RPG Metanoia: Really, a Philippine Game-changer

RPG Metanoia: Film Review

          Everytime the Christmas season would come here in the Philippines we would always look forward to an event called the Metro Manila Film Festival,here they would showcase films made by Filipinos for Filipinos, ranging from different genres like horror and action comedy. Now in the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival way back in 2010 a film was released, a film that initially didn't capture the attention of viewers but marked a significant history in the history of Philippine Cinema.

          That film is RPG Metanoia, the first Philippine full length CG-Animated feature film and today I will be giving my review on this movie.

          RPG Metanoia revolves around an avid MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) player named Nico (voiced by Zaijan Jaranilla),  who lives a normal life as an eleven-year old boy but as soon as he plays the MMORPG Metanoia, he becomes an unpredictable fighter armed with a magical yoyo and uncanny speed and agility in his skill set.

          The plot starts to unfold after Nico lost a bet wherein he wasn't allowed to enter the computer shop anymore, forcing him to resort to traditional Filipino games played outside for entertainment and joy. This became an advantage as playing outside actively with his five male friends (who also have different characters when playing Metanoia) made their friendship stronger, they also made friends with a girl named May (played by Mika Dela Cruz) whom Nico started having feelings for later in the movie.

 

           During the course of the movie, Nico is guided by his parents (voiced by Aga Mulach and Eugene Domingo respectively) his mommy supports him in everything he does while his daddy understands him more as he is also a player of Metanoia.

          The main antagonist of the movie is Cel (voiced by Vhong Navarro) , the owner of the aforementioned computer shop who is also a very mysterious guy. Cel is also a player of Metanoia but his intentions are devious, he seeks to control it's world.

          I won't give out the full details of the plot, that is for you to find out but I will still give my 2 cents about the movie.


          Personally I appreciated the movie, for both it's technical at creative achievements. Being the Philippines' first full-length 3D-Animated film, it looks fantastic, the film was in production for almost 4 years which gave the creators enough time to meticulously render and animate the detailed world of RPG Metanoia in 3D.

          The film was able to incorporate the Philippine  cultures and traditions while at the same time creating it's own world. This blending of Filipino culture with the science fiction adventure theme of the film resulted in a great movie.

          But of course no movie is without flaw and RPG Metanoia has a lot in terms of it's technical aspects. Particularly the sound design. Even though the film won Best Sound Recording and Best Original Theme Song at the 36th Metro Manila Film Festival I felt that the sound was lacking.

          There were times when I was looking for some sound effects that would have elevated the story but unfortunately they weren't there. Some dialogue sounds were not in-sync with their characters on-screen. Sound is one of the most integral parts of a movie and this film could have paid more attention to it.          

The different characters of RPG Metanoia.

           To conclude, I give the film a rating of 7.5/10. Instead of focusing on its technical flaws, I will be commending its achievements. This film is a milestone in the history of Philippine Cinema where it proved that Filipinos can create detailed and interesting animated films on par with those made abroad. The films also explored the possibility that we can create animated films about our culture that won't be "corny" and that we can be proud about them.

Parasitic Beasts pt. 1

          Parasyte is a science-fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki and published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga has been adapted into two live-action films and an anime television series but for the purpose of this blog I will be focusing on the first live action film adaptation of Parasyte, since it was the one shown to us.

"Parasyte" movie poster.

          In my experience, live action adaptations of anime or manga series tend to be bad. They fail to capture the magic of the series; the actors can't recreate the qualities of the characters they're portraying and the length of the movie limits the story giving no time for story and character development.

          As for "Parasyte," I can't say if it was a good or bad adaptation since I'am not familiar with the source material, so for this blog I will be reviewing the movie from a moviegoer's point of view and not from an anime fanatic's view.

Shinichi with the parasyte "Migi."

          The movie is an interesting mix of genres, being a science-fiction horror action film with a little bit of comedy in it. The story centers around the invasion of parasitic aliens who take over human brains and feed on other people, after taking over the brain they are able to control the body of their host. Our protagonist Shinichi Izumi (played endearingly by Shota Sometani); an average high school boy is able to stop a parasyte just in time before it was able to reach his brain, this results into the creature being stuck in his right hand where it controlled that instead.

          Since it failed to take over its host completely the alien knows that in order to survive his host has to survive. He therefore decides to join forces with Shinichi to battle other parasytes who try to kill his host. Shinichi aptly names the alien "Migi" which means "right" in Japanese. Shinichi later fights his own battles with the two having an advantage in both being able to act independently and work as a team.


A parasyte, about to consume it's victim.

          That is basically the plot of the film, of course the two of them will face more powerful parasytes but I will not be going into detail about them because  I want this to be a spoiler-free movie review.

          Overall, from a normal moviegoer's point of view, I give the movie a rating of 7/10. For me the story was a bit rushed, not giving enough time for character development; a problem that I hope would be fixed in part 2. Still, the acting and visuals were on point. The actors did a good job on portraying their characters, they were naturals. The visual effects were handled by the masterful Takashi Yamazaki which gave the creatures their rightful rubbery and creepy look.

           The movie is satisfyingly entertaining in it's story and visuals, not failing to give the viewers the dark yet entertaining body-horror film it promised.

Shinichi and Migi.