

All messages accompanied with moments of tonal shifts between seriousness and comedy and even an surreal musical number that further implies the spiral down of sanity through these traumatic experiences. The film truly captures the Filipino tenacity but in no way romanticizes the suffering. As a Filipino I can truly relate and empathize with these sentiments however I fear that abroad it may be interpreted as another poverty porn film. For that I strongly advise the proper mindset and framework watching this film and that my fellow countrymen find time to watch this in support or to better grasp what happens to the calamity struck portions of our nation.

The film feels mesmerizing and experiencing to watch in general. The movie presents the issues of Filipino in rural areas struggling in the aftermath of natural disasters to survive. It brought into light the struggle of the people of Tacloban; you feel their pain on the screen, and it is something commonality for Filipino people when a natural disaster happens every year in areas with big typhoons or floods. I also love when they show dance scenes because Filipino would do in a situation in a natural disaster. They would deny their pain by showing something positive like a dance, joke, or smile to present a face in the media. The religious aspect of the movie is another Filipino aspect that is accurate since people in the film pray for this pain to be over. A thing that surprised me was Daniel Padilla's performance in the movie. I associate the actor's acting with his rom-com movies, but in the film, he did a good performance in the role. The best part of the film is how it is surliest or magic realism in the movie without spoiling it; both the visual and music incorporating it visualize the central theme about the aftermath.

Overall, I would really recommend this movie; it deserved more recognition and screening for Filipino people and other people interested in general. It shed topic that is close to Filipinos with a breathtaking experience.

This has got to be the most confusing, disrespectful, and cash grab movie I've seen in a while.

I'm a survivor and was happy to know when they announced that a movie was going to be made set in the aftermath of Haiyan and was going to be spoken in our dialect. But all that crumbled when I saw the movie. The movie felt like a cash grab and taking advantage of the Haiyan story.

The camera work and the sets were very good.

The dialogue was clunky. They speak unnaturally. Norma's accent is not something people from the city has. The pacing was slow. The plot line was confusing.

The subtitles did not match what the characters were saying. I wasn't reading the sub titles that much because what they were saying was different so it just confused me. So I'm not sure what the non-Waray speakers got but I got a lot of cringe dialogue. The movie was filled with try hard comic relief including their choice in songs.

I understood the absurdity and surrealism but it was too much for my taste.

I found how they portrayed the locals was disrespectful.

Norma felt pretentious. Civilians in the movie were mean and some acted savagely. We weren't like that. We were in a bad situation, but we were civilized. We greeted people with smiles and happiness. We didn't snatch people's relief bags from them. We looted shops mostly out of necessity. We shared what we looted with our neighbors and at night had our own patrol to make sure bad people don't take advantage of the dark or the fact that our police force was still out of commission.

The reason why I felt they took advantage of the Haiyan story was because the premise of the movie could have been done in any disaster scenario, even just a fake one. But they had to choose Haiyan because making a movie around a storm that left almost 10,000 dead and missing would have been a big hit and bring them big bucks and international recognition. It worked though.

The movie being set in post-Haiyan time was one of the biggest reason why it got the attention it did. If you changed Haiyan with some random/made up storm, it would not have gotten the attention it did. Again, taking advantage.

What further ticked me off was when director Carlo Manatad said in an interview with CNN Philippines that they already had a completed screen play for the movie, but only added the Haiyan element when Haiyan happened. Which further led me to believe that adding the Haiyan element was just a cash grab attempt considering it was an after thought.

When the movie came out in Tacloban, a lot of people that saw the movie said "you're better off watching Exorsis, at least that one was funny".

Whether the weather is fine is a film that focuses on immersing its audiences to the experiences of the characters, rather than the plot. At its core, this film tells the story of lost people, attempting to find direction in the midst of the chaos and the fog caused by the Typhoon Yolanda.

Something inherent in this film that can be both admirable in the perspective of a film-maker, but detrimental to the box office, is how personal the whole film feels like. It's as if we were asked to experience what these victims felt like when the typhoon hit the Philippines, and it does a tremendous job doing so.

Every frame in this scene smells stinky, and I mean that in an absolute good way. It succeeded in giving out an atmosphere that's only present in a third-world country that's been hit by a natural disaster this drastic, thanks to the cinematography that felt grounded and the direction that bodes well with its gritty visuals.

One weakness of the film can be traced back to its writing, and more specifically, the character's decisions throughout the film. It felt as if it were trying too hard to be humorous at times, which could feel unnecessary.

It's disgusting nature proved at times to be enough, and the moment it decided to go on a tonal shift, it felt too much.