Grandpa's Cellar Ghosts (Now in Spanish and English)

It was the ghosts. He knew them-

well, by now anyway, and with good reason.

My first impulse (when I heard his story)

was to shut it out of my mind: not listen,

but I couldn't, he needed to talk.

The ghosts halted at the end of the tunnel,

grandpa said helplessly-to me...,

it was all in their favor, in his mind.

When I had last talked to him, the door to

the cellar was open, it now was shut,

he-standing in the kitchen

by me, said, "I'm waiting for things to happen,"

restlessly waiting he was; I saw him waiting

and for once, not complaining.

"They've dug this tunnel, you see..." he said-

(hesitantly); he stood there a moment, in a trance,

"in the cellar, they're coming for me..." so he did

believe (the tunnel had taken six weeks to dig

so he told me).

Now leaning on the old stove in the kitchen,

balancing his physical being with his thinking

(his upper teeth grinding on his lower) whispered,

"Hand me my coffee..." he never said please,

his hands shaking (he had just eaten some

scrambled eggs; I made them). "I could hear

them digging down there, for weeks," he said

with a-troubled face, "in the cellar...." he added.

The only fault my grandfather had besides being
moody: fault with me that is, I didn't' pay him
much attention. But today he had forgotten that
fault, as I was wondering where this cold fear of his
was coming from (surely he knew we all had to die
but I was only 26-years old, and death was some-
thing new, even being in war, does not prepare you).
He was 83-years old; perhaps death was the grave,
no such things as ghosts, but here they were: waiting.

I thought, looking at grandpa, thought (not saying
a word) thought perchance he was wondering if
the ghosts were now going to chase him around the house?
(Funny I thought that, at the time...not sure why.) These
ghosts I thought, were going to leave the Cellar, and find
him, so I thought. Then I said, "They're harmless, grandpa,"
and he said, "Come into my world, you'll see...!" Of course,
that was impossible, so I just leaned back on the stove like he.

These cellar ghosts (I figured, would pass after a good
night's sleep for him: or two or three); but no such thing.
I was but twenty-six-years old, and really didn't know what to believe. Now that I look back, being fifty-eight, things have
changed; those old familiar spirits are more than they
seem, now, than what they were back then; for there is
another world, as real as ours, as perplexed as it may seem,
and I suppose, they are willing to wait for me; should they find
an opening. He died two weeks later after our conversation:
back in '74, a long time ago, of course. He died face and body flat
on the floor in his house, trying to get from one room to the other,
as if someone, or thing was chasing him.

#1234 2/22/06

IN SPANISH

Translated by Nancy Peñaloza

Edited by Rosa Peñaloza

Los Fantasmas del Sótano del Abuelo

Eran los fantasmas.

Él los conocía-muy bien-

por ahora, de todos modos y con buena razón.

Mi primer impulso (cuando oí su historia)

fue alejarlo de mi mente, no escuchar;

pero no podía, él necesitaba hablar.

Los fantasmas se pararon al final del túnel,

eso decía mi abuelo,

en vano-me lo decía a mí...-

todo estaba en su favor,

él lo tenía fijo en su mente.

Cuando hablé últimamente con él,

la puerta del sótano que estaba abierta,

ahora estaba cerrada.

Él-parado en la cocina-cerca de mí, dijo:

"Estoy esperando que pasen cosas".

Inquietamente esperando él estaba.

Gracioso pensé:

verlo a él esperar por única vez sin quejarse.

"Ellos han cavado este túnel, ves..." él dijo (vacilante),

él estuvo allí un momento más,

como si en trance,

"en el sótano, ellos vienen por mí...".

Eso él pensaba

(el túnel había tomado seis semanas

en ser cavado, él me dijo).

Ahora apoyándose en la estufa vieja de la cocina,

equilibrando su ser físico con su pensamiento

(sus dientes superiores rechinando con sus inferiores),

susurró: "Alcánzame mi café..."

Él nunca decía por favor,

sus manos temblaban

(él acababa de comer algunos huevos revueltos que los hice para él).

