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A Reaction Paper On Taya

1) The document discusses the 2013 Filipino short film Taya, which depicts street games played by children as metaphors for chaotic events in Philippine society. 2) In the film, the street game "bangsak" is portrayed as a metaphor for police chasing criminals and criminals evading police, with clips alternating between children playing and police shootings. 3) The film also depicts the street game "patintero" as mirroring behavior at political rallies, cutting between clips of children playing and police blocking protesters. 4) While the contrasts made in these two games were effective, the document suggests the director could have provided more evidence to strengthen the contrast portrayed between the street game "target"

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4K views2 pages

A Reaction Paper On Taya

1) The document discusses the 2013 Filipino short film Taya, which depicts street games played by children as metaphors for chaotic events in Philippine society. 2) In the film, the street game "bangsak" is portrayed as a metaphor for police chasing criminals and criminals evading police, with clips alternating between children playing and police shootings. 3) The film also depicts the street game "patintero" as mirroring behavior at political rallies, cutting between clips of children playing and police blocking protesters. 4) While the contrasts made in these two games were effective, the document suggests the director could have provided more evidence to strengthen the contrast portrayed between the street game "target"

Uploaded by

david3raser
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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David Joshua V.

Bernardo November 4, 2019


IG202-Dylan ENG03
A REACTION PAPER ON TAYA

Maiba, taya! Sino ‘di magbago taya! When summarizing Filipino street games, a common
characteristic that can usually be observed is the presence of a taya, a person who performs the
main action of the game (in English, taya can be translated into it). In order to determine the taya
of a game, a song (its lyrics stated in the first sentence) is usually sang before the game starts. The
song can vary depending on the game. In ice ice water, the song is altered to align with the main
theme of the game. It involves children making a circle, putting their feet inside the circle, and a
volunteer who would sing the song of ice ice water as he points to different feet. If the volunteer
points to your feet at the end of the song, you’ll have to switch with your other feet. If your other
feet is pointed at again by the volunteer, then you are saved from being taya. As children are saved
from being the taya, children who are still in the circle would sing the song with increasing
excitement as they worry that the taya would catch them easily after he or she has been determined.
Whenever we stepped out of our houses, these were the games that we played, and it eventually
became the reason why we would. If one who had played similar street games during his childhood
recall these games, he would think of it as something pure, profound or innocent, and under no
circumstances would he think that these games were parallel to events of chaos. However, despite
the overall playful but innocent nature of Filipino street games, Taya, a short film entry in
Cinemalaya 2013, was able to recognize and convincingly envision that street games Filipino
children played mirrored chaotic events in the Philippine society.

In the short film, numerous street games were included, but I would like to particularly
focus on bangsak, target and patintero. In bangsak, the taya of the game should find for the other
players. When he does, he must exclaim, “Bang!”, which is followed by the caught player’s name
for the player to know that he has been found. On the contrary, if an unseen player finds the taya,
he should touch him and exclaim, “Sak!”. Doing so would result in the conclusion of the game,
and the taya will have the same position in the following game. The film portrays this as a
metaphor for police officers chasing and finding criminals, and criminals running from and trying
to execute police officers. After a clip of children playing a bangsak, the next clip portrays police
officers in the dark, and shooting at people who are presumably criminals. The contrast between
bangsak and such event completely shock and caught my attention, especially when the sound of
a shooting gun intervenes between the two clips. From thereon, I was slightly convinced that
David Joshua V. Bernardo November 4, 2019
IG202-Dylan ENG03
bangsak originated from the quarrel of police and criminals, but aside from this, two more games,
patintero and target, have also been compared to chaotic events.

The film portrays patintero as a mirror to the behavior of people in rallies. As patintero
involves children surpassing other playmates who block their way to the other end, a clip of people
being blocked by police officers with their shield followed the clip of children playing patintero.
For target, the game involves collecting rocks, and throwing it at distant cans. The clip the
followed the clip of playing target showed people throwing materials (and even materials set on
fire) at other people. Likewise, my opinion on the contrast made in bangsak, the short fim
successfully portrayed the vision he wanted people to see with patintero and target, but I think for
these two games, the director was not able to put more evidence or clips that could strengthen the
contrast he wanted to portray. In conclusion, Taya remains as one of the hidden gems of Philippine
cinema, as a unique approach was taken by the director when trying to envision his story.

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