Whether the Weather Is Fine

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.

From a survivor's point of view, the movie brings back so many memories of that unfaithful day. The struggles were very much reminiscent of how we Taclobanons behaved days after Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the city. Above all, I'm just impressed as to how they genuinely sounded like native Waray people. It amazes me to see a representation of us Warays in the big screen.

Carlo Francisco Manatad's Kun Maupay It Panahon (Whether the Weather is Fine) revolves around the aftermath of the super-typhoon Yolanda at Tacloban, Leyte. It is told from the perspective of three people: Miguel (played by Daniel Padilla), Andrea (Rans Rifol), and Norma (Charo Santos). The film presents the struggles that Filipinos experienced in order to survive the devastating effects of the typhoon.

Right at the beginning, one can already tell that the production design is remarkable. It was able to replicate the horrendous sights; dead bodies lying on the ground, destroyed appliances and furniture scattered around, the children's innocence (personally, I felt scared for them), people fighting, praying, wailing. Combined with the wide-angle compositions, it gives off a sense of immersion for the viewers as to what it could feel like being in those places-rather, in that state. Dir. Manatad focused more on the characters' emotions and thoughts, which made it more intriguing considering that the three main characters had different goals. They also had different perspectives of the reality they are experiencing.

Generally, the film was able to showcase the various impacts of a typhoon (though this film is centered on typhoon Yolanda, it also speaks up for the other typhoons that the Philippines encounter) to people.

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".

At the end, my mother stood on the cliff and fireworks bloomed behind, contributing a very beautiful and unforgettable scene.