"Pude oírlos cavar aquí abajo, durante semanas",

dijo él con una cara preocupada,

"en el sótano..." él añadió.

El único defecto que mi abuelo tenía

era ser malhumorado,

defecto conmigo es decir,

yo no le prestaba mayor atención.

Quizás ahora él se había olvidado de ese defecto,

entretanto yo me preguntaba:

¿de dónde venía ese miedo aterrador de él?

(seguramente él sabía que todos tenemos que morir,

aunque yo sólo tenía veintiséis años y la muerte

era una cosa nueva, incluso estar en guerra no te prepara).

Él tenía ochenta y tres años;

quizás la muerte era la tumba,

no tal cosa como fantasmas,

pero aquí estaban ellos: esperando.

Pensé, mirando al abuelo,

pensé (sin decir una palabra)

pensé talvez si él estaba pensando si los fantasmas

¿iban ahora a perseguirlo por la casa?

Gracioso, era todo esto,

eso pensé en ese momento...,

no estoy seguro por qué.

Estos fantasmas no tenían razón

para perseguirlo a él alrededor del sótano

o tratar de encontrarlo en su casa.

Entonces dije:

"Ellos son inofensivos, abuelo",

como si ellos fueran reales,

estaba hablando como él... y él dijo:

"¡Entra en mi mundo y tú lo verás...!"

Desde luego eso no era posible,

entonces sólo me recliné en aquella estufa vieja,

contra mi espalda.

Estos fantasmas del sótano, me imaginé,

pasarían, se desvanecerían,

después de una buena noche de sueño para él,

o dos o tres; esto es lo que haría falta.

Pero no pasó tal cosa, esto no lo era.

Yo realmente no sabía qué pensar,

como dije antes, sólo tenía veintiséis años.

Ahora que miro atrás, a los sesenta años,

las cosas han cambiado

(ellas siempre lo hacen ¿verdad?);

esos viejos espíritus familiares

son más de los que parecen, ahora

-más de lo que eran en ese entonces-

porque hay otro mundo,

tan real como el nuestro,

tan perplejo como puede parecer,

y supongo, que ellos están dispuestos a esperar por mi;

si ellos encuentran una apertura

(esto es: otro mundo dentro de nuestro mundo).

Él murió dos semanas más tarde

-después de esa última conversación-

allá en el año 1974, mucho tiempo atrás por supuesto.

Él murió boca abajo, sobre su vientre,

sin vida en el piso de su casa,

tratando de ir de un cuarto al otro,

como si alguien, o algo, lo persiguiera.

Nota: Este acontecimiento ocurrió en nuestra vieja casa en la calle Cayuga, en San Pablo, Minnesota, Estados Unidos, en 1974, quizás unas semanas antes de que mi abuelo muriera.

#1234 2/22/06

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Review of Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay

The exciting part in Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay is not the murder and body-part dispatch of the female drug dealer-victim (played by Isabel Lopez). It is the flat-tire ending, a baffling moment for Peping, the main character played by Coco Martin.

The movie begins with a wedding. Peping and his live-in girlfriend, Cecille (played by Mercedes Cabral) are happily rushing through the streets to go to city hall for an appointment with the justice of the peace. They weave through the hustle and bustle of Barangka neighborhood in Mandaluyong City.

Brillante Mendoza's film begins with an upbeat rhythm of high expectation. Peping and his fiancée have deposited their baby with a neighbor. He is about to legalize his status. There is no trace of guilt in Peping, of trying to right a wrong in his relationship with his girlfriend. Rather, it is played out like a natural process: that now he can marry Cecille, his beloved, in anticipation of his becoming a full-fledged policeman with a career ahead of him. He is at the dawn of a new life as husband. He is at the threshold of his career as a future policeman, a boyhood dream he claims to have had ever since.

