Duuuuuude....
Feb. 27th, 2005 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darth_stitchI must've said this before, I think but I really have to say it again.
Keanu Reeves looks like my brother.
See, this is the reason why my Mother Duck loves watching him in movies. It's like seeing her darling baby boy on the big screen. It amuses me to no end, in the meantime, as The Eggling has his charming "whoa, dude!" moments, not to mention an interest and skill in martial arts. Even if he IS tall and skinny.
I rather enjoyed the movie Constantine. So okay, I know John Constantine is supposed to be a blond Brit and that the comic book Hellblazer can be lots more hardcore than its film version, especially with its screwball theology. Plus, the thought of Constantine and that Books of Magic crossover with Harry Potter's long-lost twin Timothy (snerk) was FUN.
Anyway, it amuses me to no end that the very first person Keanu!John Constantine helps out happens to be Filipino. How'd I figure it out? Well, that shot of the kettle boiling, with a tiny "Pilipinas" flag in the background pretty much gives it away.
And if I doubted it, the fact that the demon in the girl snarls, in a Gollum-like voice, the Tagalog phrase "Papatayin ko silaaaaaaa....." (I will kill them alll.....) pretty much confirms it.
Also, it would be no surprise that the whole tenement would take the demon possession thing in stride, call in a priest and pitch in to help. We Pinoys are no stranger to the supernatural, not when it hits us on TV as real-life docudramas and even as news stories every day. Plus, we're mostly Catholic and even then, our own culture is rich with tales and beliefs in supernatural beings lurking amongst us.
You thought Laura Esquivel cornered the market on superrealism? You should see things in Manila, especially way back when news broke out that an aswang (Pinoy vampire) was loose in Tondo. An aswang is a nasty creature, who uses her long, thin tongue to go through holes in one's roof to eat unborn babies from Mommy's belly and you can imagine all the pregnant mothers freaking out over THAT.
A Pinoy will NOT knock over a mound of earth that would look like a simple anthill or insect hive mound to a foreigner for fear of the "Nuno Sa Punso" (Old Man) who lives there.
A Pinoy going to visit relatives in the provinces, who finds himself lost on the road, especially when they're close by to mountains, will take off his shirt and turn it inside out to ward off mischievous spirits leading him astray.
A Pinoy will have their house blessed by a priest, no matter what, and even if he's not Chinese, might even ask their Chinese friends about the fung shui in building one's home, to bring luck into the family and ward away evil from hearth and home and family.
No surprise why National Bookstore's biggest bestseller is its set of Pinoy Ghost/Supernatural True-to-Life stories. Hell, I have the books too. :P
And it's no wonder why, Hellblazer canon or no, Constantine is such a big hit here. Keanu's got Asian roots and his world is one familiar to us. There's something about this Asian-looking hero, fighting demonic evil with both Catholic rites and occult magics that hits very close to home for us.
Even the most practical or pragmatic Filipino will not easily scoff at superstition (hey, what can it hurt?) and will cross himself when he drives by in haunted Balete Drive in New Manila.
An interesting side note - Pinoys believe in bangungot - the nightmare where one suddenly dies in one's sleep, convulsing. It's been said somewhere that perhaps bangungot is when the veil between our worlds blur and we finally cross over, since the Other Real is far closer to our perceptions than our Western counterparts.
Hey, like I once said to The Dungeons' Draco, we live in Asia's Twilight Zone. :P
Keanu Reeves looks like my brother.
See, this is the reason why my Mother Duck loves watching him in movies. It's like seeing her darling baby boy on the big screen. It amuses me to no end, in the meantime, as The Eggling has his charming "whoa, dude!" moments, not to mention an interest and skill in martial arts. Even if he IS tall and skinny.
I rather enjoyed the movie Constantine. So okay, I know John Constantine is supposed to be a blond Brit and that the comic book Hellblazer can be lots more hardcore than its film version, especially with its screwball theology. Plus, the thought of Constantine and that Books of Magic crossover with Harry Potter's long-lost twin Timothy (snerk) was FUN.
Anyway, it amuses me to no end that the very first person Keanu!John Constantine helps out happens to be Filipino. How'd I figure it out? Well, that shot of the kettle boiling, with a tiny "Pilipinas" flag in the background pretty much gives it away.
And if I doubted it, the fact that the demon in the girl snarls, in a Gollum-like voice, the Tagalog phrase "Papatayin ko silaaaaaaa....." (I will kill them alll.....) pretty much confirms it.
Also, it would be no surprise that the whole tenement would take the demon possession thing in stride, call in a priest and pitch in to help. We Pinoys are no stranger to the supernatural, not when it hits us on TV as real-life docudramas and even as news stories every day. Plus, we're mostly Catholic and even then, our own culture is rich with tales and beliefs in supernatural beings lurking amongst us.
You thought Laura Esquivel cornered the market on superrealism? You should see things in Manila, especially way back when news broke out that an aswang (Pinoy vampire) was loose in Tondo. An aswang is a nasty creature, who uses her long, thin tongue to go through holes in one's roof to eat unborn babies from Mommy's belly and you can imagine all the pregnant mothers freaking out over THAT.
A Pinoy will NOT knock over a mound of earth that would look like a simple anthill or insect hive mound to a foreigner for fear of the "Nuno Sa Punso" (Old Man) who lives there.
A Pinoy going to visit relatives in the provinces, who finds himself lost on the road, especially when they're close by to mountains, will take off his shirt and turn it inside out to ward off mischievous spirits leading him astray.
A Pinoy will have their house blessed by a priest, no matter what, and even if he's not Chinese, might even ask their Chinese friends about the fung shui in building one's home, to bring luck into the family and ward away evil from hearth and home and family.
No surprise why National Bookstore's biggest bestseller is its set of Pinoy Ghost/Supernatural True-to-Life stories. Hell, I have the books too. :P
And it's no wonder why, Hellblazer canon or no, Constantine is such a big hit here. Keanu's got Asian roots and his world is one familiar to us. There's something about this Asian-looking hero, fighting demonic evil with both Catholic rites and occult magics that hits very close to home for us.
Even the most practical or pragmatic Filipino will not easily scoff at superstition (hey, what can it hurt?) and will cross himself when he drives by in haunted Balete Drive in New Manila.
An interesting side note - Pinoys believe in bangungot - the nightmare where one suddenly dies in one's sleep, convulsing. It's been said somewhere that perhaps bangungot is when the veil between our worlds blur and we finally cross over, since the Other Real is far closer to our perceptions than our Western counterparts.
Hey, like I once said to The Dungeons' Draco, we live in Asia's Twilight Zone. :P
