DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

"Tandem" could have been another generic tale about urban crime, but screenwriter Zig Marasigan, working from a story by Mikhail Red, and director King Palisoc inject the film with a solidly grounded conflict between two brothers- the elder an ex-convict with a clear-cut set of newfound morals, while the younger a thrill-seeker who wants to earn his brother's respect, that the story rises above the trappings of the genre. Roman (Nico Antonio) and Rex (JM De Guzman) earn a living from robbing other people. Equipped with a motorcycle, guns and their sense of brotherhood, the two prowl the streets of Metro Manila looking for the next big score. Roman has a baby on the way with his wife Cha (Rochelle Pangilinan), while Rex is madly in love with a bar girl named Nadine (Elora Españo). As we begin to see the brothers on a human level, suddenly they cease to exist as mere criminals. They are now survivors.  Yet the film does not glorify or justify the incidence ...

English title: Does your Heart Beat Faster? A film like Mike De Leon's outrageous musical "Kakabakaba Ka Ba?" would have never been made today. Equal parts a mystery film, a comedy, a social criticism and a bizarre descent into the unknown, De Leon and co-writers Raquel Villavicencio and Doy Del Mundo unleash one maddening sequence after another, culminating in a finale that now stands as one of Philippine cinema's most iconic moments. Everything begins on familiar territory. A Japanese (Buboy Garovillo) tries to smuggle contraband into the Philippines, but miserably fails every single time. (If this is not predictive of current airport woes in NAIA, I don't know what else to call it.) In his latest attempt, he hides the contraband inside a cassette tape, and slips it into the jacket of an unwitting co-passenger named Johnny (Christopher De Leon). The contraband goes through customs, undetected. (Again, another mockery of local airport security which st...