A good part of the beginning follows Peping through the marriage ritual-bleached of any religious affiliation. It is the secular state, in the sala of the Justice of the Peace (played by Lou Veloso) that is in charge of overseeing and legalizing the bond of Peping and his wife. As they proceed to the municipio for their appointment, they witness a high-tension scene between a man perched like Humpty Dumpty high up on top of a steel structure near Edsa, and his distraught mother, hysterically calling out to her son, to come down from the high beam. This image of precarious self-destruction is glimpsed amidst the happy expectation, if not euphoria of Peping, Cecille, and family on the way to the wedding and reception.

The next episode in Brillante Mendoza's storyline brings Peping back to school attending a class of would-be rookies. The excitement of the wedding that just happened in the morning infects everyone in the class. There is much bantering among his classmates, and teacher.

After class, Abiong (played by Jhong Hilario), his friend, informs Peping of an urgent assignment that same night: the boss wants them.

Here the Brillante Mendoza's movie shifts into the dark bowels of the city. A female drug dealer (Isabel Lopez) is picked up from a bar-night club, and whisked away in a van. A journey through Roxas Boulevard, and Edsa, ends up via the NLEX in some remote town in Bulacan or Pampanga.

The female is interrogated and beaten up in the van. Much of these scenes are filmed in dark shadows with a constant barrage of incidental car and road noises.

At the safe house, the victim is dragged into a basement, revived by a pail of water, and interrogated further about her shortcomings, betrayals, and failures to deliver the promised money. All the while, Peping watches the proceeding helplessly in one corner. The assistant to the boss, Kap (played by Julio Diaz) orders him together with Abiong, to buy cigarettes and a lighter. They take the van to town. Abiong hands him a gun. He says Kap told him it was a present for Peping for his personal use. Agitated and confused, Peping contemplates abandoning his friend. He stealthily slips away, attempts to take a bus, fleeing the scene. His cell phone rings. Abiong is wondering where he is? He reluctantly goes back to meet his companion.

As Brillante Mendoza returns the story to the safe house, Peping returns to the basement with the cigarettes. At this time, the victim attempts desperately to negotiate some deal with Kap. Instead his friend, Abiong, rapes her. The horror mounts effectively due to the fact that the scene is staged matter-of-factly. No melodramatic effects are resorted to. Screaming for her life, we hear her panic amidst the black shadows, "Huwag n'yo kong patayin, me anak ako!" (Don't kill me, please, I have a child!"

She is killed, and then hacked, limb by limb, body part by body part. Brillante Mendoza's stages this episode in a detached style, showing the efficiency of the murderers/executioners. He is careful not to choreograph a sensational rhythm of brutality, given the mounting emotions of all concerned. Absence of melodrama is sustained. We are far from Hollywood. To me, this is a-typical Pinoy cinema!

Brillante Mendoza brings us now back to the city... it is nearly dawn. The body parts, wrapped in plastic are strewn, one by one, or hurled onto different garbage sites.

Back in the city, somewhere in Grace Park, the team stops by the wayside for a breakfast meal. Peping by this time is stupefied by the nightmare. He asks to be excused. He can't eat. The Boss allows him to go home. He gives him money to take a taxi.

In the taxi, Peping pulls out the gun from his bag. And while staring at it, we hear an explosion. The taxicab has had a flat tire. Freaked out, Peping goes down from the taxi and weakly tries to hail another cab. In the meanwhile, the driver changes the tire. Once fixed, the driver bids him to come back in. It takes a long while for Peping to come to grips with himself. Then he goes back in. At this juncture, Brillante Mendoza heightens the tension and drama. It reminded me of Kafka's story, "Metamorphosis." Peping has become exactly like Gregor Samsa. In the Kafka story, Gregor Samsa wakes up in bed, and discovers he has become a bug. The horror of that story is not that he has been transformed into an insect. The horror is that he and his family take it for granted. At the end of the story, Kafka describes the room of Gregor lying in bed with the bedroom window wide open. Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian novelist, in analyzing the story was bemused to ask, if Gregor was a bug in his bed, with a window wide open, why did he not use his wings to fly out to freedom?

Brillante Mendoza's Peping has become a reincarnation of Gregor Samsa. Totally disoriented, and psychologically dislocated, Peping stares at his new weapon given him that night. The movie began with hope and expectations. The images of self-obliteration (the would-be suicide at Edsa) disturbed his wedding ritual. The experience of brutality and violence interrupted his wedding feast, annihilating his sense of self. Peping has lost his wings. Is the trauma temporary, or permanent?

Brillante Mendoza has wonderfully designed this nightmare movie in a bold palette of pale ash grays to pitch/charcoal black with an occasional sudden dash of scarlet (the victim's dress) amidst the grays. The whole film is carefully calibrated in terms of color to deaden the atmosphere. The choice of the roadside Tapsilog café with the towering structure of the LRT as background reminded me of Piranesi prints of endless arches, of disorienting perspectives. The scene is carefully filmed to capture the gray of dawn with just a small smudged promise of the morning sunrise.

Brillante Mendoza is rare among Pinoy directors. He is one of the few who consciously constructs metaphors in his cinema. This was already apparent in his first movie, Masahista, where he dramatically juxtaposes his protagonist giving pleasure to his male clients, and contrasts this with his duty to wash and clean the cadaver of his father, thus equating pleasure with the state of the dead. And this conscious craft is what sustains and makes his work so poetic and exciting for me.

Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay is not just a horrific story of a butchered bitch. It is rich with layers of meaning. And the art that conceals art is in the climax of the narrative. When the victim screams out for mercy, to spare her life--that she has a family, a child--the whole scene takes a whole new meaning in retrospect. Present in the scene is Peping, witnessing the violence. It is not just the physical woman that is being ripped apart into disiecta membra, what in Greek dramaturgy is called sparagmos. Symbolically, the soul of Peping (and perhaps the viewer's) is also being hacked to pieces. The hymen of innocence is ripped. Is the silent Peping crying out inside him, "Me anak rin ako!"? Do we partake of the crime? Brillante Mendoza's movie is not really an expose of police brutality and corruption. It is the drama of a moral dilemma of spiritual habituation-how insidiously and subtly we fall into evil when moral guideposts disappear and moral ambiguities prevail.

When the police force as embodied by the Boss (played by John Regala) decides to execute the victim in the name of business, he embraces efficiency and pragmatism. But in tearing her apart, we partake of a sacred ritual. By throwing her body parts all over the city, we share in the scandal and travesty of life's sacredness. Literally, binabasura ang buhay! We share in the devaluation and desecration of the divine aspect of human life.

Peping's wedding ritual ends in a bloodbath that rips apart, perhaps totally annihilating his sense of self. We are suddenly marooned and perched with him up above the heights of isolation, an image given early in the movie, prompting us to contemplate the precarious balance between self-destruction and the effort to keep one's wits: to survive and transcend the horror. In a homily recently at Don Bosco church, the parish priest commented on the gospel about the wedding feast. He said that in Christian iconography, a banquet feast as a central image signifies the theme of the end of time. Peping is indeed at the metaphysical threshold of a new life. Let me now quote Edith Tiempo, " (The) symbol, upon proper regard, vibrates with the prophetic assertion of the human beings' equivocal lot to live in the perpetual balance between self-obliteration and the reach for what is enduring."

Brillante Mendoza ends with a sunrise image of his bride preparing him a breakfast meal of fried rice with egg. The wedding feast has ended and a new life begins, or rather, the agony begins. In Greek dramaturgy, after the sparagmos comes the agonia. The ambiguous image of hope, of family values, is dimly reasserted.

21 August 2009

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Review of Kinatay Brillante Mendoza

The exciting thing Kinatay Brillante Mendoza, is not the murder and the expeditionary force by women victims of drug dealers (played by Isabel Lopez). Ran from flat tire at the end, an amazing moment for Beijing, the main character of Coco Martin.

The film begins with a wedding. Peiping and his partner, Cecille is played (Mercedes Cabral) happily running through the streets to go to City Hall for an appointment with the magistrate. Which meanders through theNeighborhood Barangka frantic Mandaluyong City.

Brillante Mendoza film begins with an upbeat rhythm of high expectations. Peiping and his girlfriend have deposited their child with a neighbor. That is about to legalize their status. There is no trace of Peiping guilt, trying to right a wrong in his relations with his girlfriend. And 'some' as a natural process carried out at the end: you can now get married Cecille, his mistress, waiting for his fullPoliceman with a career ahead of him. He is on the threshold of a new life as a husband. He is on the threshold of his future career as a policeman, a childhood friend of dream which he claims to have already there.

A good part of the beginning followed by Beijing through the ritual of marriage bleached of any religious affiliation. And 'the secular state in the Sala della Pace (played by Lou Veloso), which together with the control and the legalization of binding to Beijing and his wife. As isTown Hall on his appointment, is witness to a scene at high voltage between a man like Humpty Dumpty perched on a steel structure near Edsa and his mother was desperate, hysterical and called his son, come down from the beam. This image of a precarious self-destruction is seen in the midst of joyful expectation, if not euphoria, Peiping, Cecille and family on their way to the wedding and reception.

The next episode in the history Brillante Mendoza brings Peipingattend school in a class of aspiring rookies. The excitement of the wedding, which was infected only happens in the morning, everyone in the class. There are a lot of jokes among his classmates and teachers.

After school plays (Abiong by Jhong Hilario), his friend, informed Peiping an urgent task in the same night: The boss wants.

Here are the shifts of Brillante Mendoza film dark depths of the city. A female drug dealer (Isabel Lopez) is taken from a bar-night cluband dried in a van. A journey through Roxas Boulevard and Edsa, lands on the NLEX in a remote town in Bulacan and Pampanga.

The female is interrogated and beaten in the van. Most of these scenes are filmed in dark shadows, with a continual barrage of side-car and street noise.

At the safe house, the victim is dragged into a basement of a bucket of water on his back, and on over his faults, interrogated, betrayal, and failure to deliver the promised money.During all the time, watches the proceedings Peiping helpless in a corner. Play The Deputy Chiefs (Head of Julio Diaz), he says, along with Abiong to buy cigarettes and a lighter. Take the truck to town. Abiong hands him a gun. Says Cape said it was a gift to Beijing for his personal use. Agitated and confused, Peiping task considered his friend. He slipped away secretly tried to take a bus to escape. His cell phone rings. Abiong wonders whereis? Returns reluctantly to his companion to fulfill.

Brillante Mendoza is how the history of the safe house, Peiping made in the basement with cigarettes. In this trial, the victim desperately to negotiate with some of the Cape. Instead of his friend, Abiong, they raped. The horror effectively increases due to the fact that the scene in the scene objectively and sobriety. Not to resort to melodramatic effect. Screaming for their lives, you can feel the panic among the black shadows, "Huwag n'yoI patayin kong anak ako! "(Do not kill me, please, I have a son!"

You will be killed, and then cut, limb by limb, body part by body part. Brillante Mendoza stages of this episode in a single house style, showing the effectiveness of the murderess, the executioner. He is committed to a dramatic pace of the brutality of a choreographer, taking into account the feelings of assembling all stakeholders. The lack of melodrama is sustainable. A far cry from Hollywood. To me, this is a typical Pinoy Cinema!

Brillante Mendozaus back to the city now ... It's almost dawn. The body parts that are covered in plastic, one after the other, or throw rubbish various websites.

Back in town, somewhere in Grace Park, the team remains on the line for breakfast. Peiping this time stunned the nightmare. He apologized. He can not eat. The boss allowed him to return home. He gives the money to take a taxi.

In the taxi, Peiping drew his pistol from his pocket. And while we hear him staringexplosion. The cab had a flat tire. Crazy, Peiping be slightly out of the cab and tried hail another taxi. Meanwhile, the driver changes the tire. Once set, the driver commands again in E 'a time for Beijing in the grip will come to him. Then he goes on at this point, increases Brillante Mendoza, the excitement and drama. It reminded me of the story of Kafka's "Metamorphosis." Beijing has as Gregor Samsa. In the story of KafkaGregor Samsa wakes up in his bed, and discovers that it was a mistake. The horror of this story is not that has been transformed into an insect. The horror is that he and his family for granted. At the end of the story, Kafka describes Gregor's room opened, in bed with the window wide bedroom. Vladimir Nabokov, Russian writer, the analysis of history was too confused to ask if Gregory was an error in his bed, with a window open, because it has wings to fly offFreedom?

Brillante Mendoza Peiping was a reincarnation of Gregor Samsa. Completely disoriented and psychologically dislocated, Peiping looks at his new weapon for him that night. The film begins with hopes and expectations. Images of self-extinction (the suicidal Edsa) interrupted his rite of marriage. The experiences of brutality and violence stopped destroying his marriage with his self-esteem. Peiping has lost its wings. Is this temporary or traumaDuration?

Brillante Mendoza film beautifully crafted this nightmare in a bold palette of light gray ash on the pitch / coal black, with a shot unexpectedly occasional scarlet (the victim's clothing) between the Grays. The whole film is carefully calibrated in terms of color, to dampen the atmosphere. The choice of coffee on the road Tapsilog with the towering structure of the LRT as the background reminded me of Piranesi prints of arcs endless prospects for confusion. The sceneattention turned to catch the morning with only a promise little spot of dawn the morning.

Brillante Mendoza is a rare Pinoy Administration. He is one of the few who deliberately builds metaphors in his films. This was already in his first film, Masahito where he compares his protagonist a joy to his dramatically contrasting male customers and those with a duty to wash and clean the corpse of his father, so to equate pleasure with the state ofDead. And the craft is aware of what helps and does its job poetic and exciting for me.

Brillante Mendoza Kinatay is not just a terrible story of a woman killed. And 'rich layers of meaning. And art, art is the culmination of history. When the victim's cries for mercy to save his life - has a family, a child - the whole scene is a whole new meaning in retrospect. Presence scene Peiping, witnesses of violence. Notonly the woman physically, as an exception in disiecta States, which in greek theater is torn sparagmos. Symbolically, the soul of Beijing (and perhaps even spectators) will also be cut into pieces. The hymen of innocence is torn. Beijing is the silence screams in it, "Me anak rin ako!"? Must participate in the crime? Brillante Mendoza film is not just discover a police brutality and corruption. And 'the drama of a moral dilemma of the spiritual habits-how insidiouslyand thin, we enter into rage when the prevailing moral leadership and moral ambiguities disappear.

When the police that embodied by the boss (played by John Regala) decides to run for the sacrifice in the name of the company, which embraces the efficiency and pragmatism. But tear them apart, we share in a sacred ritual. Parts of their bodies throughout the city, we share in the scandal and perversion of the sanctity of life. Literally binabasura ang Buhay! Depreciation and shareDesecration of the divine aspect of human life.

Peiping wedding ceremony ends can end up in a bath of blood, tears, perhaps destroyed completely self-esteem. We are suddenly turned upside down and with him on the heights of isolation, as an image at the beginning of the film lies, led us to the precarious balance between self-destruction and efforts should be seen as having a joke: to survive and overcome the horror . In a sermon recently at Don Bosco Church, the pastor saidGospel of the wedding feast. He said that means in Christian iconography, a festival banquet, like a painting in the middle, the theme of the end of time. Peiping is really on the threshold of a new life metaphysics. Let me now cite Edith Tiempo "(the symbol), a notice, in line with the prophetic declaration of doubtful many people" forever balance between self-annihilation, and live coverage of what the long term. "

Brillante Mendoza ends with a sunsetPhotos of his wife gives him a breakfast fried rice with eggs. The marriage is over and start a new life, or rather, the agony begins. The greek theater, after sparagmos is agony. The ambiguous image of hope that the values of family, claims to be clear.

August 21, 2009

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